David Ignatius is a consistently good and informative read. This column is not really an exception. But it’s notable that Ignatius feels the need to kick off with a classic “to be sure” sentence — “an embarrassment for the Biden administration, to be sure” — before going on to explain that shooting the balloon down over the ocean was the most logical course of action and that it will likely yield more intelligence for the United States than for China.

What an embarrassment!

But with so much attention to it I thought it made sense to put together what we actually know and where the story is at.

We officially have an absurd debate over Chinese surveillance balloon toughness. Yes, this is now a thing. A slew of Republicans today lashed out at President Biden for not shooting down the balloon just as the Pentagon carried out his orders to do so. The balloon was shot down by an F-22 firing a sidewinder missile just off the coast of South Carolina.

This was followed by new claims that President Trump never would have allowed a Chinese balloon into U.S. airspace at all. Rep. Joe Wilson, a notorious goober who represents a district in South Carolina, declared: “The catastrophic Chinese Spy Balloon spectacle clearly threatened American families from Alaska to my home community in South Carolina and confirms President Biden and Vice President Harris should resign.”

But according to a Pentagon press release out this afternoon, Chinese surveillance balloons entered U.S. airspace at least three times during Trump’s presidency. He not only didn’t shoot them down, he also, it would seem, kept it a secret.

This week, we obtained leaked audio that gave us a peek at the chaotic way decisions are made inside fabulist Rep. George Santos’ office, and published an in-depth profile of his attention-grabbing chief of operations, Vish Burra. TPM’s Josh Kovensky discusses both pieces on All In with Chris Hayes.

Watch below.

I was half joking in the post below about the unidentified high-altitude balloon over Costa Rica. But the Pentagon now says that it believes that balloon is another Chinese surveillance balloon. WTF?

I’ve been sort of mystified by the apparent Chinese spy balloon over Montana. It seems highly provocative for relatively little intelligence payoff. And it happens at a time when both countries appear to be attempting to at least stabilize tensions. But TPM Reader JS points out that there seems to be another unauthorized and unidentified balloon currently over Costa Rica. Weird!

It seems like the White House may have some clarifying to do about just what came out of this week’s first meeting between President Biden and Speaker McCarthy. The statement from the White House seemed pretty clear. They’re ready, eager to negotiate budget issues separate from the debt ceiling, which has to be passed without conditions. This I think has always been the actual and proper position and the one I noted back on Monday was worth reiterating.

I’m not sure the George Santos stories keep getting worse. But they do get weirder, more bizarre.

As we learned way back at the beginning of the Santos saga, he remains a wanted man in Brazil for check fraud he committed back in 2008. After he became an international celebrity in December, Brazilian authorities decided to reinitiate the case which had stalled when they couldn’t locate him. After the case was reopened, Santos hired a Brazilian lawyer to represent him in the revived case. Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised, since it’s George Santos, that he managed to find a lawyer who’s a convicted murderer. In fact, he’s a convicted contract killer.

JUST IN: Leaked Audio And Staff Dispute Show Chaos Inside George Santos’ Office 

Great new George Santos story coming soon from our team.

A new episode of The Josh Marshall Podcast is live! This week, Josh and Kate discuss Donald Trump’s chances in 2024 and the latest on Republicans’ flirtation with debt default.

You can listen to the new episode of The Josh Marshall Podcast here.