CNN Newsroom: Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) Discusses About Recent Objects Shut Down In The U.S.
Interview
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Well, we were briefed, of course, on the balloon over South Carolina and, obviously, China's unacceptable provocative actions there. And what we learned, of course, administration in terms of the intelligence gathering, we have not learned anything additional on what's been in the public space on these last three objects, so - Alaska, and Canada and Michigan, so we should be getting a classified briefing, I presume, and we've asked for it in the coming days, but that's where we are right now.
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I mean, I agree with Jim. I mean, I've spoken to him, I think that what would be constructive here and as you pointed out, we've heard more from the administration today. We've heard from the Secretary of Defense, and from the White House National Security Council, those are good steps. It'd be good to hear from the White House more or the President about exactly what's the - what the process has been here and what we're learning and what their strategy is.
Because the point is when you don't give information, there's lots of misinformation out there and I think the public, obviously, and I've heard from a lot of my constituents, they want to know what exactly is going on here, what threats are out there. And these are obviously different instances, but the military has taken action. I'm glad we've taken action. I really commend the military and the guard for being decisive. I think that's the right steps. But I think we need to hear more and learn more.
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Well, I think it's good action that we heard from the Admiral and that we're hearing from the Secretary Defense, those are all good steps. I haven't heard the full briefing yet from the Secretary of Defense if there's any more details out there and I heard him cut off a minute ago on your program.
But the bottom line is this, whether it's the President or the White House or others, we need more information out there because it'll - people are concerned. But the bottom line is this, I think it's good that we took action against - decisive action against China. I think it's good that we're taking action here, especially if aviation's threatened. Obviously, that's the right steps, but we need to know more information.
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I mean, I've - as I mentioned, I've asked for a briefing to learn more and in the meantime, unless the administration makes that information public, I - we haven't learned anything more and specifically where they're from. But the bottom line is, we know this. What they have said is they were - at 40,000 feet or below threatening aviation, so I think that's - we clearly made the right decision. But obviously we're going to and I'm sure they're learning more as they collect the debris and figure out exactly where they're from and what was involved in those payloads.
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I agree that it's unhelpful, but I think it's really important that we keep channels open. I think dialogue is critical. But we have to understand if they took an - they take an aggressive action here, unacceptable and provocative with the balloon.
And - but it's important that we keep talking and - but make it clear to them and I think it was the right decision that Secretary Blinken canceled his trip. We make it clear to them that this is unacceptable. And when - and I'm sure that that's the dialogue that's going on right now.
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Well, I agree with them that it's something we should look at. I mean, I'm - I've had legislation on this where clearly they're using TikTok to both - there's no protection, there's not a lot of protections for kids. There's a lot of information we know they're stealing, the Chinese government, through TikTok and so - and a lot of privacy concerns overall and especially with our children.
So I think we need to aggressively look at and make some decisions here with TikTok and I don't disagree with the actions and states and federally to ban it from devices, I think that's the right move.
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Thanks for having me.
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