jon tester now occupies mike mansfield's seat in the united states senate. in his two reelection campaign have each been a political miracle of sort, a democrat being reelected in a state that votes overwhelmingly republican for president, now, including twice voting for donald trump. democrats have been eagerly and very nervously awaiting jon tester's decision about running for a fourth term and trying to match mike mansfield's term of service in the united states senate. the majority leader of the senate has no doubt been begging jon tester to run for reelection, because without jon tester the democrats know they really would not have any chance at all to hold on to that senate seat in montana. and having worked in the senate, i can tell you that i have never been surprised by senator announcing that he or she won't run for reelection when you work there, not running for reelection often makes more sense than running for reelection, because no matter how it might look from the outside, the day to day job is not glamorous. it can start at six a. m. and leav

going that has been in your family for over 100 years in montana while serving as a senator, as jon tester does, then your work is more difficult than any senator i have ever known or cena. when america was threat by one of our political parties a suspect this is when john tester would be telling us, he's proud of the work he has done in the senate president biden signed into law in his work there when it comes to an end years or. as and eleanor roosevelt side of the democratic convention in 1940, this is no ordinary time. democratic senators decision to -- carries extra weight, now extra pressure. the kind of pressure president roosevelt no doubt felt in 1940, after world war ii started and he decided it was time to break precedent and run successfully for reelection to a third term as president, not, he said, because he wanted to. he was already planning his retirement, but because the times demanded it. last month, when senator jon tester was on this program, we had this exchange. >> when you make up your mind about deciding to run for senate again, we've got the timeslot just sitting t

we have been listening to senator jon tester of montana.r of the defense appropriations subcommittee, they held a hearing today on the chinese spy balloon demanding answers from the biden administration and he's walking into a classified all senator briefing about the same issue. ryan nobles is with us now. so, ryan, what do you get is this general sense here of congress, we just heard tester there saying he wants to know what did they get, where did they get it and what are they going to do about it in the future. >> reporter: it seems a lot of this information is something that the administration cannot share publicly, which is the purpose of these classified briefings that are taking place today. there was one with every single house member that took place early this morning. the one that tester is walking into now, which is with all the senators and there was also an even smaller gang of eight briefing which is the heads of the intelligence committees along with the leaders of both parties and the house and the senate, which could be a

we are going to begin with montana senatr jon tester.d morning to you, senator. >> good morning. >> so, late saturday, norad and northcom said there was a radar anomaly over your state, which is why air space was closed. was it a false alarm or is there an object over montana? >> i think the investigation is still going on as we speak. the truth is, is that there was an anomaly and they've investigated it. i think it got dark last night so they couldn't fully check it out. i'm sure as we speak it's being checked out right now. >> it hasn't been ruled out there may be something? >> there may still be something up there. it may be a false alarm. >> is the policy now to shoot down any unidentified object? >> well, i think that's a very, very good, and that's a better question for general milley, but the truth of the matter is they needed to have a policy, a policy to recommend to the president. it's something that the chairman of the defense committee and ranking member collins we talked about this and we're going to make sure there is a pl

joining me now is democratic senator jon tester of montana, also chairman of the defense appropriation subcommittee. thank you for joining me tonight, senator. i'll get right to it. when did you first learn of this balloon and how did you learn of it >> it was -- i learned yesterday. that's when i learned about it. and quite honestly, it was very disturbed by what i had heard. we had a surveillance balloon flying over montana, a place where people appreciate freedom and privacy, a place where you have 150 icbms jon tester. and a balloon that was put in space by china. this is a very bad situation, quite frankly. china has been trying to replace us as the world's economic leader and military leader for sometime now. and they have done some very provocative things around taiwan in the indo-pacific. they do things on the internet all the time that are not helpful. and so we need to get to the bottom of all of this. we need to get to find out why decisions are made that were made. and i'm not saying they were wrong decisions. but we need to find out why the decisions of the modern age were

would he know that senator jon tester this morning was pretty testy on cbs saying he thought an object was there, and he didn't buy the radar anomaly excuse from norad. >> lucas, we also have a tweet from montana congressman madonna matt rosendale, confidence there's an object and it's not anomaly, our nation's security is our priority and you've got congressmen from this region sounding the alarm. they're constituents, i'm from the midwest, from south dakota and their constituents are probably not used to this activity happening over their air space. my question for you is this, is it now because we saw this chinese spy balloon last weekend, was visible to the naked eye and other objects that may or may not be visible to the naked eye. what is the likelihood there have been objects over air space, penetrating our air space for a long time and now the american government is just on high alert for these objects. >> i think there's no request. that tweet by congressman rosendale, he was not buying that they called it a false alarm. he was convinced based on conversations he had been havi

