Hello. I'm Jake Tapper in Washington,
where the state of our union
is, knowing the truth is out there.
The U.S.
military is trying to figure out
what exactly they shot down
over the frozen coast of Alaska
on Friday afternoon
and what else they shot down ove
northern Canada on Saturday.
The third time in eight days tha
F-22 fighter jet
has downed a flying object
in North American airspace.
President Joe Biden and Canadian
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
authorized Saturday's operation,
taking down an object
that Canadians described as cyli
and smaller
than the suspected Chinese Bible
and shot down February 4th.
Unlike that balloon,
the second and third objects
were both flying much lower,
about 40,000 feet.
Close enough to be a threat
to civilian aircraft.
Anecdotally, a source
said, some pilots said the secon
interfered with their sensors,
and some pilots claimed
not to have seen
any identifiable propulsion.
Though U.S.
officials could not
confirm those details,
but not much else is clear.
As both the U.S.
and Canadian government
try to recover remnants
and figure it all out.
What we do know is that U.S.
officials are on high alert
for high flying objects
after the discovery of the spy b
Last night, the FAA briefly shut
Montana airspace
after the military detected a, q
radar anomaly.
But pilots sent to investigate
did not identify any object in t
Joining us now, the chairman of
Intelligence Committee
Mike Turner of Ohio.
Chairman Turner,
thanks so much for joining us.
What can you tell us?
What were the second and third o
that the military shot down and
where did they come from?
Yeah, well, I certainly don't kn
As the administration is saying,
they don't know.
They do appear somewhat trigger
although this is certainly prefe
to the permissive environment
that they showed
when the Chinese spy balloon
was coming over
some of our most sensitive sites
I think one thing that this show
is certainly the fallacy of the
of the Biden administration
saying that
the height of the Chinese
balloon caused them to have no c
because certainly, as we know,
whatever goes up can come down.
And just saying that this Chines
balloon was high
and these are lower
and therefore they actually pose
a hazard, really? Is that a diff
Are you comfortable?
Are you glad that they were
that they shot down these two ob
Because obviously you
and other Republicans
were critical further
that the Biden team
took as long as they did to shoo
the object.
That was clearly a Chinese spy b
Sure. As I say,
I would
prefer them to be trigger
happy than to be permissive.
But we're going to have to see
whether or not this is
just the administration trying t
to change headlines.
But what I think this shows,
which is probably more important
to our policy discussion here,
is that
we really have to declare
that we're going to defend our a
and then we need to invest.
What's been come
clear in the public discussion
is that we don't really have ade
radar systems.
We certainly don't have
an integrated missile defense sy
We're going to have to begin
to look at the United States air
as one that we need to defend
and that we need
to have appropriate sensors to d
This shows some of the problems
and gaps that we have.
We need to fill those as soon as
because we certainly now ascerta
there is a threat.
Do do you think
the second and third object
down on Friday and Saturday were
on America and Canada?
Is it possible
they were just weather balloons
or something else that was that'
Yeah. You know, it's interesting.
When the Department of Defense g
its first statement on this,
if you noticed,
there was a word slipped in ther
that you certainly didn't hear.
When the Chinese spy balloon was
the United States,
and that's the word corporate of
So even the Department of Defens
is saying
a very broad net
as to what these things might be
But it shows a renewed interest
in renewed dedication
to defending the United States a
Certainly
the United States
this administration now needs to
that it will defend its airspace
which, of course, is
going to be difficult
for an administration
that has has difficulty
controlling the ground
sovereignty to declare air sover
But we need to do so.
When do you expect to get briefe
as chairman of the House
Intelligence Committee?
You know, this is particularly a
about this administration,
that the Biden administration
needs to stop briefing Congress
through our television sets
and actually come
and sit down and brief us.
What we're seeing here
is a number of announcements
by the administration
without any real information
being given to Congress.
This could be
because they don't have any info
from the press conference we saw
It does seem like they took this
without a real understanding
for what they were going after.
But having declared it
a hazard, we'll see
as the information comes to Cong
But I do think that there needs
to be more engagement
between the administration and C
Probably they're a little hesita
after the Chinese balloon fiasco
where they let it
go across the country
to great criticism,
bipartisan, bicameral
criticism from Congress.
Have objects like these always
been moving in and out of U.S. a
And we're just now
learning about them with
with new technology
and shooting them down?
