#shorts a reporter asked White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby, “Had you seen this story in Aviation Week that an Illinois hobby club feels like their balloon might have been a candidate for the balloon shot down a week ago?

MR. KIRBY: I have. I’ve seen that press report.
Reporter: Any response to that? Because it’s a very particular location in the last set of data that they got.

MR. KIRBY: Yeah, we just can’t confirm those reports …

Reporter: … an anecdote like this, does it make any sort of reconsideration of perhaps this was an overreaction at any point over the past week?

MR. KIRBY: So, I’d ask you, just for a second, put yourself in his shoes …

Reporter: But it — and just last — a follow-up on that. Everything you just said, can that coexist? Let me rephrase: Was there any feeling of frustration of perhaps this was a 12-dollar hobby balloon from a group of kids in Illinois, after the fact?

MR. KIRBY: Again, given the information that we had at the time and the legitimate concerns about potential

On 2/17/2023, John Kirby told reporters that Biden launched a $439,000 missile to pop a $12 balloon near Alaska — but insisted that it was “exactly the right thing to do” either way. Kirby faced the press one day after the Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade said its silver party-style balloon may have been one of three unidentified objects that Biden ordered shot down this past weekend.

other clips of this published longer video is here: https://youtu.be/8H5cTJhpB6A
Top Biden Spox John Kirby Won’t Say If Biden Regrets Shooting Expensive Missiles At “Benign Objects”