neil: jon tester among the many prominent democrats who were saying, mr.sident, you got to get in front of this. maybe as you just heard from jackie the president will and maybe as soon as early next week. doug come lanes joins us right now, former georgia congressman, former member of house judiciary committee. to elaborate what is he hearing and seeing from all of this. congressman, always great having you. i know higher ups in the administration had talked about this we heard it from the defense secretary and others but not from the president. so you often hear in white house briefings, well we have discussed this. it doesn't matter if it's not the president per se. what do you say? >> well, look, neil, good to be with you again. white house just told us about a week ago said you know the president is the best communicator they have in the white house. if he is, put him out there because right now it's a problem and problem, you heard this from both republicans and democrats there is a sense of this urgency and a sense of this unknown. if you let the un

in a moment where this balloon might be going, we'll talk to montana senator jon tester who announced his subcommittee will be holding hearings on this. alex marquardt with more on what are now both balloons. what is the latest from the administration about both of these chinese spy balloons? >> we just learned moments ago from the pentagon there is this second chinese balloon that they say is transiting latin america. they're not specifying which country. they do assess it is another chinese balloon but say it is not on track to come up here to the united states. this does highlight what the pentagon has been saying that there have been several instances of these chinese spy balloons over the past several years, and what's different here the administration said today is that this one was caught on ththe eve of secretary blinken's trip to beijing. it was supposed to take place next week. understandably the u.s. is quite frustrated. blinken is saying today the trip could no longer be constructive. this undermines the purpose of the trip. here's a little bit more of what he had chinese

. >> reporter: jon tester is the democratic senator from montana where the balloon hovered over a field of 150 silos housing intercontinental ballistic missiles. apparently trying to listen in on the communications used for the command and control of incentives. -- of nuclear weapons. >> i got a problem with the chinese balloon flying over my state, much less the rest of the country. >> reporter: soon after the balloon was spotted in the sky, a u.s. official said it stopped hovering over the missile field and proceeded to across the rest of the country, apparently abandoning its spy mission but still communicating with controllers back in china. according to u.s. officials, china has a fleet of high-altitude balloons which its military has used as a cheap alternative to satellites to fly over some 40 countries around the world. the search had to be suspended because of rough seas, but officials say some of the parts already recovered have english writing and appear to have been manufactured in the west. the state department is considering imposing sanctions on the maker of the balloon.

and that's why jon tester was really furious yesterday. has happened before why didn't we shoot down those. i understand your argument steve about the water being so deep off the coast of alaska, absolutely. but could we have gotten that equipment by putting neglect down? is there any way to get that equipment before it flies over most of the country and if they were so concerned, why didn't they get the other four spy balloons? it makes people wonder why we had this to find out this information from rioters on the ground in billings, montana? were they ever going to tell us. brutal attack on congresswoman angie craig inside her apartment building elevator and how she thankfully was able to fight back. ♪ >> brian: and last night was the nfl honors. we have the biggest moments that stand out, plus, rihanna has a message to patrick mahomes after he got dissed. ♪ ♪ we are the champions, my friends ♪ and we'll keep on fighting till the end. ♪ [coughing] hi, susan. honey. yeah. i respect that. but that cough looks pretty bad. try this robitussi

i was noting, i got in my email the statement from jon tester who happens to represent montana in theate. he says in part, this provocation is completely unacceptable, we're stitt wailing for real answers on how this happened and what steps the mrs took to protect our country, and i will hold everyone accountable until i get them. they have to wait until they can get back, get in the scif, get that briefing. what do you imagine happening between now and then? >> reporter: well, remember, on top of that, chris, is that jon tester is the ranking -- is the chairman of the appropriations subcommittee that deals with the pentagon's budget. so he is the person that controls pentagon spending for the senate democratic majority. so he has sway here. but you could see -- i mean, i've heard from a bunch of members of the senate and from the house who have basically said the first thng we're doing when we get back to d.c. is going to the scif and seeing what we can find out from briefings. they hold frequent briefings on intelligence matters. you're going to see intelligence officials from the c

jon tester if he steps aside in montana also very possible that seat can flip.ce. bob casey in pennsylvania, there is some expect he will run but if he doesn't that will be difficult as well. chuck schumer is moving behind the scenes to try to prevent any retirement. when there is a retirement it could create a problem for their party. there are wild cards. in arizona, what does christy sinema do? she is independent now and debating whether to run for re-election but there is a democratic candidate and also the potential of a hard right republican candidate. we talked about kari lake. she is considering running. republicans are very nervous if she runs that could put that seat at risk. there are so many significant dynamics here and major players. bernie sanders has not decided whether to run for re-election and neither has mitt romney who told me he believes he can win but hasn't made a decision yet. >> i want to play a little bit >> i make a decision based on have i been able to deliver for the state and basically support the constitution and oath i've taken.

