creative at getting attention. >> cruelty-free foods. look, 20% increase in plant-based hot dogs and vegan foods over the past year. they have a point here. as kennedy says, you can't park this thing in new york, nowhere to put it. >> i hope the thieves find a place -- >> stole a couple weiners for lunch. don't forget to dvr the show. here is "america reports." >> president biden breaks his silence on shooting down the flying objects, remarks have not quieted critics, saying the president only raised more questions about the mysterious objects. >> john: illinois balloon club says their globe trotting balloon went missing. did it pop a $12 balloon with a $400,000 missile. lieutenant general keith kellogg will join us on this coming up.

>> assisted with the screening of more than 480 homes under the voluntary screening program offered to residents. and no detections of vinyl chloride or hydrogen chloride were identified. >> we understand the residents are concerned as they should be and they have questions, that's all understandable. and you know, we are going to get to the bottom of this. try and figure out an answer to what occurred. >> sandra: and answers people are not getting at this hour, which makes for a very interesting white house briefing that is set to take place this hour as health concerns grow in east palestine, ohio, despite the administration's best efforts to assure the public everything is just fine. hello, welcome everyone, sandra smith in new york. hi, john. >> john: john roberts in washington. it may be friday but a lot of news. "america reports," today marks two weeks since the norfolk

southern train went off the rails in a small town near ohio's border. testing in the air and water shows no signs of contamination, but locals say their friends and family are getting sick and wildlife is dying. >> sandra: east palestine mayor trent conaway will be joining us in a moment to tell us what exactly he is seeing and hearing on the ground there. but we'll begin with forks team coverage, aishah hasnie is on the hill for us with the latest reaction from lawmakers at this hour. lucas tomlinson kicks off coverage on the ground in east palestine, ohio. is fema headed into east palestine at this hour? >> well, sandra, ohio governor mike dewine just spoke at a press conference why he explained why fema is not expected to come soon. >> fema is synonymous with disaster support, most typically

involved with disasters where there is tremendous home or property damage. tornadoes, flooding, hurricanes. that's why we do not expect that fema will come to east palestine. >> yesterday while touring here, ohio senator j.d. vance wants norfolk southern railway to pay, not the american taxpayer. and you heard from the epa chief, he spoke to the community and observed water being tested. massive train derailment taking place two weeks ago today as you mentioned. some residents are now joining a class action lawsuit against norfolk southern. some people say the railway has been handing out thousand dollars checks to anyone in zip code, it does not stop anyone from being sued in the future. and they tested the air in over 500 homes and paid out

$2 million to residents. we spoke to one local resident a few minutes ago, darren gamble, i asked if he thinks the water is safe to drink and if people were allowed to return to their homes too soon. >> i don't know what to believe, but i would say no. it's so early, i mean -- just because it does not show up now does not mean it's not going to be in there. i just -- we are not getting any answers, nobody knows. but i would say no. i'm drinking bottled water. >> and the schools here have been open since monday but last night a girl's high school basketball team canceled the playoff appearance here in east palestine, they said they did not feel safe. many residents we spoke to say they can test all the water and air they want. if it's safe now, they say it's not the real issue. the real issue is the long-term effects. sandra. >> sandra: lucas, we'll check back in soon, thanks. john. >> john: anger reaching a boiling point in eastern ohio where people are terrified they are breathing, drinking and

living in poison in the disaster. one senator says enough is enough and the transportation secretary pete buttigieg should pay the price. aishah hasnie is live on capitol hill monitoring the latest. even calls for buttigieg to resign, aishah. >> that's right, hey, john, good afternoon to you both. look, it's not just calls for the transportation secretary to resign. florida senator marco rubio has now sent a letter to the president requesting that he urge his transportation secretary to step down and in this letter he writes that he has buttigieg, he has repeatedly demonstrated a gross level of incompetence and apathy that is detrimental to the safety and prosperity of the american people. that is coming from rubio. this follows criticism, though, you'll remember, john, from also the far left, representative ilhan omar tweeting we need

