>> i mean she left behind her three beautiful children that are going to grow up without having a mother. to teach them. >> well but i see her in so many things. i am just constantly reminded of. her we i feel like she is still there, she still here with us. . this sunday up in the air. u.s. fighter jets shoot down a chinese spy balloon flying in u.s. air space >> i told them to shoot it down.

>> reporter: the incident forced the secretary of state to postpone a high stakes trip to beijing and exposed rising tensions and growing distrust between the two super powers. >> we are not ready if china decides to invade taiwan and we need to get ready. >> i'll speak with the chairman of the house intelligence committee, republican congressman mike turner of ohio. plus a call to action. >> an assignment from god. >> in the wake of the deadly police beating of tyre nichols will congress act on renewed calls for national police reform >> we demand that congress pass the george floyd justice in policing act. >> i'll talk with democratic senator cory booker of new jersey who led past efforts to get bipartisan legislation and disconnect president biden cheers good economic news and the lowest unemployment rate in over 50 years. >> the biden economic plan is working. >> but can the president run in 2024 on his economic record if

voters don't feel the same way transportation secretary pete buttigieg joins me this morning ahead of the president's state of the union speech this week. joining me are nbc news correspondent andrea mitchell. amy walter editor-in-chief of the cook report. democrat ig pollster cornelle bell er and lanhell chen. welcome to sunday. it is "meet the press. from nbc news in washington the longest running show in television history this is "meet the press" with chuck todd good sunday morning. a chinese spy balloon has set off a diplomatic crisis deepening mistrust between the united states and china and triggering political finger pointing here at home before being shot down on saturday. the u.s. military first detected the balloon over alaska's islands last saturday spotted by civilians on wednesday over billings, montana.

montana, by the way, is also home to the airforce base which houses 150 intercontinental ballistic missile silos. there were sightings of the balloon over missouri and kansas on friday and over the carolinas on saturday. the faa had to close air space and pause flights at three airports in order to allow the f-22 fighter jet to shoot down this balloon six miles off the carolina coast with a single air-to-air missile the dramatic takedown at 2:39 p.m. saturday was caught on camera china's foreign ministry declared its strong discontent and protest calling it an over reaction, saying it retains the right to respond further china had claimed the balloon was simply a civilian air ship being used mainly for weather observation. but the administration responded that the surveillance balloon was used by china to monitor sensitive military sites and that it also contained surveillance equipment on friday the secretary of state

antony blinken had to cancel his first official visit to china. he was set to arrive in beijing last night >> the presence of this surveillance balloon over the united states, in our skies, is a clear violation of our sovereignty, a clear violation of international law, and, clearly, unacceptable. i can only imagine what the reaction would be in china if they were on the other end >> now, before the balloon was taken down saturday, republicans on capitol hill were lashing out at president biden for not acting sooner. >> i don't think the chinese communist party would hesitate to shoot down an american asset that was in their air space. >> this administration is keeping us in the dark and then claiming that they're doing what they're supposed to do. >> they could have shot that balloon down and the biggest risk might have been hitting a cow, prairie dog, or antelope. >> after it was shot down the republicans praised the military

for taking it down but criticized president biden for waiting too long the back and forth over the spy balloon is the latest escalation of u.s./china tensions as china has been trying to rehabilitate its global image post covid. just last week a prediction the u.s. will be at war with china in two years over taiwan and lloyd austin was in the philippines on tuesday to announce a new military build up and use of bases by our military balloon is the latest escalation of u.s./china tensions as china has been trying to rehabilitate its global image post covid. just last week a prediction the u.s. will be at war with china in two years over taiwan and lloyd austin was in the philippines on tuesday to announce a new military build up and use of bases by our military there. china has tried to play both sides on the war in ukraine saying it is against the war but supporting russia. the republicans doubled down on the trump administration policy of having a more aggressive competition with china all of this an acknowledgment the decades multiple presidential administrations bet on that economic engagement with china would somehow push the country into democratic reforms has been a complete failure.