that is one of the main question senator jon tester -- he is the leader of the defense -- is looking to answer. senator -- he asked jake sullivan overnight as well. as lawmakers get into town this morning, at least on the senate side, we are sure this week will be all focused on china as well. again, this object, the last three, the last to at least, one over canada included, it is not clear if that came from china or elsewhere. it is something our militaries are looking into. one very important factor with this object, shot down over lake huron, is that authorities believe they will be able to recover it and there was no collateral damage, which is important as you look at the pattern by which they have been taking these objects down. largely over bodies of water in remote areas to ensure there is no civilian or property damage. so a very developing situation here. >> julie, how did we first learn of this fourth object that the military has shut down? >> the couple hours ago, the faa temporarily closed airspace over parts of lake michigan. we then saw tweets from congressional lawma

senator jon tester of montana has tweetedsuggesting the object shot down over lake huron, in michiganspace last week. we will continue to monitor and bring you developments as we get them. and now to turn to our legal news. it sure looks like former president trump does not want his vice president talking to the justice department. we have to ask why. trump is set to -- have mike pence. donald trump will try to once again claim executive privilege. you might recall in 2021 that the former president tried and failed to block the january 6th committee from accessing records related to his involvement in the capitol riots. and then, it was just last, year a fellow appeals court said no to donald trump's executive privilege claim as he tried to stop pence's former chief of staff, marc short, from testifying about how donald trump's effort to overturn the 2020 election. something quite of the ordinary did happen on team trump precisely. his lawyers actually turned over, yes, they turned over, voluntarily it seems, a laptop and an additional ford are bearing classified markings to the justi

. >> reporter: jon tester is the democratic senator from montana, where the balloon hovered over a fieldintercontinental ballistic missiles, apparently trying to listen in on the communications used for the command and control of nuclear weapons. >> i got a problem with a chinese balloon flying over my state, much less the rest of the country. >> reporter: soon after the balloon was spotted in the sky -- >> what the heck is that? >> reporter: -- a u.s. official said it stopped hovering over the missile field and proceeded across the rest of the country, apparently abandoning its spy mission but still communicating with controllers back in china. according to u.s. officials, china has a fleet of high-altitude balloons, which its military has used as a cheap alternative to satellites to fly over some 40 countries around the world. the search was suspended this afternoon because of rough seas, but officials say some of the parts already recovered have english writing and appear to have been manufactured in the west. the state department is considering imposing sanctions on the maker of the

jon tester will be out for reelection and we don't know if he will run for reelection. what happens when, do you see your party doubling down on a country that isn't yours. governor walz: you can win minnesota and -- win minnesota with seven counties. but can you govern easily? if you only have a one-vote majority, do you know what we call that? a majority. the fact of the matter is, lasting change, the cultural change that we are in this together, we need to make an attempt. if you are going to focus on this. you can say you won 75 counties but lost by eight points. demographics are changing. i'm demographers so this pains me. whoever put up the red blue map destroyed this country. it took the nuance out of what it means to live in these areas and it became more about identity. granted, in the last election cycles, peoples identity was impacted by this. i wouldn't lead with i'm a democratic -- a democrat. i would lead with i'm estate football coach -- i must state champion football coach. host: do you think more democratic politicians should do that? governor walz: i'm

think will see obviously some of the ones that democrats are holding their breath for was senator jon tester of miami. that's a seat republicans are looking togain back in 2024 . ohio eric brown, another competitive seat and west virginia is exactly the same. it will be interesting to see whether joe manchin runsfor reelection in 2024 . >> host: during the 118th he was the focus of democrats. a key vote and now the majority has an extra vote with the whole senate so he's not really the spotlight that he was. >> guest: with kristin sinema , he or any other democrat comes back to the 118 congress. >> host: let's go to brian on the independent linecalling from michigan . >> caller: i'm just wondering on all these cases of post 9/11 with these fisa courts, are we going to review the legality of them concerning the gaconstitution or anything like that and how about tony bob linsky. he seems to be the most credible witness ever. high-level navy, i have the same security clearance as tony. these are the cream of the crop. these are top notch guys. i was enamored of dealing with annapolis graduates.

