I understand the desire to not overhype any given event, to keep perspective and look at history, and the desire to not overreact to every provocative act taken by a hostile government.

But I found this claim from an unnamed source to NBC News’ Richard Engel odd.

First, there’s more to Montana than cattle. As discussed in today’s Morning Jolt, Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana is one of three U.S. Air Force Bases that operates, maintains, and secures the U.S. arsenal of Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles. And we’ve got a lot of other nuclear missile silos and military bases in adjacent states.

The rest of the U.S. government is not acting like this is just a psyop and not a real surveillance threat. If a Chinese surveillance balloon slows down and lingers over U.S. military bases, as the Pentagon described, I would expect the U.S. to treat it as a big deal! The Pentagon scrambled F-22 Raptors from Nellis Air Force Base to track the balloon, and contemplated attempting to shoot it down. They held on-the-record briefings. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is postponing — but apparently not cancelling — a trip to China, which was scheduled for next week.

This is all a big reaction for something that is just some Chinese psychological operation rather than a real surveillance threat.