the president addressed the takedown of the balloon on his way to camp david on saturday. >> on wednesday when i was briefed on the balloon i ordered the pentagon to shoot it down on wednesday as soon as possible. they decided without doing damage to anyone on the ground. they decided that the best time to do that was when it got over water within a 12-mile limit. they successfully took it down, and i want to compliment our aviators who did it. >> joining me now is the republican chair of the house intel committee mike turner of ohio. chairman turner, welcome back to "meet the press." >> good morning, chuck. >> let me start with what you know here. so the decision to take this down, what more have you learned? and you're part of the so-called gang of eight. i don't think you guys have gotten a personal briefing, but i know staff has. what more can you tell us about the take down operation? >> clearly the president taking it down over the atlantic is sort of like the quarterback tackled after the game is over. the satellite had completed its mission. this should never have been

allowed to enter the united states and never should have been allowed to complete its mission. if you ask somebody to draw an "x" at every place where our sensitive missile defense site, nuclear weapons infrastructure, nuclear weapons sites, you would put them all along this path. clearly, this was an attempt by china to gather information to defeat our command and control of our sensitive missile offense and nuclear weapon sites and that certainly is an urgency this administration doesn't recognize. >> you think we should have a policy that anything enters our air space that is a balloon from china gets shot down immediately? >> first off you have to understand this administration didn't just fail here. they failed to prepare after the first time this happened during this administration. the administration has already admitted, chi've been briefed on, that china has done this before in the continent tall united states during this president's tenure. >> when did that happen? >> you have to let them release that. i can't release that information but they can tell you. >> we also briefed on, apparently there were two or three incidents in the previous administration as well.

>> well, that is what they're saying now, but i think the administration needs to come forward because this is not an ability to say this is a crisis that was handed them. this is a crisis that developed as a result of this president during his administration allowing china to do a similar act before, not responding, and then, clearly, in this one, not seeing the urgency of what was unfolding. the president allowed this to go across our most sensitive sites and wasn't even going to tell the american public. if you hadn't broken this story the american public would not have even known. there was no attempt to notify congress, no attempt to put together the gang of eight. i think this administration lacks urgency. >> do you -- the pentagon says they were able to use countermeasures that blocked or limited the ability of china to extract information from this balloon. do you buy that? >> no. and certainly you don't either. here is the thing that is interesting. the administration says there was nothing for them to gain here. this was quite a risk by china, quite a calculation they would take a balloon, put it up in china, take it across the united

states where it is clearly going to be discoverable by us. they clearly had some information they were trying to garner that they can't garner from space. >> what could that be? i mean, you're pretty familiar with this. what is it that they think they could have gotten from a balloon or what can be done with a balloon that can't be done with a satellite? >> well, the key obviously is not just the balloon. the key is the payload attached to it, which you have reported as being the size of three buses. that is obviously huge. it was being commanded and controlled by mainland china and delivering data and information back to mainland china. if you look at the path and you put xs where all of our sensitive missile defense and nuclear weapons facilities are, i believe they were trying to gain information on how to defeat the command and control of our nuclear weapons systems and missile defense systems. that is a crisis and certainly should have had an urgency to the president and not just wait until this gets to the atlantic to take it down. >> do you at all accept -- it sounds like he did put the order in on wednesday to shoot it down and that it is the military that

sade, hey, it's not safe yet. do you accept that? >> there is no excuse here. when this first occurred last time during the administration, remember, this is the third year of this administration, they should have been preparing for this. they knew what this was. they know what the balloon is, what its capabilities and maneuverability is from having observed previous actions by china. they should have been prepared. they seem not only to be unprepared but to even be waiting. where is the balloon going to go? what are they trying to do? that's not how you look at the actions of an adversary. china is a self-declared adversary. they are clearly expanding their military capabilities. they are tripling their nuclear weapons capabilities. they are fielding hypersonic weapons. they are expanding in space. in this instance, this president should have taken this as an urgency and so should our military. this should have been taken down before it entered u.s. airspace when it was over alaska. >> there is some sort of surveillance technology with this balloon. there's some speculation it

might have the capability of launching its own drones, sort of miniature drones to do extra surveillance. do you know anything about that? or is there any report to confirm any of that? >> no. and i've not been briefed on that but i can tell you and we are supposed to be briefed this week as to what we know. >> okay. >> what we can believe is this administration says we don't really know. and if we don't really know how they keep telling the american public this is not a threat, that there was no need to act, it is just extraordinary to me. this administration does not understand the urgency of taking action to protect our national security. >> what do you believe the actual threat is right now? what are they trying to do? you see this as a simple military exercise by the chinese. >> absolutely. they didn't go and look at the grand canyon. they went and looked at our nuclear websites and our missile defense sites throughout the country. and whatever was in this huge payload, there wasn't a camera on this thing. there were cameras, but this was huge. the expanse that was there and

what they were trying to accomplish, obviously, was important enough to china to take the risk of something. this wasn't secret. they did it on such a grand scale they knew the united states would know and did it anyway. >> was it the right call for secretary blinken to postpone his trip? >> sure, but notice -- and i have a great deal of regard for secretary blinken, but you notice he didn't cancel it until it was public and there was public scrutiny. >> some argued it shouldn't have been canceled, that immediately we should be confronting them. what do you make of that? >> what should have happened is the first time this happened during this administration there should have been outrage. they should have addressed this with china, prepared for when this balloon was coming, should have understood there was a great deal of risk in our national security, and they should have been prepared the moment this balloon was launched because they knew what this was like, they knew what it was capable of, and they should have responded. >> so what would you like to see going forward in response to this incursion? >> first off, the president needs to shift and understand that he has urgent national security matters. you can't just act like nothing matters if it matters to our adversaries.