host: jon tester yesterday on "face the nation."he president today, according to his press schedule, the daily guidance the press gets for each day, he will receive his daily briefing at 9:00 a.m. then there is a press briefing by the press secretary at 1:00 p.m. that is it on today's official daily guidance and press schedule from the white house. so plenty of room in that schedule if the president wants to make a statement. there are members of congress calling for him to do that in light of this fourth arial object being shot done yesterday. donald in inglewood, california, you are next. what are your thoughts? caller: well, there is a question about who should be blamed. i think that even c-span is not lady -- letting people know that they may have changed the narrative because what does china own here in the united states? 385 million acres of land. large office buildings in most of your large cities in america. toll roads all over the place. china owns all of that. why would they want to own it? why would they need to own all

. >> reporter: jon tester is the democratic senator from montana, missiles.ealliic aprentlyin the command of nuclear weapons. >> i've got a problem with a chinese balloon flying over my state. much less the rest of the country. >> reporter: soon after the balloon was spotted in the sky... >> what the heck is that? >> reporter: a u.s. official said it stopped hovering over the missile field and proceeded across the rest of the country, apparently abandoning its spy mission but still communicating with controllers back in china. according to u.s. officials, china has a fleet of high-altitude balloons, which its military has used as a cheap alternative to satellites to fly over some 40 countries around the world. the search was suspended this afternoon because of rough seas, but officials say some of the parts already recovered have english writing and appear to have been manufactured in the west. the state department is considering imposing sanctions on the maker of the balloon. norah? >> norah: david martin at the pentagon with that new information, thank you. southwest airlines is back in

jon tester will be up for reelection. we don't know yet if he could run for reelection. it would be huge problem for democrats if he didn't. what happens then when use your party doubling down on on a f the country that isn't yours? >> i was a howard dean 50 state strategy guide pic yet to be smart. you can win minnesota, there's 87 counties. you can win the seven counties. you can win with 11. the question is can you govern as easily? again i learned from republicans. republicans. this enjoyable one-vote majority and do not recall that that? a majority. [laughing] the fact of the matter is lasting change and the real cultural change like we're in this together we're going to have to make an attempt at a projected think about this. it, if you're going to focus on this you can say you won 75 counties in minnesota but you lost the race by eight points. population change, population density demographics are changing. the question is how do we do this? this pains me. the person who we should drag upon all these things is whoever in 2000 with a first person to put the red blu

democratic senator jon tester is questioning why this china airship was allowed to travel the u.s.or over a week before being shot down while the newer unidentified objects were shot down virtually right away. >> i probably would have done it different but that's not saying i am right or wrong or they are right or wrong. in the end we end up with the balloon they've recovered and they are going to put it back together. >> today navy personnel were seen taken a boat out of the water but in terms of salvage operations in south carolina we are told they have been suspended temporarily at least until tomorrow. hazardous water conditions, sees reading about five to 8 feet today. the majority of the china spy airship remains 50 feet below the atlantic ocean. we are told it could take two more weeks to recover the whole thing. jon: bryan llenas, we know you will be watching from south carolina. thank you. kate stone institute senior fellow gordon chang joins us, the china great u.s. tech. i want to start with old news. the china spy craft was shot down last week. you are an old hand washi

senates briefing, jon tester pushed for answers from the biden administration. >> i want to know if we knew what the chinese were trying to collect with that balloon come up with that reconnaissance ballooned. >> senator, thank you for the question. what we can probably get into details and a classified setting. >> you can say yes or no. you don't have to get into specifics, do we know if they are trying to collect? we think we know that they are trying to collect but we don't know. that scares the hell out of me. >> most americans too. president biden's defend the call to take down the spice craft once safely over water feels this was not a major breach. senator tim cotton d tom cotton does not agree. >> it is totally a violation of national law are airspace. >> any time chinese airship enters the airspace is its chinese to spy on america. the biden administration could have shot it down off the coast of alaska and the balloon proceeded to spy all across america. until we actually have the hardware that was on that balloon but we can't say for sure. we can take some educated guesses,

it essentially taking them at their word and didn't pick up anything and it was inadvertent and jon testerpresident biden's biggest allies came out and the son and said nothing inadvertent anything china does. so we have to lose that talking point. i'm disappointed because i love the ufo/alien talk and the fact that he's ruling that outcome at least anyway disappointing. but i guess there are hundreds of these floating around all the time. we got nervous because of the chinese image and started shooting them all down. that is what we will be doing from now on. >> jesse: that is pretty much it. >> judge jeanine: they know it's not from china but did biden give us an opportunity to define china to the american people and what our relationship is? >> judge jeanine: it does and what he said today what was what he could have said monday. what is the difference? i think they knew pretty qui quickly. that wasn't a spy craft. i can't wait to see the new york cover post tomorrow. it will be delicious. i have no idea what it will say, but i know it will be very good. i can't believe biden didn't com

