Jon Tester

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

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

I want thank you all for being here today for this very important briefing.

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

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

Thank you, Senator Collins. One of the things that was brought up, and then I am probably going to wrap it up, unless you have more, Susan Collins, is that you spoke about communications, Mr. Royal, with China.

A violation of airspace is a violation of airspace, and to know absolutely that this was of no military threat to us.

I have got a problem with a Chinese balloon flying over my State, much less the rest of the country.

I do not remember hearing about anything that dealt with balloons in the budget.

So we knew what they were looking for?

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

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

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

Why didn't we shoot the previous ones down and gather intelligence from those?

Did we know what the Chinese were trying to collect with that balloon?

Last week was a sober reminder of just how petty and divided our politics have become.

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.

I think it is a huge threat.

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.

That scares the hell out of me.

Did we know what that balloon was trying to gather?

I want thank you all for being here today for this very important briefing.

We don't understand because, quite frankly, we have been briefed in this committee over, and over, and over again about the risk that China poses, both economically and militarily.

I put a lot of faith into the Military leadership.

If we waited to shoot this one down over water why didn't we shoot the last ones down over water?