if our adversaries think this is important, we need to thwart it and we need to respond. with respect to this balloon obviously, you know, the administration has indicated they'll try to collect whatever is left of having this strewn across the ocean to see what we can learn there. we're going to find what signals intelligence that the administration might have been able to capture from that to understand what this was doing, but they need to make clear to all our adversaries you are not going to get to come to the united states and take a tour of our most sensitive military sites and have a free shot. >> how aggressive should we be about the balloons in the western hemisphere not over our air space but we know there are reports one of these balloons is in latin america right now. >> right. i think all of these, if the administration had, when they became aware china was deploying this capability, if they had been aggressive to determine how to capture them, how to exploit the technology, how to thwart the technology, we would be in a different place today. i think the same is true for the other balloons that you're seeing.

>> all right. we're running out of time, but before i let you go, you and others in the gang of eight have asked for a briefing on all of the classified documents discovered from presidents trump, president biden, and vice president pence. where are we on that? >> you know, what is striking about this, chuck, is the biden administration told the american public that they raided donald trump's home because it was a national security risk. what we found in the intelligence committee is that the biden administration had not engaged at all anyone who was in national security on the issue of threats from these documents. it took congress to step in and say, we want a security threat. then they tried to deny giving the briefing to us from that threat. what is interesting is the moment this balloon became public, i got a notice not from the administration i am going to get a briefing on this balloon but they have to rush to congress now to talk to us about donald trump's documents. you can see they want to change the news. >> so you'll get a briefing on trump's documents, but -- >> there is nothing scheduled on

the balloon, but they are scheduling donald trump. >> anything on biden or pence? >> it is included, yes. >> that will all be included. is that this week? >> yes. it is supposed to be this week. we'll see whether or not the balloon happens first. it certainly should. again, urgency. this administration needs to understand we do have national security urgent matters. >> all right. mike turner, chair of the house intel committee, republican of ohio. thanks for coming in and sharing your perspective. >> thank you. joining me now from the other side of the aisle democratic senator cory booker, also a member of the senate foreign relations committee. senator booker, welcome back to "meet the press." obviously there is another topic i would like to discuss in more detail, but i want to ask you about the reaction, your reaction to president biden's decision on the balloon. how has he handled this? should he have acted sooner? >> well, clearly, there's a lot of information still to come out, but the president of the united states and the united states military did what they did. that is in my opinion very just and defensible. they saw that to blow that thing

up or to take that thing down over land would cause challenges, and we know from the debris field over the ocean that it was miles long. i think i heard seven miles long. and so the president, himself, said i ordered it to be taken down. the military made a thoughtful decision and i trust the united states military. >> would you have canceled that trip to beijing like secretary blinken did? was that the right call? >> well, i want to -- i want to make one more point about this. i think what is -- it is problematic when democrat or republican have one standard for one president and another for another president. we should remember that this is now known to have happened under the trump administration multiple times. and so to create another standard for biden when trump it seems allowed this to go over the united states is just a bit hypocritical. we are in a position where we have a global contest going on. chinese espionage not just against potentially our country as a whole but also companies. chinese activities right now with taiwan. this is a time we need to unite

on both sides of the aisle, not engage in partisanship but do some of the good things we've done with the last congress like the c.h.i.p.s. act, a national security bill that helped us make sure should there be incursions against taiwan, we are ready as a country. this is the time to unite and find strategies to counter chinese espionage and their other ill activities around the globe. >> how concerned are you about retaliation from china? they seemed to leave it out there in their statement. >> again, we should be concerned about china as a whole. and the difference between us and china is that we are a democracy. we have great alliances. not just nato. not just canada and mexico. but there are free countries all around this world that understand china is a threat. they're not playing by the rules of the world order. america is the strongest nation on the planet earth but when it comes to us uniting with our allies to counter chinese aggression, it is a power that is multiplied. a powe

it is really important to understand. i remember when president trump put sanctions on china. he also used a national security waiver to put the same sanctions -- to put similar sanctions on canada. we don't need to be pushing our neighbors away. >> right. >> we need to be uniting in a front of democracy to create a more rational world order that has a lot more power in controlling chinese aggression. >> do we need to have a posture in our military preparedness and in the armed services committee? are you going to be supporting whatever it takes to prepare for war with china over taiwan? do we need to do more to prepare for that potential even if we are going to work our -- do everything we can to prevent that outcome? >> you know, again, i'm very aware that the united states military prepares for a lot of eventualities, and i'm also a believer that strong diplomacy can work to counter chinese