. >> jon tester specifically. >> sheena we talked about what's coming up on the show today, we know comingon march 28 is the latest edition of one of your books the love story of the bible speak, what can we expect in the book? >> our viewers have been so kind to respond to these books and they are a gift to them we try to look at stories in the bible, there are great ones and there are messed up once. i think the idea of sex, romance and marriage god created all of that why shouldn't we talk about and dig into what it means and how we can be better at all of those things. in times for valentine's day i got you hooked up if you do not have a present go to s sign shannon book.com you can order the book and downloaded a valentines to tell people that you got them this book and did an autographed copy will come your way when it releases march 28 sign shannon book.com. >> what a great idea for valentine's day, i love it. everybody get your book from shannon in times for valentine's day, thank you for joining us i'm really looking forward to your show. >> thank you, see you guys in a bit. rache

chuck schumer announced today that democrat senator from montana jon tester will be the one who leadshe investigation into finding out why this administration and the one previous to it never was really able to detect niece balloons or objects in the sky before this year pressure is growing on the biden administration. jacqui heinrich has that part of the story. >> white house officials are not explaining why president biden has yet to address the three objects shot down since friday or even if he's just trying to avoid hyping concerns. >> what we're trying to do here is provide as much information as we can. >> the white house says later this week they will release policy recommendations. the national security adviser is gathering on how to identify and deal with future potential threats. >> i don't have a vehicle or how it's going to be shared to all of you. but, clearly, the president thought it was important to get this done. >> is that part of what the president is waiting for before he talks to the american people about this. >> i just don't have anything to read out. >> in the

. >> and, bret, also happening tomorrow, democratic senator from montana, jon tester will conduct anversight hearing into why the military allowed this spy craft into u.s. airspace bret? >> bret: aishah hasnie live on capitol hill, thank you. >> i know you'd ask it. i have no response. it's another smear campaign. >> there are 50 former national intelligence folks who said what he is accusing me of is a russian plant. >> you mean the laptop is now. >> another russia, russia, russia hoax? those words are still true. it has all the classic earmarks. >> election? >> absolutely not. >> bret: david priest one of the intelligence officials signed on to that letter. let's bring in chief political analyst brit hume. this hearing getting a lot of attention. democrats saying you are spinning wheels on something that people don't care about. do people care about it? i suspect a lot of people do care about it. it was a big deal that that story was suppressed by twitter and elsewhere. and really no one tried to defend the action today. in fact, bret, if you will indulge me, i was actually struck

jon tester demanding to know more about exactly what is flying over his state. >> want to know if hehe chinese were trying to collect at that moment and that reconnaissance balloon. >> senator, thank you for the question. we can probably get into details in a classified setting. >> you can say yes or no. you don't need to get into the specifics but did we know they were trying to collect. the answer is we think they know what they were trying to collect but we don't know. that scares the hell out of me. >> this morning for spokesperson for the chinese foreign ministry asked exactly what was on the spy craft but the spokesperson said that she did not know. you will love this, guys, china is condemning congress' reaction claiming lawmakers were dramatizing this whole thing. steve and brian back to you. >> steve: and they want their spy craft backed doggone it. mark, thank you very much. the government, the u.s. government took the extraordinary measures of declassified a bunch of information essentially to shame china and say, hey, we are on to you. we know you have this global surveil

military was closed, no object founded airspace and the reopen, montana's democratic senator jon testern ohio republican congressman mike turner they weighed in today. >> ten days has been nothing short of craziness in the military needs to have a plan to not only determine what is out there but determine the dangers that go with it. >> this administration now needs to declare it will defend its airspace which is good to be difficult for the administration that has difficulty controlling the ground sovereignty let alone air sovereignty but we need to do something. >> turner who is the chair of the house intelligence committee said on the matter that the biden administration must sit down with lawmakers rather than brief congress to the television sets. arthel: alexandria hoff in washington, thank you very much. eric: right now the recovery continues on balloon number one opposite south carolina military teams they hope for better weather as they try to recover the remains of the chinese spy craft that was shot off the coast last weekend choppy seas forcing them to put a hold on efforts,

senator jon tester, a democrat from montana released this statement, we're waiting for real answers on how this happened and what steps the administration took to protect our country and i will hold everyone accountable until i get them. i will always defend montana and our national security from hostile adversaries like china. and a republican voiced frustration today over the lack of information shared with officials in the state as the chinese surveillance tool lingered above. >> we knew nothing about this until this slow moving balloon was hundreds of miles into the state and already had flown over military installations and it was over our most populous city in the state. honestly, if this had been up to montanans we would have taken it out of the air the moment it came into our sovereign air face. >> the governor added he understands the president' concern over ground injuries, but nothing doing is as well. james comer put it bluntly. >> unless china is working with the biden administration to help find some of the missing documents scattered all over the united states, then this

