CAPEHART: “Why is — why is the American military shooting something out of a sky over Canada?”
Jean-Pierre: “Because it is part of NORAD, there is — NORAD is part of like a — part of — it’s a — it’s what you call a coalition.”
CAPEHART: “A consortium.”
Jean-Pierre: “ — a consortium — “
CAPEHART: “A pact of nations.”
Jean-Pierre: “A pact, exactly. So that’s why we were able to do it. Again, we didn’t do it on our own, we did it in — in — clearly in step with Canadia — Canada.”
[It still doesn’t answer the question. NORAD is a joint military defense effort between Canada and the US to observe North American airspace, but Canada’s forces usually defend their own air space. If they asked us to intervene on their behalf, that’s no problem, but did they? Or did we intrude into their airspace? Capehart’s question is a good one, if not a terribly difficult one to answer. Larry O’Connor and I have a brief laugh over this in today’s Off the Beaten Path, coming up at 6 pm ET. — Ed]
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