I put a lot of faith into the Military leadership.

Montanans and folks all across this country value their freedom, they value their privacy.

This is going to happen again.

Make no mistake about it, what China did last week was completely unacceptable and a real threat to American sovereignty.

I will take on anyone to make sure China does not weaken our country.

Did we know what that balloon was trying to gather?

We are holding this briefing today because American public deserves to hear from the Department of Defense, not play politics with the National Security.

We have important responsibilities in that vein, and we will continue to do that, whether it is on Chinese threats to our airspace, or any other thing that deals with the Department of Defense.

I will take on anyone to make sure China does not weaken our country.

This Administration owes Americans answers, not only on what happened this past week, but also on what steps we are going to take to ensure that this never happens again.

the Committee on Veterans' Affairs has adopted rules governing its procedures for the 118th Congress. Pursuant to rules XXVI, paragraph 2, of the Standing Rules of the Senate, on behalf of myself and Ranking Member Moran, I ask unanimous…

So we knew what they were looking for?

Senator, thank you for being here, I look forward to working with you.

But in the end either China is a threat or it isn't. And I think it is a huge threat.

We have important responsibilities in that vein, and we will continue to do that, whether it is on Chinese threats to our airspace, or any other thing that deals with the Department of Defense.

It should not have been a surprise that China did this because nothing happened before, at least to our knowledge, nothing has happened before to them for these over flights.

I couldn't agree with you more, a hundred percent, and the fact is, they are the ones that violated our airspace.

Montanans and folks all across this country value their freedom, they value their privacy.