aggression. so again, this rush or drum beat to war is really problematic to me when there are a whole bunch of other options. this is where i give a lot of confidence and strength to the biden administration. you asked me the question about blinken's trip. this is an administration from its very beginning that has been reaching out across the aisle and finding good ways to counter and check china's aggressions, china's espionage, but also to look at ways to strengthen ties with china that enable us to better keep them at the table. so again, a balanced approach is necessary. but so is working in contingencies. i've traveled the world from india to germany and having really substantive conversations about how we strengthen our democratic alliances to counter aggression from dictators or totalitarian regimes from russia, north korea, and indeed, also china. >> let me pivot to police reform. i want to sort of get a realistic check from you about what is possible. presidential campaigns start pretty quickly. senator tim scott is somebody who may run for president.

he has said that george floyd justice policing act is a nonstarter. so what is realistic this calendar year of what could get done, given national politics and where we are in america? >> you know, i think that there are a lot of folks across the aisle who understand this is a moral moment. america is seeing more and more because of body cameras and other technology, we are seeing the horror of unarmed people, handcuffed people in the case of the tragic murder of tyre nichols. we're seeing things that do not comport with our national standards and expectations. and we are a nation right now that should set the global standard for professionalism in policing, and we are falling short of that to the horror of more and more americans. and so i know this might not be the divided congress. i'm very sobered about the

possibility of getting a large comprehensive bill done, but i have been in conversations all week with people on both sides of the capitol and both sides of the aisle with police leaders, national police leaders, national police union leaders as well as civil rights activists who all want to get something done to advance the cause of not just police reform but raising standards, creating more transparency and more accountability. so i am not giving up in this work, and i'm having constructive conversations with people on the other side of the aisle. >> look, sometimes we let the perfect become the enemy of the good. you guys were close. you, tim scott, karen bass. there was an agreement on banning choke holds except in life-threatening situations. there was an agreement to set federal standards for no-knock warrants. there was an agreement to limit the transfer of some military equipment to local departments. can we just pass that? and then go back and try to see what is next? i mean, are we in that situation where we can do this, you know, there were nine civil rights

acts, right? can we do this in iteration? >> it's exactly the way we approached the gun safety legislation on our side led by chris murphy, and i was happy to be a part of that and goat like community violence intervention. it was not everything we wanted like universal background checks or assault weapons bans. but it was a significant step forward. we are looking at this bill or the potential to get legislation through. but it has to meet those standards of raising professional standards, transparency, more accountability and, again, we are working on things. i am sobered about the belief we can get a big, comprehensive bill done but can we get something done? i believe we can and i am putting all my effort into that right now. >> look, i take it the idea of dealing with qualified immunity is probably not something that happens with this round of police reform? >> you know, look. when you hear encouraging things, i've met with lindsey graham last week. >> sure. >> when you hear encouraging things from people like him, it

gives me the sense that we could do something possibly in the senate, but, remember, passing a bill in the senate as we found out with immigration reform about ten years ago doesn't mean it'll pass in the house. i want to get something to the president's desk that will make americans safer, that will give more confidence in american policing, and more transparency and accountability when things go wrong or to stop things from going wrong, and that's the goal here. and we've got the senate negotiations. this is why i'm working in strong partnership with the congressional black caucus and other people in the house of representatives to try to make sure we can get something all the way to the president's desk. >> senator cory booker, democrat from new jersey. we really appreciate you coming on and sharing your perspective. thank you, sir. >> thank you. when we come back president biden is feeling pretty confident about the economic recovery and says his critics are wrong. as he prepares to address the nation tuesday night k he convince a weary public about his economic program? lic about his economic program

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i screwed up. mhm. i got us t-mobile home internet. now cell phone users have priority over us. and your marriage survived that? you can almost feel the drag when people walk by with their phones.