i mean that bipartisan resolution by jon tester and susan collins, both condemns china for this surveillancedministration to give them more information about what they know when they do know it. the briefing today is going to be a broader briefing on the u.s.-china relationship, and according to the majority leader chuck schumer and his notice he sent out to senators, officials are going to be giving more insight into the surveillance capabilities as well as the research and development and weapons capabilities of the chinese government in today's briefing, jake. but this comes after another classified briefing yesterday where senators grilled officials about what they knew and what they did not know about those aerial objects shot down over the weekend. still a lot of unknown questions to be answered. expect that senators are going to be digging in today when pentagon officials sit down with them to give them the broader context on the u.s.-china relations. >> lauren fox, thank you so much. >>> nikki haley is about to make her first appearance as a presidential candidate. you see there cind

. >> emily: however members of the president's own party including montana senator jon tester whose ownte was visited by the spy craft or furious. >> what china did last week is completely on acceptable and a real threat to american sovereignty. china is a real threat and one we need to take seriously. we are holding this briefing today because american public deserves to hear from the department of defense, not play politics with national security. i do not care who is in the white house. we will always do our job and we will always provide oversight. this administration owes americans answers not only on what happened this past week, but on what steps they will make to ensure this never happens again. >> emily: kennedy, that hearing did little to assuage lawmakers of both political persuasions and also the american public who has only more questions, especially in terms of why and how the president reacted the way he d did. >> kennedy: yeah, and i have to share and senator markowski's outrage they could've shot it out of the sky which is what a lot of people said and the fact they let

in fact montana senator democrat jon tester will have the hearing tomorrow, the one he called for a coupleappened. representative mike gallagher, chairman of the new committee on china said the president missed opportunity to expand the bipartisan support here that exists on the hill in order to make changes. >> the president last night, could have talked about that, used it to galvanize action, smart things like advanced ccp land purchases. pla researchers in american university and get rid of ccp police stations operating on american soil. >> reporter: neil, we're expecting a all senator intelligence briefing on the china balloon tomorrow with the "gang of eight" getting their intelligence briefing, a classified briefing sometime before that. neil? neil: thank you for all of that, ashiah. let's go to general keith kellogg what he makes about all of this. general, much has been said sparse words applied to china from the president and then we get word the defense secretary was trying to call his counterpart in china and the guy wouldn't accept his call. where is this relationship going? >

. >> reporter: the balloon sailed over the home state of montana democrat jon tester.he entire house and senate received a briefing yesterday on the balloon. lawmakers are atinged about what communications the balloon intercepted. >> the truth is we think we know what they were going to collect. we don't the know. that scares the hell out of me. >> please know as we are recovering the balloon and learning more about it and also with what we learned last week, we are building our understanding of what comparabilities we have. but we need to do the going forward. >> okay. >> reporter: some lawmakers believe the u.s. made a mistake letting the balloon encroach so deeply into american air space. they don't want to see that again. >> we need to reestablish deterrence. right now the chinese believe that they can do this anytime they want. we clearly could have shot it down, and next time we need to just tell them we will shoot it down. that will reestablish deterrence to be, but right now we don't have deterrence. >> reporter: house minority leader hakeem jeffries described

here is what senator jon tester said on this issue this morning. >> the investigation is still going on as we speak. the truth is that there was an anomaly and they've investigated, i think it got t dark so they couldn't check it out. but i'm sure it is being checked out right now. >> so it hasn't been ruled out. there may still be something out there. >> it may be a false alarm. what has gone on the last two weeks or so, ten days has been nothing short of craziness. and the military needs to have a plan to not only determine what is out there, but determine the dangers that go with it. >> so what are your thoughts on that? still an anomaly. >> it would be a false alarm. by the time the sun comes up and they've got a chance to get up and take a look, it will be too late and whatever it is will be gone or maybe it didn't exist. but i think what you heard senator tester saying was a version of what we were just discussing, which is that we have got to get to a system where we set the filter right. the equivalent is where you set the metal detactor as where you go through the airport. y

democrat senator jon tester just wrapped up a hearing on capitol hill today.was grilling the defense department pretty hard. watch. >> this administration owes americans answers not only on what happened this past week but on what steps they're going to take to insure this never happens again. >> but the truth is we think we know what they were going to collect. we don't know. that scares the hell out of me. >> it is incredibly serious and please know as we're recovering the balloon and learning more about it, also including that with what we learned last week we are building our understanding of what capabilities they have. >> reporter: neil, you mentioned the house just unanimously passed a resolution condemning china. something similar could take place in the senate. senator josh hawley introducing a similar resolution, his goes further. calling for transparency from the biden administration. he would like to know if the u.s. does similar surveillance over china. neil? neil: interesting. thank you for that, aishah hasnie. what we have heard from the state d