congressional inquiries and direct action from pete buttigieg to address this tragedy. buttigieg responded to omar by saying his department is constrained by some laws, and blame on the trump administration. and senate democrats are following his lead. >> clearly it was a mistake by the trump administration to eliminate the braking rule, braking of these cars that carry hazardous materials should be the highest priority. so i think i'm taking a look at this in legislation to restore the braking standard. >> freshmen senator j.d. vance said folks need to stop blaming trump, congress needs to offer legislative fixes and the department of transportation needs to do more. >> this is a regulatory problem and a legal problem, so the department of transportation

could implement regulations that would have these trains declared high hazardous, i think they should do that. >> john, there are bipartisan calls for a congressional investigation and that could cover everything from the train, the rail line, to the government's safety procedures and the government's response. john. >> john: i may be wrong, but i don't think that former president trump is doing anything to prevent pete buttigieg from going to ohio. >> absolutely. and there have been a lot of folks wondering in east palestine, in fact this week there was a town hall, and some folks there actually asked, where is pete. and the mayor had no answer for them. >> john: we'll get a chance to ask the mayor about that coming up. aishah, thank you. >> sandra: bring him on in, trent conaway, the mayor of east palestine ohio, thank you for your time and stepping away from what i'm sure is a busy, hectic

time. the epa chief said for those at the site and live around it, trust the government, told them that the water, the air is safe. do you buy it? >> well, from all reports we are getting, that's what they are saying, what i've been telling our residents, and the more, longer this goes on, you know, i have some concern about that. i believe our drinking water is 100% safe, i've seen the actual reports myself and tested -- sorry. it's been tested by numerous agencies and our own in-house tests, so you know, i do believe our drinking water is safe at the moment. the air, you can definitely smell it. all results of the test so far say it's ok but people are developing rashes and it's concerning. >> john: i want to ask about the fema administrator, michael reagan, who showed up there on

wednesday. bill hemmer on america's newsroom asked him why it took nearly two weeks for the administrator to get out there. listen to this exchange. >> what took so long? >> when you bring in a senior official, especially at the cabinet level, you divert a pool away resources from the emergency response, from the state police and the like, and so we wanted to be sure that the emergency responders had all of their resources and the focus to do what they've done. >> john: i'm sorry, epa administrator, not fema, i had fema on my mind because in the past what we have seen natural disasters, the fema administrator would be one of the first people on the ground addressing the situation, helping to coordinate it and yet we have the epa administrator saying i couldn't go early because i would have distracted the process. what do you say to that? >> i agree. it's, you know, frankly, it was a dog and pony show. you know, they have sort of let

us hang out to dry here. i commend the united states epa, the actual people on the ground doing the actual work. they have been wonderful to work with, so is the ohio e p, a, but this is turning into a political circus now and we have concern for our residents and as far as mayor pete, as people like to call him, i would rather him stay away. he's going to cause a circus, unless he will shovel some dirt and get rid of contaminated soil, that's the only reason he would need to come to this town. >> sandra: if you go to the e epa.gov website, one for ohio, but it involved the main website, you have to scroll down to even find the link for help in the east palestine situation. what is prominently featured is combatting climate change through the greenhouse gas

reduction fund. it's amazing it's not front and center. are you getting the sense of urgency by the federal government they are willing to help? >> absolutely not. it's a lot of excuses, people were more concerned about weather balloons or whatever is flying over and we have a town of 4700 people and are scared and want answers, and the federal government, i don't have much faith in them. it's true, they were late to the dance as i like to say, and you know, our people deserve better. i don't know why it's happening, you know, what's going on. i know fema says that you know, they can't come in because there is a responsible party, but our people need help. we are americans first, you know, we are not republicans, not democrats, we are americans first, and you know, if they are going to come in and take over and not do anything and just be another disaster, then you know, we don't want that either,