oh i can't hear you... you're froze-- ladies, please! you put it on airplane mode when you pass our house. i was trying to work. we're workin' it too. yeah! work it girl! woo! i want to hear you say it out loud. well, i could switch us to xfinity. those smiles. that's why i do what i do. that and the paycheck. welcome back when president biden addresses the nation tuesday night he will be speaking to a skeptical public, despite th

welcome back. when president biden addresses the nation tuesday night he will be speaking to a skeptical public, despite the low unemployment rate, a stronger than expected midterm performance for his political party, and a string of legislative accomplishments his poll numbers are low on his handling of the economy, foreign policy, and specifically the war in ukraine. two-thirds of voters have reservations or are very uncomfortable with biden running for a second term. that's the backdrop for the state of the union. joining mu know is the secretary of transportation, pete buttigieg. welcome back to "meet the press." >> good to be with you. >> before i get to the state of the union, your day job as secretary of transportation includes the faa. you had to ground the faa had to ground flights in three airports in the carolinas to assist this national security operation. what more have you learned about this operation, and did we recover everyplacing? >> so i'll let others speak to the military and intelligence side, but what i'll say is you saw a great example of the coordination and cooperation

between a lot of different players in our government to make sure everything happened safely. the president gave the order on wednesday that he wanted this thing brought down but brought down safely. that is a complicated thing. >> he gave that order to the military on wednesday. shoot it down, however -- but under what conditions? >> well, that's just the thing. it sounds simple. >> right. >> i suppose if you don't think about it for more than a second. but this thing was above american air space in terms of where most of the aircraft fly. we have the most complicated national air space in the world. this thing is larger, the metal equipment there is larger than a bus when we did shoot it down. the debris field was about seven miles. so the concern, of course, is how do you do it in a way that absolutely minimizes the danger to american lives on the ground and any kind of aviation operations. that is exactly what happened. faa worked closely with the pentagon. this thing was brought down in a safe manner. and the flights are back to

normal in the u.s. >> how disruptive was this to air travel throughout the week or was it? >> certainly something that we were tracking and monitoring. and while this particular situation was obviously unusual, it is not unusual for there to be things, not just the weather that we know can affect flights, but everything from a space launch to a military operation that can complicate the national airspace. that is why i so appreciate the work faa, the pentagon, and other players do together to keep things moving. >> how often are some of these incidents simply classified as ufos right now because we don't want to talk about the military aspect of it when maybe pilots accidentally run into these things or see these things? >> well, look. obviously there are things you can talk about and things that you can't. what we work to make sure of on our side is that any time there is any situation that requires civilian aircraft to get out of the way, that that message gets through and the operation gets

underway, and there's a phenomenal track record to do just that. >> are we in a cold war with china? how else would you describe it? >> i don't know you can do a one-to-one comparison with the last cold war, but certainly you see this kind of great power competition and we are seeing it a lot, this week the headlines have been dominated by this particular situation, so much is playing out in the economic space. that is part of why we're making the kind of investments that we are. whether we're talking about infrastructure, noting you can't lead the world especially in a highly competitive environment unless you have world-leading infrastructure. that's one of the things that motivated this administration to work, this president to lead in a bipartisan way to do the biggest investment in infrastructure since the eisenhower years. also on the manufacturing side, the c.h.i.p.s. and science act was another example of a bipartisan accomplishment under president biden that is really

going to give the u.s. an edge in this kind of economic competition with china. i am particularly energized and concerned about making sure we stay ahead when it comes to evs. getting the supply chains on to american soil, creating american jobs, so that it is a made in america electric vehicle revolution. >> what is interesting about how the biden administration has conducted its manufacturing policy and foreign policy with china, how the trump administration did, and in that sense there hasn't been a lot of disconnect between the two administrations, is this a -- an admission that the 30- or 40-year western consensus that said, hey, if we bring china into the economic system, it's going to defend them? it had the opposite effect didn't it? >> whether western with china or europe with russia there have been indications that engagement alone does not yield comfortable partnership and easy acceptance of a rules-based international order. each of those struggles obviously is different. but i think some of the patterns do overlap. >> let's go to the president's state of the union. look, he's got a lot of things to tout.

why do you think it has not penetrated the american public? >> these things don't sell themselves. it is one of the reasons i am really looking forward to that state of the union address. i will say that there have been so many accomplishments under the administration. it can be difficult to list them in a distilled way. recently the president hosted a send-off for ron klain, the departing chief of staff, and he put it in a way that i thought was especially moving when you think back in historic terms to what it means to inherit one of the toughest situations faced by any president since f.d.r. passed the most significant legislation on our economy in many ways since f.d.r. while facing the largest land war in europe since truman, achieving the second most important health care bill since lbj and the most important obstruction bill since eisenhower, as ron put it. that was just the beginning of the list of accomplishments.