senator jon tester of montana said last week, he was expecting not just to be briefed but potentially put forward a hearing to get more information into the public view about how this came to be. you're right, republicans are trying to make this a referendum on biden's leadership, even democrats are saying why did we find out so late. >> the biden administration says the reason they didn't want to shoot it down earlier is they didn't want to hurt anybody or damage infrastructure. it's 200 feet tall. the payload attached to it was similar in size to a regional jet liner, weighing more than 2,000 pounds. the debris field at the moment after it was shot down over the ocean is about 1,500 meters by 1,500 meters, in other words, for us americans who don't do the metrics system, 15 football fields by 15 football fields. it clearly would have had a very big zone of potential damage, and when you say that the payload was similar in size to a jet, the idea of a jet crashing somewhere into the united states does put it into some perspective for you. but the white house didn't tell the american

those 10 days, what the blinged was doing, the anger was bipartisan both from montana democrat jon testerdemocrat susan collins -- maine democrat susan collins. >> i have a problem with attorneys balloon flying over my state. >> it defies belief that there was not a single opportunity to safely shoot out the spy balloon prior to the coast of south carolina. correspondent: publicly administration officials have said they did not shoot it down earlier because of the risk to people on the ground. given the size, and also balloon -- also the military limited communications, shut down to medications in the spaces as the balloon flew over the spaces. the military said the same today , but officials made two additional points of this hearing. they pointed out that atlantic waters were actually ideal to salvage the balloon so they could collect parts of the balloon to understand what it did as opposed to waters in alaska, which were deeper, colder and covered with ice. take a listen to melissa dalton. >> if we had taken it down over the state of alaska, which is part of the united states, it woul

earlier two senators from montana, including democrat senator jon tester, criticize the administrationhad said we have many questions. that is why he is demanding an investigation, and a hearing in his defense subcommittee in the senate. it's not just republicans who are worried that the biden administration is not acting in time to shoot this balloon down. but now that it is down, all hands on deck for the administration to provide answers to congress, starting with a game of eight. briefing it will happen as soon as lawmakers return as early as tomorrow night. the gang of, a run by the top leaders in the house of the, said it's including leadership on the house and senate intelligence committee, we want to know what if any intelligence the trials were able to gather, as this balloon floated across the u.s.. i should, note katie, democrats are pointing out that this is not the first time we have seen this balloon cross u.s. airspace. this happened a few times, under other presidents. including former president. trump this is not the first public made it way this far along across the u

can he keep the democrats in trump states like jon tester from montana, sherrod brown from ohio, whohe keep them from saying let's do this clean? we don't want any kind of spending cuts. >> that one thing we're starting to see, whether it's joe manchin who said he's fine with negotiating and trying to encourage president biden to negotiate, even though the vast majority of democrats which is probably what majority leader schumer is speaking to, do want to do this clean. and also economists whether they work for the u.s. chamber or elsewhere, have also said they think it should be a clean increase versus tethering it to any kind of cuts. in terms of like republicans and what they in the past have said they want to cut, there's rar long history there. paul ryan when he was speaker very much wanted to turn medicare into a voucher system and republicans in the past have said over and over they want to cut entitlements which include social security and medicare. so i know that speaker mccarthy says that isn't on the table this time, but that's always why president biden feels he has the u

one that senator jon tester, democrat montana, just today said they were still investigating.s the michigan lakes, or if this is another object. this would mean it's the fourth line that the u.s. has shot a down since about a week ago when they first shut down the chinese surveillance balloon. there really are more questions here than answers, courtney qb it with iran but the report that this object was shot down. there does not appear to be collateral damage. they expect to recover this object, whatever it was. again, this is different from, perhaps, the first three that we saw. chuck schumer today, this senate majority leader saying he received a briefing from jake sullivan overnight who said that these are all different objects than the first one, chinese surveillance balloons that spanned the size of 2 to 3 buses. these are all appearing different in shape and size. we don't know yet if this is, and this has anything to do with the chinese government or whether it's something else. so, just a lot of things that we still don't know yet. it's very clear that u.s. officials i