but -- some help would be nice. >> john: what do you think about that, mr. mayor, the fact fema said you don't qualify for emergency assistance on this, because of the nature of the disaster. is this an emergency and does it require emergency management assistance? >> absolutely it's an emergency. you know, there's toxic chemicals all over our town -- i mean, the contractors for norfolk southern are doing the best they can to get it cleaned up, but nice to have even more resources available to us, but as of yet, no, we don't have any, and they are saying because there is a responsible party, that's why they are not coming in. sounds like excuses to me. >> sandra: just brutal. and before we let you go, mayor, you mentioned how you can still smell it in the air, that you know it's in the air, that people are getting rashes. are you experiencing firsthand any of these symptoms?

>> no, i have not personally experienced any of these symptoms, but you know, i have to believe our residents who say they are. i do believe the air is safe. i question if the air is safe around, you know, some of the creeks and where the contaminants are in and out by the site, yes, i think the air is bad there. i live a couple blocks away from the school. every once in a while if you go down in the lower levels, the valleys, say, you can smell it, but where i'm at you cannot smell it. but you can smell it in downtown and around the shopping district of our town. >> john: mr. mayor, let me close this out by asking you a question about the future. are you concerned that years from now we are going to discover the initial assessments here were wrong, and in asking that question, reflect back to 9/11, when the environmental protection agency insisted the

air at ground 0, the pile was safe, and years later christine todd whitman, epa administrator at the time came out and said we are sorry to all the people developing cancer, we got it wrong, we did the best that we could at the time. are you worried this could be the same situation? >> i'm worried that yes, there is definitely some environmental things that i'm concerned about. i'm concerned about our people's health. that's a lot of chemicals to be going in the ground and i think there definitely could be stuff to arise in the future. we have to keep on norfolk southern and the federal government, too, to help us out with health clinics and stuff, and this can't be, oh, we are in the news cycle now but in two weeks, they forget about us. it needs to happen in the next 7 or 10 days.

>> we hope to follow up with you again soon. >> john: thanks mr. mayor, appreciate it. >> sandra: john, a bit of what we are hearing, tee it up, residents clearly have concerns, listen. >> we don't know what to believe at this point. so many people are telling us from different things, from litigation to norfolk southern to the epa. >> amount of chemicals, cancer-causing chemicals released and what we are left to deal with, we need guidance. an our area is known for planting gardens and fruit stands on the summers in the corners, is anybody going to come to the town and buy fruit off the fruit stands anymore? >> sandra: huge consequences as a result to all of this, and john, you tell people if you don't feel safe, flee, if you don't think you want to drink the water, buying bottled water every day for family members,

that adds up. there are huge concerns, obviously, from these residents on the ground. >> john: i know the state is bringing in some bottled water for folks there, and the mayor will meet with the lieutenant governor of the state in a few minutes, maybe he'll get more answers from that. but you know, trent conaway was a great guest to start us off, he's the person who is dealing with all of this and trying to be liaison with the state, and reaching out to the federal government and what are you going to do to help us, and fema says nothing, nothing, what is that all about? >> sandra: he says at this point to the transportation secretary, don't come, he feels like that will be more of a circus than it will be problem solving and solutions. >> john: it's ok, pete can stick to twitter. all right. it's not just republicans who are surveying the scenes at our southern border. house minority leader hakeem

jeffries visiting with henry cuellar. but some say it's a publicity opportunity. what will they say about jeffries visit? tom homan will sound off on that. >> sandra: and questions unanswered about the objects shot down over u.s. air space. wondering if the u.s. military might have used $400,000 fighter planes to take down $12 hobby balloons. keith kellogg is here to weigh in next. >> i cannot believe that we do not know that, i don't know what norad actually does, if they can't tell when something is crossing our border. you don't 'e getting into, but at the end of the day, you know you have a team behind you that can help you. not having to worry about the future makes it possible to make the present as best as it can be for everybody.

