Republicans criticize Biden for waiting to shoot down Chinese balloon

Incredible Biden let that balloon float across the US.

It could have been shot down over the Aleutian Islands, but instead this administration fumbled around while the CCP took photographs of key military installations and nuclear missile launch sites across the country.

"The bottom line here is that shooting down the balloon over water wasn't just the safest option, but it was the one that maximized our intel gain,"

Makes a lot more sense than asking local gun nuts on the ground to start shooting at something 11 miles up in the air.

If in doubt, blame Trump.

The main reason this Spy Ballon from China was not shot down earlier is because we had to show the world what China is doing not only to America but to the world.

China is a bully. We have to show the world that China thinks it can bully everyone. The world saw the balloon over America and now every country is looking up.

Things are coming for China.

But hang on here a sec.

We come to find out that the same type of balloon from the same CCP over flew the US THREE TIMES under the former guy and not only did he not do anything then afterwards or anytime, he didn't inform the public of it either.

In other words, he covered it up.

Chinese "spy" balloon = manufactured crises and the folks who push it. (see above)

invalid CSRF

AND.....

The US was able to learn about methods and operating systems while protecting against electronic surveillance AND humiliated the CCP publicly.

I know that the Dotard's worshipers haven't seen this so they don't recognize it, but that is called a "win."

This is no big deal. Surveillance flights happen all the time. China are putting up Yaogan 35 spy satellites all the time. Where is the drama about that?

The pathetic GOP criticizes whether or not they knock down the globe, for them, the most important thing is to attack the government party, which continues to slow down the development of the country.

In any case, the world ridicule of the US, again, this time knocking down a weather balloon with an F22 and a sidewinder of more than 80,000 dollars, a pathetic and shameful decadence...

With Trump or Biden US continues to show its weakness and fading to the world, it is a kind of small Roman empire in the 5th century..

In any case, the world ridicule of the US, again, this time knocking down a weather balloon with an F22 and a sidewinder of more than 80,000 dollars, a pathetic and shameful decadence...

But I bet it was real fun!

In this week's GPS podcast Fareed Zaharia asked former CIA and FBI official Philip Mudd to rate the significance of the surveillance threat of the Chinese balloon and Mudd gives it a 2 out of 10. The analyst actually found it more interesting how the Office of the President and Congress are now so dysfunctional during a potential time of crisis.

The main reason this Spy Ballon from China was not shot down earlier is because we had to show the world what China is doing not only to America but to the world.

China is a bully. We have to show the world that China thinks it can bully everyone. The world saw the balloon over America and now every country is looking up.

Sure, let's justify the incompetence by showing the world that the only bad guys are China..

China was bullied in the opium wars thanks to the colonialism of the UK that was joined by the US.

The real world bully has been the US since 1776..

Things are coming for China.

Of course Bruce, China produces 80% of the products in the world.

An aim 9 runs about 380k USD or there abouts for the most updated model.

You could bother to get your facts in the ball park before the default anti-America rant.

And it was still totally worth it and cost effective in terms of the information gained vs. The risk and the cost.

And yes, I bet it was a lot of fun.

Best unemployment numbers since May 1969, Santos, GOP eating itself…. not difficult to see why the republicans are desperately trying to push this non issue. It happened 3 times under Trump, who did … nothing. Pathetic really.

A bunch of looney tuned

Imagine the US sending balloons over China and the Chinese response?

The Chinese are taking liberties and incursions over the US should be dealt with appropriately.

There you have it…

Three of these types of Chinese balloons entered American airspace during Trump's term.

Why didn't Trump do anything about the balloons that flew over America during his presidency?

And if don Dotard' is such a super hero like in his Photoshop NFTs, how come he didn't shoot the balloon down with his laser beam eyes????

I saw one comment that President Trump would have used Christian space lasers.

incredible Biden let that balloon float across the US.

It's really incredible that the prime ministers of Japan and Canada let that balloon float across their countries without doing anything at all. Right?

I saw one comment that President Trump would have used Christian space lasers.

I don't understand why Q doesn't just fix all this. Apparently it's all simple.

Still sticking with the experts and not emotional Republicans on this one.

Having checked out the flightpath of this balloon, it's quite puzzling how Japan were not the first to alert the Americans in this regard, as it passed through the southern reaches of Japan. I'm hoping nobody was asleep on the job in the early-detection Self-Defense Force......

Trump denies the ballons just like he did with his election failure.

 Trump said in a post on his Truth Social site. “They are only good at cheating in elections, and disinformation — and now they are putting out that a Balloon was put up by China during the Trump Administration, in order to take the ‘heat’ off the slow moving Biden fools. China had too much respect for ‘TRUMP’ for this to have happened, and it NEVER did. JUST FAKE DISINFORMATION!”

