- White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre defended the president’s decision to shoot down a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon, which Republicans say should have happened immediately after the orb was discovered in US airspace and Beijing has called an overreaction. “What China did was unacceptable. We protected civilians and we gained more intel while protecting our own sensitive information.”
- Previewing Biden’s speech tomorrow, Jean-Pierre said Biden has been “heavily engaged” in the writing process. He spent the weekend huddled with advisors and speechwriters fine-tuning the remarks, which she said he saw as an important opportunity to speak directly with the American people about his agenda. “There’ll be no question that this is a Joe Biden State of the Union speech,” she said.
- Read the rest of the story at The Guardian