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>> john: 24 hours after president biden's first remarks on the unidentified objects a lot of people are still asking the same questions like what led to the decision to scramble fighter jets to shoot down the three flying objects last weekend. biden says they were most likely private craft with no connection to the chinese spy balloon that was taken down a week earlier. bring in retired lieutenant general keith kellogg. so, general, does it look like we spent a million dollars to

take down a $12 hobby balloon over the yukon? >> yes, and i think it's -- they are one in three, meaning one chinese spy balloon and industrial balloons and weather balloons shot down. i'm stunned by this. it shows a lack of coordination, lack of serious decision-making on the white house. simple rule of engagement, strategic and operational tactical level. weapons free, when they shoot, when and why they can shoot, it comes out of the white house, out of the pentagon, and the pilots were told if it flies, it dies. a terrible way to make decision. when i was in the pentagon on 9/11, we had the -- shoot down aircraft. when i heard the vice president of the united states that you are weapons free over washington, d.c., we can shoot down anything, even civilian airliners, it was a process made -- i have no idea what they are talking about, putting aircraft in the air and shooting

something down. ways to look at the balloons if they had to, fly by it, put your wing man by it, make a decision on the ground, this seems like if it's flying at 40,000 feet or lower it's game, and makes no sense to me at all, none. >> sandra: that's going to boggle a lot of people. we had the chance to ask ambassador nikki haley about this, and suggested it's not just a problem with china, but here at home. >> you know when it ended in south carolina, that wasn't an accident. south carolina is a military state. that balloon went over our military installations and the idea that other balloons did that before means we not only have a china problem, we have a government problem. >> sandra: interesting statement by her. and now i want to ask you a question we have been obviously talking about this for quite a long time now. the military, general, obviously has really, really zoomed in

clear images of these balloons, potential hobby balloons, right, because they got in there as close as they could to determine whether they were manned or maneuverable, or maneuvered, i should say. wouldn't we be able to show it to the hobby guys and say is this your balloon? why do we not know who these belong to at this point. >> great question. it goes back to what we talked about on the rules of engagement. no coordination in the white house and the sit room with the military and the national command authorities. of course they could go by that. this was not an immediate threat. use the balloon over lake huron. that was not a threat to anybody, 40,000 feet, fly by a couple times, take some imagery, make a decision, what do you want to do. seems to me they went weapons free on a balloon and shows the look of decision-making, the lack of serious discussion with the president or the secretary of defense and of course we should be alarmed by it.

because this shows it's a greater problem on how do they make decisions, and that's a concern i've got. and look, you can go through the entire last two years, my concern is they make decisions in a very slow fashion and random decisions. there's no sense to them. especially with this balloon shootdown. they are 3-1. $400,000 side winder missile at three balloons, industrial balloons or weather balloons, makes no sense. >> john: and they missed once. this is the big kahuna balloon off the coast of south carolina, that was a surveillance balloon, and they were trying to ask the president in the free for all yesterday, but did call peter alexander back to say the following. i think the last thing that chinese president xi wants to do is fundamentally rip the

relationship with the united states and with me. nikki haley said about biden's approach to china, it's unbelievably embarrassing to see the chinese balloon looking at us, and this is a change in the relationship between china and the united states and china feels they are free to send a balloon over the united states and thumb their nose at us. >> this is really in your face, in the old, back in the day, and that's what the chinese have done and i cannot believe he says well, it's really no harm, no foul. of course it is. they flew over the most sensitive installations and as part of the triad, missile wings, looked at the missile fields, and b-2s, and really, and i think they are just avoiding the obvious, which is look, china is an adversary, better address it that way, not

a friend of the united states, they are an economic threat, a military threat, diplomatic threat and educational threat, too, and sooner we realize that, and we start taking actions that way, the better off we will be. >> sandra: really quick, about to get the press briefing. what do you want to hear from kirby? >> i would like to hear the truth, just come out and tell the american people, especially with the balloons what they saw, and i would ask him what were the rules of engagement, tell us the thought process behind it. that's the cutting message you need to find. that's where you find ground truth. >> john: great to see you. have a great weekend. >> sandra: russia continues its brutal campaign across ukraine, but nearly a year after the war began, people living on the front lines why they are staying put. why they are refusing to give up

even if it costs their lives. >> john: and people are drowning in debt, people turn to credit cards to buy the basics and carry the balance. what about the claims of president biden turning it around on his watch. art laffer next. >> people are going more and more into debt to keep up with their living standard because of biden inflation.