Or do you think this is a
new recent development?
I think it's certainly a
new recent development.
That you have China
being so aggressive in
in entering other countries airs
and doing
so for clear intentions
to spy
with very sophisticated equipmen
I mean, the very scale of this b
and of the technology
that was deployed by China
in spying on the United States
is is unprecedented.
No other nation has anything lik
and no other nations attempted i
But certainly there are things
at times
that come and go from our airspa
that we track, that we try to de
if it's going to be a threat
that don't rise
to the level
of the very large,
sophisticated Chinese spy buildi
A source
briefed on the intelligence said
that some of the pilots
said the object interfered
with their sensors was on the pl
I think this is the second objec
shot down over Alaska on Friday.
Interfered with their sensors.
Not all the pilots reported that
but some did.
Some pilots
also claimed to have seen
no identifiable propulsion on th
and could not explain
how it was even staying in the a
What do you make of those report
Well, you know, at this point,
they are just reports.
So we'll have to wait
until we get the final informati
But because this thing was shot
we have an ability to do the for
to do the exploitation of it
when it's found.
And that will answer
a lot of our questions.
And also getting the data
from the various planes, their s
what they actually were seeing
or not seeing,
in addition to what the pilots s
will be really important.
But there's going to be
a number of questions to answer
The big point is that
this is time for the United Stat
to take this
as a turning point, to invest
we need more sophisticated radar
We have them.
We just don't
have them deployed to protect
until the United States,
an integrated missile defense sy
We've helped invest
in Israel, having integrated
missile defense system.
We don't have one ourselves.
This is a turning point
where we need to discuss this is
and how do we respond to it.
Let's turn to talk about the lat
in the classified
documents investigation.
We just learned that last month,
President Trump's team
apparently turned over
more classified records from Mar
a Lago,
including a laptop and thumb
drive with classified pages
that had been uploaded by an aid
from Trump's political action co
or the chairman of the House
Intelligence Committee.
Is this acceptable to you
and are you worried
that an outside
aid from Trump's
political action committee
had possession of these document
Yeah, I just don't get this, Jak
I don't get it with Biden,
Pence or Trump.
All of them
keep finding documents
that are classified stuff places
I just I have no understanding o
I can tell you
that members of Congress who lik
deal with highly classified info
and the Intelligence Committee
of the Armed Services Committee,
they're the Foreign Affairs Comm
We're all just stopped.
We don't understand
how this could be happening.
We do understand
how all three could have been
so like two days ago about this.
These are incredibly important d
They are not to be taken lightly
And we're just amazed as people
keep finding them stuff
in the strangest places,
like behind Biden's Corvette.
This is this is clearly a failur
of an understanding of how to
to handle the import.
These documents,
there is legislation
now that have been dropped in Co
that will make it even more diff
give different penalties
to be able to enforce
mishandling classified documents
It's all coming from this.
People are just shocked.
I want to ask you before you go,
Russia just launched yet
another major round of missiles
into Ukraine.
On Friday, its first major assau
in weeks.
As President, Zelensky
is still pleading with the U.S.
for more help.
And yet, at the same time,
almost a dozen
of your fellow House Republicans
issue introduced a resolution
to halt
any more
military or financial help for U
What do you say
to those individuals in the Hous
Republican Conference?
And are you worried at all
that this marks
the beginning of the end of U.S.
support for Ukraine?
Yeah, as you know, both on the l
the left
the Democrats sent a letter to p
saying that we should immediatel
negotiated a settlement
and then withdrew it.
Putin's still here.
Is that even though it's withdra
And then you have the far right
saying the same thing.
But luckily,
they do not add up to the majori
of Congress.
The majority of Congress
understands that this is crucial
We are fighting
on the front lines of democracy.
The fact that
Zelensky has been as president,
they will rally his country
to fight against Russia.
We've been able to arm them
is really unprecedented
that a nation like that
could stand to a superpower like
But they're doing so
with the commitment
to to
keep the sovereignty of their na
And Russia's
atrocities are just appalling.
Anyone who sees what Russia is d
is killing innocent civilians,
destroying the infrastructure
there has to be moved
to want to support the Ukrainian
I'm very disappointed in those
who don't see the importance of
All right.
The chairman of the House
Intelligence Committee, Congress
Mike Turner of Ohio,
thanks for joining us this morni
Thank you.