Nick Schifrin:
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 shot 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.
Take a listen to Melissa Dalton, the assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense.
Melissa Dalton, U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense: If we had taken it down over the state of Alaska, which is part of the United States, it would have been a very different recovery operation.
A key part of the calculus for this operation was the ability to salvage, understand and exploit the capabilities of the high-altitude balloon.
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