we also talked to senator jon tester who is from montana.course, he's up for re-election in 2024 and montana played a big role in all this. he went into the briefing saying that he really felt like the administration needed to justify its actions and he did want to hear more so people have a lot of questions that they want answered and to that end there have also been a handful of briefings or a handful of hearings, rather, here on the hill throughout the day and i want to let you listen to the deputy secretary of state. here's what she was telling lawmakers a little bit ago. >> we make clear to prc officials that the presence of this surveillance balloon was unacceptable and along the way we learned a thing or two which you'll hear in the classified briefing about the prc's use of the balloon. this irresponsible act put on full display what we've long recognized if the prc has become more repressive at home and more aggressive abroad. >> reporter: again, this is an issue that already had a lot of attention here on the hill from both sides o

administration over this, but even democrats who are up for re-election in 2024 in conservative states like jon tester are also trying to be really tough on the administration. but there is unanimity on the issue of this. everyone is calling for more. >> symone, you've been in those decisions where you have to disclose something uncomfortable, and you're doing it in a week where, no, no, we want to control our own message, state of the union. can't help wonder if that stuff is colliding a little bit. >> i think when john kirby came out to the podium, it was very clear to me there was a prepared statement, meaning they knew this was a question that folks had and they were waiting for an answer to it. maybe coming out with it at the top makes it seem more dire than what it actually is. and john kirby, admiral kirby, didn't have any information, or basic information. and the more information the american people got was in fact from the pentagon. i think that this is -- what we're experiencing over the last two weeks i would argue is the reality of, you know, the presidency and the white house. you have t

here's montana senator jon tester and alaska senator lisa murkowski. >> quite frankly, i'll tell youloon going across the united states when we potentially could have taken it down over the aleutian islands, no offense to alaska or in some of the areas in montana, and i understand public health, i understand doing damage, i understand that could have been a nightmare, but the truth is i got a problem with a chinese balloon flying over my state. much less the rest of the country. >> as an alaskan, i am so angry. i want to use other words but i'm not going to. the fact of the matter is alaska is the first line of defense for america, right? if you're going to have russia coming at you, if you're going to have china coming at you, we know exactly how they come. >> ali vitale joins us now from capitol hill. they're clearly not happy about any of this. they had that classified briefing. what did we learn about what they were told, obviously within limits because we don't have classified clearance. >> reporter: right. that's exactly right. the questions we asked after the classified briefi

those 10 days, what the balloon was doing, the anger was bipartisan, both from montana democrat jon testerne republicans susan collins. sen. tester: i got a problem with a chinese balloon flying over my state, much less the rest of the country. sen. collins: it defies belief that there was not a single opportunity to safely shoot down this spy balloon prior to the coast of south carolina. nick: now, publicly, the administration officials have said that they didn't shoot it down earlier because of the risk to people on the ground if it had shot it down, given the size, and also that the military limited the balloon's ability to collect intelligence, essentially, that they shut down some of the communications in these bases as the balloon flew over those bases. the military said the same today. but officials also made two additional points in this hearing. they pointed out that atlantic waters were actually ideal to salvage the balloon, so that they could collect parts of the balloon to understand what it did, as opposed to waters in alaska, which were deeper, colder, and covered with ice. t

. >> with jon tester -- and you see those abortion numbers. pretty pessimistic about this for the democrats, and suddenly you see the abortion numbers, and you see the path for tester and the path for brown. >> they can talk about this issue and make it about people's rights and not just about -- >> libertarian argument. >> yeah. >> chuck, i think it's interesting to your first point about the divisions within the republican party, one of the biggest ones is about the 15-week national abortion ban. a lot of republicans are saying senator lindsay graham should have never introduced this because the whole point of dobbs was to send this back to the state. >> except he was looking for a compromising number here. >> right. >> i don't know if democrats will ever get to even 20. >> every republican candidate will have to weigh on that. >> before we go on the chuck toddcast, i spoke to washington post's dan fall and we'll have a postgame discussion with jonathan alter, talk a little bit about jimmy carter. and scan the qr code on the screen right now

democrats like jon tester of montana leading it alongside lisa murkowski of alaska, those are statestral to this information. you have the michigan delegation and other delegations as clear parts of these briefings, because these things have been shot down and flown over their states. frankly, when you think about the transparency or the slow movement of information and details out of the white house, a lot of this information has come from lawmakers on capitol hill, both because they have demanded briefings and also because they shared what they've heard, to the extent they can, in terms of classified and not, with reporters by holding hearings and trying to get more information from these officials. timing is everything, of course. the senate is in this week, the house is out. both of them are out the following week. so this is really the time where i've got to imagine lawmakers are going to be demanding answers and quickly here on capitol hill. >> tom, i want to play part of what one of the defense officials, melissa dalton, said why we might be seeing more of these objects. >> we