await the white house press briefing. john kirby will be there to take questions from reporters, as residents of east palestine, ohio are looking for more answers from the biden administration on what is exactly being done to help make sure their communities are safe. kirby also set to speak with plenty of questions about those unidentified flying objects shot down by u.s. forces. will we learn who exactly claims them? we will take you there when the q & a begins. john. >> john: expect a lot of talk about the president's upcoming visit to poland as well, as ukraine remains in the spotlight. russia ramping up attacks in the luhansk region and no signs of slowing down in other parts of the country. residents on the front lines have decided to stay, despite the constant shelling. trey yingst is live in the area.

>> the southern front line, they plan to hold out until russia is defeated. >> the frozen roads toward the southern front are empty and quiet. that is until ukrainian jets roar overhead. the distant thud of incoming artillery, reminder that russian troops are just miles away as ukrainian forces hold positions nearby. the situation is tense, but it's under control, one soldier says. they tried to come from different directions but we repelled the attacks. >> vladimir putin says the zaporizhzhia region is part of russia. these soldiers disagree and are prepared to fight for every inch of their territory. >> the land they defend spans from large cities like zap --

and a cluster bomb landed down the street. >> my house is here, my home is here, my family is here. before the war, 7,000 people lived in the once quiet community along the river, only a handful remain. dr. galena was born and raised here. despite danger and lack of medical supplies has decided not to evacuate. i'm a family doctor, she says, i can't leave my patients. they need my help. >> when you look into the eyes of the civilians you can see they are scared but determined to survive the russian invasion. >> john: one thing russia did not count on was the tenacity, determination and commitment of ukrainian. thanks, trey, appreciate it. stay safe.

>> sandra: president biden says his economic plans are working but startling new numbers would say otherwise. a new report finds american credit card debt is surging to record highs. $986 billion now. that's the highest it's ever been. household debt a new high, nearly $17 trillion. joining us now, art laffer, former economic adviser to ronald reagan, i always look forward to our discussions. thank you for being here. put the numbers back on the screen. record high credit card debt. $986 billion, art. this is at a time of rising interest rates. we have seen the federal reserve raising the rates to try to tackle inflation, so it's going to cost a lot of folks a lot of money to manage that credit card debt. what does this tell you? >> well, it tells you that there is a lot of trouble down the road, but you've got to remember, sandra, those numbers are also after we have had quite an inflation as well, so boosted

up by inflation, but still alarming numbers, and frankly, the credit card debt is what bothers me the most because you know what the interest rates are on those, it's very, very high. and there's a lot of background information that is disturbing about the economy. there are some great things like the last jobs report was phenomenal and inflation coming down year over year and headline, but then the one month inflation rate is higher. we had a big dropoff on the one, but the monthly numbers, .5%, now 6, 6.5% annualized rate. companies are laying off people, debt level is rising, all of this when put together gives you a very disturbing feeling about the future of the u.s. economy, especially when i look at the stock market which has recently been dribbling off quite substantially. so i'm worried about the economy. >> sandra: i'm sure this administration has incentive to get this ship righted as we head