but one of the things we found is that this is happening simultaneously with some of the toughest circumstances ever. we recognize that. there continue to be a lot of issues americans are facing every day even as we see extraordinary economic news. 500,000 jobs just created in the last month. >> here's the thing. none of this seems to have accrued to his benefit lately. >> people say that. then this president has exceeded expectations again and again politically and functionally in terms what we're getting done. >> do you think the handling of the classified document situation has contributed to this middling poll situation? >> if you go week by week through the polls, you drive yourself crazy. the president and the administration remain focused on getting things done. think about how rare it is to have unemployment this low and inflation coming down at the same time. that's not something that just happens on its own. >> do you think if he had been more transparent about the classified document situation earlier he might be in a better place? >> coulda, woulda, shoulda is not the strategic direction or focus of this administration. there is too much on the line and too much to do. remember, while we are very

proud of the extraordinary accomplishments, the 12 million jobs, the record-setting job creation, the comeback of the american manufacturing sector, inflation coming down, none of these things are guaranteed to go on, especially when you see some of the saber rattling going on among house republicans. if these kind of magamonics -- >> is that a new term? >> doubling down on preserving tax cuts for billionaires as the central economic vision, threats to cut medicare, if things were to go that way this economic recovery would not be guaranteed to continue. we've got to keep pushing. >> secretary buttigieg, we'll be watching the state of the union tuesday with you. thanks for coming in and sharing your perspective. the death of tyre nichols has fueled a new push for police reform, but similar pleas have been met with little action for decades. what came to be known as the long, hot summer of 1967 tensions over racial inequality erupted into violence in cities across the country often triggered by a dispute between black citizens and police.

in newark, 26 people died in five days in riots that began after two white police officers beat a black cab driver during a traffic stop. roy wilkins appeared on "meet the press" that sunday and called for better policing in america. >> i think these things we talk about as a tradition -- jobs, better housing, better schools, and better treatment, and especially we tend to overlook that area that is so important -- police/community relations. not the directives the police commissioner issues on top because they're nearly always perfect, and not the directives of the second in command, but the man-to-man relationship between the policeman and the people in the community he deals with, and i think if we made an in-depth study, we'd find that a good many things stem from that relationship. >> 56 years ago. same conversation. when we come back, will the

chinese spy balloon incident deflate any hopes of improved ties between these two super powers? panel is next. detect this: living with hiv, i learned i can stay undetectable with fewer medicines. that's why i switched to dovato. dovato is for some adults who are starting hiv-1 treatment or replacing their current hiv-1 regimen. detect this: no other complete hiv pill uses fewer medicines to help keep you undetectable than dovato. detect this: most hiv pills contain 3 or 4 medicines. dovato is as effective with just 2. research shows people who take hiv treatment as prescribed and get to and stay undetectable can no longer transmit hiv through sex. don't take dovato if you're allergic to its ingredients,

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welcom welcome back. panelists here, msnbc news chief foreign affairs correspondent andrea mitchell, democratic pollster cornell bell. lanhee chen who hasn't been here for a while because he was a candidate in 2022. and, andrea, i know you have a ton of reporting to share, but i want to take a step back. the lack of benefit of the doubt that republicans are giving this administration, on one hand due to our current politics that shouldn't be surprising, but even on this. right? >> well, partly, there is bipartisan, a bipartisan majority on the hill against china. this is reminiscent of the cold war, the evil empire. there is so much antipathy to china. that is feeding this. i mean, they know they've hit a hot button.

and you could argue, politics aside, you could argue the administration did not get out front of it. and even democrats -- >> they let the media dictate the release strategy, if you will. >> exactly. our colleague was breaking it and they hurried up and briefed the hill. at the staff level, they hurried because none of the members were still in town who could go into a secure facility and at that point they quickly came out at the pentagon briefing. but that is not the same as sending out someone with a lot of metal on his chest like colin powell, desert storm with the maps to try to explain. >> it's a general nobody had known. i mean, no offense to that general, but it wasn't the chairman of the joint chiefs. >> and he is not military. he is a press spokesman, so a public affairs official. the fact you didn't have a commander come out and try to credibly claim, we can disable it. we can exploit data from it. we can, you know, obviously they can use lasers and do things

against the big payload. congressman turner was talking about. they can disrupt the coms. there was some value in letting it go across and, you know, but as jeremy bash said last night on "nightly news" we have to develop technology to take something out like this without worrying about debris falling. we have to be better prepared. yes, they do have better -- they have satellites obviously. somebody said to me last night from the administration, this was a "dukes of hazard" operation. yes, but they still were able to penetrate our air space. >> they tested our, essentially our electric fence. >> right. >> the politics of this, cornell, not surprising anybody here. my goodness. should congress take a harder line on china? >> should. i mean, you know, we have it. it is across the board nearly universal. 3 in 4 voters believe this. 77% of democrats. 77% of independents. 82% of republicans. there is no downside to being tough on china. >> that is the problem. because our politics get in the

way. and this shows it, right? we have a balloon. by the way, this is not the first time they've used balloons and we've used balloons. in fact, we are increasing our budget for balloons. they have these things called satellites that are up there all the time. this was a visual. this is top gun. this is maverick. the politics get involved in a way that it gets overhyped. why this is a problem? because, chuck, i am a gen xer. i remember elementary school hiding under a desk doing those drills. are we headed for another cold war? is it necessary? are we diving head first into another cold war with china and where we are with military spending, and japan -- guess what japan is doing? japan is increasing its military budget. this is heading in the wrong -- the politics will get us sideways. >> it sounds like we are already in a cold war. >> the problem is the politics interfere with our ability to actually solve the problem we have, which is that we are in a strategic competition with china.

