The Lead with Jake Tapper: Rep. Adam Smith Is Interviewed About Spy Objects From China

Interview

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I would amend that slightly, almost certainly overstates the case. =I mean, basically, we know that China has been using these balloons, you know, here in the U.S. and also elsewhere for some time. We also know that they represent a gap in our surveillance, a gap that had existed for a number of years as we've gotten reports about after the fact determining that this had happened, gaps that we've now closed.

And that's part of the reason we're starting to see so many of these objects more often is because, well, our radars in the U.S. were primarily looking for incoming missiles and incoming jets. A slow moving balloon was apparently more difficult to track. Now that we're tracking, we see them.

And the main thing is, there's a lot of different reasons why balloons could be up in the sky. But typically, if that happens, if it's a research balloon, if it's a weather balloon, the people or person that owns that balloon, first of all, lets you know that they're going to send it up. And second of all, if it got shot out of the sky, you would presume that they would say, hey, you just shot down my balloon, I just want to let you know here's what it is, that hasn't happened. So it seems like whatever these things were, they were up there for something other than legitimate purposes.

So, what would that be? You know, the only evidence we have at this point is China has done that. So that is certainly possible. But I think I did overstate the case, but it certainly seems like something that was not supposed to be there.

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I haven't seen evidence of that. I mean, you don't know what you don't know, to quote Donald Rumsfeld. So, I suppose that's possible.

But I think the Biden administration has been pretty transparent about this. They saw these three objects, and they were in an area, you know, but I think between 20,000 and 30,000 feet where they could have been a risk to commercial traffic, so they made the decision to shoot them down but they don't know for sure what they were or what they are. And I don't know, and I've had some classified briefings on this, I don't know of any evidence that suits that -- sorry, that suggests that we know more than that. So I don't know that the Biden administration is holding out. I think at this point we just don't have the specifics.

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I don't know that it rises to that level at this point. There's no evidence that this is any particular grave threat to the U.S. There is considerable evidence that there have been these types of objects, you know, floating up over the U.S. Canada for some time that perhaps we didn't notice and perhaps have a legitimate purpose. I don't want us to overblow this situation in terms of what it is.

So, I wouldn't call for the President to make a statement on this at that level. I would certainly call for the administration to keep us regularly informed about what they know and what they are learning.

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Yes, no, absolutely. I think we have to be careful. And going back to the very first balloon and the Biden administration's decision to wait to shoot it down, I think more -- the more we learn, the more we know that was the absolute right decision. I mean, shoot first and ask questions later is never a particularly good approach. Take time to understand it.

And there's risk. If you're going to fire a missile at something over the continental United States or Canada, there is risk. So best to be cautious about taking that risk. And then, secondarily, as we've heard, because they waited to shoot down that the balloon that we know was from China in a place where they wanted it to, we were able to recover it because we shot it down in a recoverable spot. So I think we're learning a lot about this.

And certainly, there is risk. People, oh, just shoot it down. No, let's be cautious and understand and balance those risks, which I think the Biden administration has done a good job of doing.

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Well, I think it's alarming. I think that the lack of transparency coming out of the Chinese government is very concerning, right up to the point where they don't seem to want to talk to us about us -- I mean, about what's going on here.

The first balloon, we called China up. They didn't get back to us for 48 hours to even offer an explanation. Maybe it took them two days to come up with the lie that they came up with, but they need to be more transparent with us. And also, as has been reported, there are similar balloons floating over other parts of the world, and they're not being transparent with those countries either. So we don't know exactly what's going on in China, and they could be enormously helpful if they would be more open and honest with not just the American public, but with the world about what they're doing.

Yes, it's distinctly plausible that President Xi didn't know about it, but they ought to be more transparent about what they're up to.

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