towards the 2024 presidential elections. so i'll ask you, why does this administration, why do democrats and the president continue to insist these economic policies are working. here is just some of what we have heard recently from them, art. >> i'm happy to report that the state of the union and the state of our economy is strong. >> our president is making real progress in our economy, in our place in the world, reducing prescription drug prices. >> took action to get the economy back up and running. the president has transformed the way we think about it. >> sandra: interesting strategy to tout success when we know more and more americans are living paycheck to paycheck, 64% of the country, sky high prices. you mentioned january alone, year over year prices, eggs, is

it coming in hotter than economists are forecasting with the latest reports. what do you think the strategy is, and if they said ok, times are not good, is there an easy fix for this, art? >> these politicians always do that, try to put the spin side on it there. it just makes no sense when you look at it objectively. but maybe there is someone foolish enough to buy their line, i don't. when you look at the participation rate, it's at 62.5%, you know, that's way below where it was when bill clinton was in office, it's just been dropping continuously. i don't know why they keep putting that spin. but you know, time will tell. the latest numbers are not good for the administration and i don't expect them to change their tune. what bothers me most of all, sandra, if i can, is they are still pushing more spending. still pushing putting 1,000 bucks in people's checks if you are born after 2005. they want to get rid of the debt, eliminate the debt for student loans, all of those

things add to inflation, add to unemployment, add to weakness in the economy, at just this time when you would expect the guys would want to make a better economy, not a worse one. it's politics. >> sandra: and they say the republicans don't have a solution. interesting as we work toward the presidential elections how they will cure the inflation and getting the ship righted. you just mentioned one of those ways, cutting back on spending. we hear that a lot from republicans. >> that's a big one. my pleasure, sandra. >> sandra: john. >> john: sandra, just looking at the white house briefing which has just gotten underway, john kirby is there and he is previewing the president's trip to poland. as soon as he starts taking questions we may dip in, depending what news is being made. meantime, a washington state hotel that was turned into swanky free digs for the homeless is now sitting totally empty. if the president says the pandemic is over, why are taxpayers still footing the eye

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point over the past week? >> so i would ask you to just for a second put yourself in his shoes. certainly in light of the chinese spy balloon and what was a very real, certainly very sizeable and tangible security threat, surveillance threat, to the united states in the wake of that. so, the military fine tunes their radar parameters to see

more, and of course they are finding more. when you have these three, and they are unidentified, not responding to any kind of communication, so we don't know who owns them or what the purpose is. you know, and they are flying in sovereign u.s. air space. they are also at altitudes that could affect the safety of civilian air traffic and based on the flight path and the prevailing winds potentially moving over sensitive military sites and the military leaders come to you and say mr. president, we don't know what these are, we are concerned about what they could be, and about where they could be going and what the purpose might be, and we recommend that you take these down in the safe, you know, in the interest of safety and security of the american people and out of abundance of caution and the president acted on that recommendation because he takes so seriously his responsibilities to protect this country, our secrets, our interests and our people. so the short answer to your question is absolutely not.

given the situation we were in, the information available, the recommendation of our military commanders, it was exactly the right thing to do at exactly the right time. now, going forward, and you heard the president talk about this yesterday, we are going to make sure we've got some new rules in place for how we make decisions in future circumstances. that doesn't mean -- it doesn't mean, and you heard the president say this yesterday, it does not mean there won't be additional shootdowns if he believes there's a legitimate threat to our safety and security. but it does mean that we are going to put a new set of parameters on the decision-making process going forward. >> just -- everything you just said, can that co-exist with -- rephrase, any feeling of frustration perhaps this was a $12 hobby balloon from a group of kids in illinois after the fact? >> again, given the information we had at the time, and the legitimate concerns about potential surveillance in the wake of the chinese spy balloon,

you make decisions based on the best information that you have and ultimately you have to come down to some core principles when you are making decisions as commander in chief. and of course, the most core principle of all is safety and security of the american people and our interests. so again, i say to you the short answer to that is no. and frankly, given the circumstances in light of what happened with this spy balloon, wouldn't that be a better outcome if it turns out they were in fact civilian or recreational use or weather balloon and therefore benign, isn't that a better outcome than to have to think about the possibility of greater threats to our national security? >> so john, i take that to mean you guys don't have any plans to reimburse the bottle cap balloon brigade? >> i don't know of any plans to reimburse. we -- >> more generally speaking, what