do we really have the political environment now to actually do something about it? let's not forget 1 in 4 americans use tiktok. tiktok is effectively a surveillance tool. >> yeah. >> why are we talking about a balloon and not talking about all these things on our phones? >> right. >> some of us have not put tiktok on. >> i haven't. maybe your kids have. right? >> they have. >> this is the problem is that we need to be serious about this competition and figuring out what the policy alternatives are to actually deal with this. >> that's the thing, amy. i think the chinese are learning a little something about our reaction and some may say overreaction to some of this. >> and our division, which only helps to make this that much more difficult. the question i think we have a couple things that haven't been answered yet, why now? why do something as obvious as this? we have tiktok. why do a balloon? what was going on here? >> by the way, good luck tiktok thinking you're going to get a side deal now. i'd say that balloon popped. >> the timing right before the secretary of state is supposed to go to china. why do that now? what was that supposed to do? is this derailing our new

outreach to china, diplomatic outreach, or just delaying it? if it is delaying, which it probably is, what does it look like next? >> we are not outreaching -- we are doing everything we can to slow their economic growth. i mean, if you're in china's shoes, this is -- we have decided, look, we were wrong. the 40-year consensus about china we've now decided was wrong. >> corporations are pulling back -- >> no wonder china wants to come at us. >> yes, president xi and president biden agreed on this in november in bali and wanted this meeting to take place this weekend, this very day. that said, look at it from president xi's perspective. he wants a reset in the entire relationship. we just did export controls. the c.h.i.p. bill. >> we've reset the relationship, andrea. just not on his terms. >> and the philippines. that was a real trigger as well as a new marine base in guam.

so there are things from their perspective to blow this up. someone said to me, did the military undercut xi? well, i talked to a top military official, former official, who said xi knows everything. there is no question about xi knowing everything. they knew we were not going to be able to hold this meeting. the question now is what comes next? >> let's pause. when we come back, we saw florida governor desantis win a battle over an african american history course this week. we'll look at how americans are losing faith in their public schools whether secondary or higher ed. higher ed.

welcome back. "data download" time. this week the college board announced it was revising the curriculum of its new ap african american studies course removing elements around black writers associated with critical race theory, content related to lgbtq issues, and feminism, and an entire section about black lives matter. the changes were seen as a victory for republicans like florida governor desantis who announced plans to ban the old version of the course in his state last month. but this news was just the latest flare-up in what's become a deeply polarizing and partisan divide in how americans view public education both in our public schools and in our universities. look at this confidence in public schools. democrats have more confidence than republicans. but look at this fall off since the start of the century. republicans and democrats, you know, pretty close.

and then basically the pandemic, and you can see the nosedive here down to just 14% of republicans have confidence in public schools. if you think about the rhetoric by republican officials, it is no wonder. then check this out. is college the best way to get ahead? among democrats, basically nearly three in four democrats believe this. look at this divide. among republicans? less than 40% believe this. you sort of see it, right? again, the idea of attacking liberal indoctrination. where do you get that? liberal propaganda. colleges do this? democrats only 17% believes this happens there. 83% of republicans believe that. and, of course, in our high schools, the numbers are basically the same. only 16% of democrats believe you are taught liberal propaganda, but 85% of republicans now believe this. talk about a divide. this is a massive one, and it's taking place at every local public school in the country. up next, she says it's time for a new generation and someone

that can win a general election. nikki haley believes she is ready to defeat donald trump. i ready to defeat donald trump

welcome back. so nikki haley became -- well, she'll officially get in in a couple weeks. lahnee chen, she made the case it is time for a new generation. she is making that. let's turn the page. you see in some polling, yeah. if you can maybe the turn the page from both biden and trump there is a constituency there. does that exist in the republican primary? you are technically -- no person got more republican votes than you did. you were the leading vote getter for a republican in the state of california, and that happened to make you the leading republican vote getter. is there a constituency for nikki haley out there? >> i think there is. i think there is. i think by hergeting in, it breaks the seal in some ways and opens the floodgates. i think what has been a race frozen in time, felt to me like it was frozen in time if i think

back to the 2012 cycle when i was working with mitt romney, things were in full gear by mid-february. it feels like the cycle -- this feels very different. with nikki haley coming out and making this declaration first of all, kudos to her. it takes some guts to jump into a race like this, i think. it gives other candidates thinking about this, forming infrastructure, the permission to be a little more public. what happens to her and her candidacy we'll see. but i do think what she is talking about, the value of having a republican that is forward looking, younger, more dynamic, that has experience at the state level as well, i think that is a message that will resonate with republican voters. i think they're looking for an alternative. >> and somebody that can win. that is the other thing she says. she says i'm a generational change and i can win. we haven't won the popular vote as republicans seven of the last eight elections. >> a remarkable stat. >> pretty remarkable.

