White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre nearly lost her cool over questions from New York Times correspondent Michael Shear, who repeatedly asked if President Biden is “embarrassed” that three “unidentified objects” shot down by fighter jets may have been nothing more than weather balloons.

“The National Weather Service website here says that 900 — that weather balloons are released around the world from 900 locations twice a day, every single day of the year, including 92 released by the National Weather Service in the U.S.; that they fly for at least two hours a day, drift as far as 125 miles, and cover — and rise up to 100,000 feet above the ground,” Shear prefaced his question.

“If it turns out, as it looks like, that the — that the President and Mr. Trudeau sent Top Gun fighters to blow weather balloons out of the sky, is the — does the President regret that? Is he embarrassed by that?” he asked.

“I’m not going to get ahead of what — of any final decision. We just don’t know yet. We actually just don’t know. And as I — as I’ve said, as my colleague has — has said, from NSC, it is — it is in consideration that that could be the leading explanation here again,” Jean-Pierre replied.

“And so if it is, does — is the President embarrassed by that,” Shear asked.

Some crosstalk occurred before Jean-Pierre insisted that she get to her full answer.

“Let me answer the question!” she snapped.

“I don’t think the President should be embarrassed — right? — by the fact that he took action to make sure that our air- — our airspace, civilian airspace, was safe. I don’t think that he shou-…” she began.

“But if there are 90 bal- — I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I apologize,” Shear interjected.

“No, but you’re — you’re — I’m answering the question. I am. I am answering the question. Right?” the press secretary said.

“The President took action because we did see that these — that these objects were in the airspace of — civilian airspace. And so, to protect the civilian airspace, the President took action. It is — and he took — he took recommendation by the Pentagon to take that action.”

Finishing her answer, Shear had another question.

“There’s a lot of criticism out there that — that what has — that what really drove the President’s decisions in the — in the latter three shootdowns was an overreaction, a political overreaction, to the criticism that he took on the Chinese spy balloon for waiting too long. In other words, that he was criticized for waiting too long in the first balloon, and so the reaction — the overreaction, the critics would say — is that he moved too quickly to shoot down the other ones before even knowing obviously what they were. How do you guys respond to that criticism?” he asked.

“I’ll respond to it this way,” Jean-Pierre responded. “Two diff- — two different things. Right? The Chinese surveillance balloon, completely different operation, if you will; complete different, you know, situation, if you will.”

“It was a balloon, as you all know, that was a Chinese surveillance balloon. We wanted — the President’s number one thing was to make sure that we kept American civilians safe. He took recommendations from the Pentagon, who told — who — who said that we should follow the path, and he agreed they follow the path. But he also said, the moment that they can, to shoot it down. And that’s what occurred.”

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)