can you tell americans about what they should expect in the future, understanding these new parameters are classified if they see something in the air, should there be concern a missile will follow it. >> again, we are not going to rule anything out, in or out in terms of how we treat additional potential unidentified aircraft. i thought the president did a terrific job yesterday of putting this into some context and making it clear to the american people that their safety will always come first, that these are likely, we are going to find out they were likely of a benign purpose and not a threat at all. so there shouldn't be overarching concern by the american people that the skies are somehow full of attack balloons or that they are at greater risk. if anything, look back at how we dealt with this, again, with information that we had that was not complete but yet legitimate concerns about a threat, and dealing with that threat safely and efficiently.

nobody hurt, nobody hurt as these balloons were taken down, and i think that should give the american people a measure of comfort and confidence. but the president wants to make sure that as we go forward we do so smartly and effectively and he wants a set of new rules determined to deal with these in a different way in the future. >> what can you tell us about the isis raid in syria? >> i think you saw central command put a statement out that last night u.s. military and sdf partner forces conducted a helicopter raid against an isis senior leader, hamsa el hamsi, and he was killed in the raid. pentagon exploded, explosion during the raid also resulted in four u.s. troops and one of the

working dogs suffering some injuries. the troops and the working dog are in stable condition, treated at a u.s. military facility -- u.s. medical facility in iraq and i think the pentagon will have more information on that. >> in the back. >> thanks, so first two questions, first will the american public eventually find out what these three unidentified objects are, including which companies they belong to, which specific benign purposes they had? >> we would like nothing better, but i can't sit here and promise we'll get to that level of fidelity and detail. a lot will again, and one is on sea ice north of -- north of alaska in arctic conditions, extreme, extremely bad winter weather up there. they have not been able to really mount anything on the ice to find them now. the other in the yukon territory, thick wilderness, and i don't believe the royal canadian mounted police or their

investigative organizations have been able to get to it. and the other one fell over lake huron, again, in very deep water. i think the canadians have decided they are not going to look for it any more, i don't believe the united states has made a call on that yet. so, pretty tough conditions, going to be very difficult to find them, let alone once you find the debris, be able to do the forensics to identify it. so, i can't promise you that we'll know definitively one way or the other. >> a question on president biden's talk with xi jinping. as the administration was trying to ease tensions, the house select committee on china is trying to focus on human rights abuses by hearings on that topic. will president biden bring up human rights issues with xi jinping? >> the president never fails to bring up human rights concern and when he met with president xi in bali, he brought it up then. and it's not just with president xi.

the president believes that you have to lead with your values, particularly in foreign policy. he's never shy about bringing that up. >> what's the likelihood that president biden meets with president zelenskyy next week? >> talking about on the trip? there's no meeting with president zelenskyy scheduled for the trip right now. >> and related to president xi and a call with president biden as well, have tensions cooled enough to where the two leaders could jump on the phone together right now? >> there is an open line of communication and i'm not denying that there aren't still tensions, particularly in the wake of the spy balloon. we don't believe it's the appropriate time for secretary blinken to travel to beijing, and you heard the president that he will -- he will want to have another conversation with president xi as you might expect that he would, but we don't have anything on the schedule right now, and we'll have to do that at the time when the president believes it's appropriate. what's really important here, i

know the question was about president biden and president xi, is that the lines of communication with the prc remain open. i recognize that there are tensions, but secretary blinken has an open line of communication with the foreign minister, nick burns and the state department can communicate directly with prcs embassy personnel here, so the lines are open. unfortunately the military lines aren't open. and that's really what we would like to see amended, and it was of course curtailed after speaker pelosi's trip to taiwan. >> precondition for the calls? >> there's no preconditions for a call. the president will want to have a conversation with president xi at the appropriate time. >> thank you. just a quick one on the president's trip to poland. is he going to be making a stop anywhere other than warsaw?