president trump never tried to win the popular vote. at any point during the 2020 campaign it was, how do i win enough electoral college votes. that is a different piece of that. >> you have to be for things the majority of americans actually want. i like the idea of nikki haley, governor haley or ambassador haley, i guess, jumping in this race, but if i look at the republican party over the last decade or so, i don't think she has a lane. i don't think the jeb bush lane that once upon a time was there is there right now. how is she going to compete with desantis and donald trump in these cultural wars, in this sort of in -- for me sort of the southern strategy 2.0 rebirth we're seeing in this country right now. how does she compete with those guys? >> she certainly can compete against mike pompeo because she was in that cabinet circle, a strong figure. she got out early. >> i don't take the pompeo candidacy all that seriously. >> boy, he is organizing.

>> let alone statewide, let alone anything else. >> he is going governor to governor, wrapping up party officials. he has the diet just going to say cosmetically. >> i just don't see -- >> he is doing a lot of ground work is what i'm tracking, and he is a real knife-wielding player. he was on that benghazi committee. he went after hillary clinton. he really understands national politics. >> but the book was so gossipy and felt very personal. >> but nikki haley i would say as a woman of color, person of color, as a woman, southern, so strong after mother emmanuel, the monument. all of that. >> if she is in a democratic primary, i like her. >> it depends how many people are in this primary. >> she has to shift the terms of the debate. she won't be able to win a debate in my view with ron desantis. she has to reframe the conversation. >> it can't be about that. she's almost got to push desantis and say, hey, he's playing the old playbook, we've got to move on. i don't know if it works. not saying it is going to work. >> good luck. >> i agree she can't pretend to be something she isn't.

>> can she preempt some of the other 17 potentially of getting in? keep larry hogan out, can she keep asa hutchinson out? >> is that who she is competing with? the environment says voters want a change. right? on both sides right now. >> a majority of democrats are not satisfied with biden. >> i agree. we know what the environment looks like. the hardest thing in politics is to understand the environment. you can be a great candidate but if you're not understanding what voters want, it doesn't matter. so who can capture that lightning in a bottle and understand, all right, voters right now, what republicans seem to be saying is we want someone kind of like trump who is pugilistic, but we want somebody who can win. who is able to best make that case? >> i couldn't discount her. >> is this state of the union, can it have any impact for president biden? how should he use it? should he use it more as a campaign speech or as a way to throw down a legislative gauntlet to the house republicans? >> you're like a lawyer today asking me questions you already know the answer to. because historically, you know, chuck, the president, whether

democrat or republican, the president gets a little bump out of the state of the union. everyone is watching. >> he is talking to his people. >> a rah-rah session, but historically it flattens out. i do think it is an opportunity for him to talk about the good things that happened under his administration. when he talks about the economy, talks about inflation coming down, talks about the job market the way we haven't seen. talks about manufacturing jobs. by the way one of the reasons china is ticked off because manufacturing jobs are coming back to the united states of america. i think he has a good story to lay out, and this is the beginning of his -- >> is it classified documents that prevented him getting a bump post election? >> there are so many variables chuck. i wish there were one because it would be easier to solve. >> he is not getting credit for the economy and should be. >> yes. >> i think the danger of recession is receding. it is not altogether gone. we see a big jobs market. it is a problem for jay powell because now they do have to keep tightening. but wage growth is moderating.

layoffs are only in a few sectors, not univeuniversal. manufacturing is building. >> people still feel like the economy is not -- >> mid summer let's check in on that. >> that's fair. in april on our news magazine show "meet the press reports" we staged a full scale war game with u.s. lawmakers, former pentagon officials, and china experts to see what would happen if a conflict broke out over the issue of taiwan and how potential war with china would unfold. to see the full episode go to nbc news.com/mtp reports. it is chilling to watch. that is all we have for today. thanks for watching. we'll be back next week because if it's sunday, it's "meet the press." if it's sunday, it's "meet the press. it's "meet the press. general, we've never seen an object like this gain entry into our airspace