Biden was briefed about the balloon in late January. He decided to shoot it down on February 1st after senior military officials advised against doing so right now. The president agreed with that decision and let it cross through Kansas, North Carolina, South Carolina and into the Atlantic. Navy and Coast Guard vessels are coming to pick it up and then they'll assess it for what they can glean from it.
The balloon crisis is blown up. Politico’s Alex Ward deflates it for us.
This episode was produced by Amanda Lewellyn, edited by Matt Collette, fact-checked by Miles Bryan, engineered by Paul Robert Mounsey and Patrick Boyd, and hosted by Sean Rameswaram.
Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained
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