>> right now the trip is in warsaw. >> before the chinese spy balloon incident led to a fine tuning of radar, how wassed administration tracking flying objects if at all. >> the first question, i said right now. the trip to warsaw, i did not make it sound like i was alluding to a change to it. and the second question was how were we tracking these before. >> correct. because the reason why you were able to detect and shoot down these three objects, the president said yesterday was because. >> adjusted the radar. >> correct, yeah. what were you doing before, if anything, to track aerial objects? >> commander of norad spoke to this last week. and the way he characterized it was that they were -- they were tuned to look for, defaulted to look for other types of threats

in our air space, fast moving, lower altitude, more kinetic potential threats, such as ballistic or cruise missiles or bomb error fighter aircraft. that's what their focus was, that they had not -- they had not adjusted the, as he called it, gaits on the radar, the filters, to look for things that were much higher, much slower and a smaller radar cross section, harder to see. as we said the other day when you adjust for that, you are likely to see more of what you are asking the radar to look for but it was not set for that. he was focused on other types of threats, more potential kinetic threats to our air space. >> it sounds like yesterday the president said that he wanted to work to establish a better inventory of unmanned airborne objects. does that mean currently there is no inventory? >> i would say there's none, but i think it's fair to say that he

wants us to focus a little bit more on this particular issue and learn more about what's out there. what's up there, quite frankly. >> and then how long do you think it will take to implement this four-step plan and what will you do in the meantime? is the policy to shoot them down before you implement these four things the president wants? >> no, i think you can imagine that even though we are still working on the policy parameters, that we are going to continue to follow a very deliberate thoughtful decision process here. there aren't any tracks right now. i can't give you a timeline specific to the calendar when will be done this work but it won't take very long. i think in a matter of days we'll be able to transmit to congress the classified parameters. still working out through the interagency and get those to the hill within days, i think. and then we'll be executing on it. so, there's not -- i don't want to leave you with the impression

there is some gap between him wanting the parameters written and us being able to execute on them. >> how long do you think it will take? >> i mean, we are already in many ways using some of those parameters just informally, as we are looking at the skies. again, there's no active tracks right now. we'll transmit these parameters with incoming days, it won't be very long, and it's not like -- it's going to be sent or debated on, voted on, it's our parameters defined by the national security council team and the interagency how we deal on this. >> question to the trip to poland, often somewhat, obviously concerns about how they are not going more with more support with ukraine. how does the president try to square that with his message of support on the trip, and his audience, a domestic audience

back home or is the audience russia and other countries in eastern europe? >> the president well knows whenever he's speaking he's speaking to people around the world as well as the american people but i think you'll hear messages in the president's speech will resonate with the american people, our allies and partners, without question resonate with the polish people who have done so much and continue to do so. and i would suspect you'll hear him messaging mr. putin as well, as well as the russian people. back to your first question, almost assumes as if support is going to wane or waiver or dwindle and that's just not how the president sees it. yes, there are a small number of members on capitol hill, house republicans specifically, that have expressed publicly their concerns about support four ukraine. but if you talk to the house leadership you won't hear that, and you certainly are not going to hear it on the democratic

side and don't hear it in the senate. there has been terrific bipartisan support through the entire years, think about what we have done over this year. all of it has been done in the full consultation and coordination with congress. no such thing as a blank check. we are all doing it together, and the support from congress has really been extraordinary and the president looks forward to that support continuing. >> thank you very much. is the president prepared to send u.s. fighter jets to ukraine? >> we talked about this, i think the president got asked this question and he spoke to it. i don't have anything to add to what the president said. we remain in constant communication with the ukrainians what their needs are, and the needs have evolved as the war has evolved. >> is the u.s. prepared to make the delivery of the mig 29s. >> we have never dictated to another partner what t