Maybe the Baby Trump balloon will be flying over China

a disclosure the Republican former president denied

Which means it's true.

As is expected, Republicans are the biggest hypocrites ever and would rather side with communist China then Democrats.

The party of traitors, who would have thought that the biggest "patriot" flag waivers would be against protecting US sovereignty.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, said of the Republican criticisms: "they are premature and they are political."

Schumer said downing the balloon into the ocean likely enables U.S. intelligence officials to examine its remnants.

"The bottom line here is that shooting down the balloon over water wasn't just the safest option, but it was the one that maximized our intel gain,

yup. I realize Tom Cotton sees pretty much everything as an opportunity to blow something up, but I’d reckon the Coast Guard was waiting to pick up all the good stuff intact.

once again Tom, I’d recommend you watch some Peter Zeihan vids on YouTube before you talk about Biden being in the service of Beijing

China on Sunday condemned as an overreaction the U.S. action against what Beijing called an airship used for meteorological and other scientific purposes that had strayed into U.S. airspace "completely accidentally" - claims rejected by U.S. officials.

A win for misdirection.

The alt-right gets to rail against their neo-liberal bete noires that they are lax in protecting the homeland.

And China can point to a hysteric reaction about supposed data leakage and spying while American shareholder-centered capitalism (which many who rail against Trump and the right in this thread will support) is doing a great job of outsourcing masses of American machine-learning data feeding to China and its mercantalist managed market economy.

https://techcrunch.com/2022/07/06/meta-sues-chinese-companys-us-subsidiary-for-scraping-facebook-and-instagram-data/?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAADPWBG5BnZDna3WBdfXY1h69E7onS90IaxNtTn11sfc5_jA7dQ4FMb9eid8vaewVSyGNdJWkM6XYdEyhEERtJoVM0bpzUV0Gz3nVSEwoYOMdtBCUktdA40ntX1i9FRPIjaPRX8p94VZU-o259NUmXmxNaT9fpkqcjXw7kC6Pzfk7

Bravo..

These Republicans are clinical insane,they do not discuss the true issues that matters to America ,most of it is imaginary and contrived

Well............trump allowed 3 Chinese balloons to fly over the US during his presidency. One more reason why he is the worst president in American history.

Chinese balloons flew over US three times during Trump administration: officials

https://thehill.com/policy/defense/3844511-chinese-balloons-flew-over-us-three-times-during-trump-administration-officials/

It seems only the Republicans regularly support or capitulate to people like Puti, Xi, and lil Kim! There are Americans, and there are the people who supported actions like Jan. 6.

Unlike trump, Biden showed strength by shooting the balloon and patience by waiting after it was safe for Americans.

Meanwhile, U.S. officials told Fox News on Sunday that a Chinese spy balloon crashed into the Pacific off the coast of Hawaii four months ago. Those officials said that at least one Chinese spy balloon flew over portions of Texas and Florida during the Trump administration.

Oh, my...............

Chinese spy balloons over US during Trump admin 'discovered after' he left office: senior Biden official

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/chinese-spy-balloons-over-us-during-trump-admin-discovered-after-he-left-office-senior-biden-official

The GOP are looking for any chance and opportunity to Shoot Down Biden and the Democrats as they have NO one to run for 2024 but the crook trump.

The shamelessly reprobate Republicans must be desperate nitpicking the timing of Biden's decision (and that of others who advised him) to shoot down the balloon (of little threat to national security) whereas they have twisted themselves into pretzels rather than shoot down their own orange blimp that even two years after the half-baked coup is still hovering over the political landscape causing untold damage to the country and soiling its reputation around the world.

The GOP response will somehow include banning drag shows.

This is so much fun !

Please China send an even bigger balloon next time !

A spy balloon hahaha lmfao

People will believe anything these days

hello team , just focus on blaming the Trump...... So that we can hide our weakness and failure .....

Yes yes yesesss

The balloon is actually made by Trump and Maga ... The put Chinese name and flew our heads ..

We need to control social media ... Even before our administration finds the social media was running a live show of the balloon ... This is not allowed. They have better ability than our Biden team ..

how can we divert the people attention from balloon to Trump..

Give some suggestions my brothers ...

Please . please ..

Yep and Biden hid that another balloon from CCP has crashed near Hawaii during his time in office.

transparent huh.

Lol yeah someone probably hacked the balloon .

Dr evil my guess buwahahaha...buwahahahaha

I believe this will be the last time China will send a Balloon over the U.S. mainland, this was brazen attempt to test the U.S. response and if they try again it will probably be shot down way off the coast of Alaska.

Not one democrat/liberal can answer why the balloon was not shot down over the Aleutians?

Can see why Biden is so attractive a candidate!

And what was it, like 7 days that balloon drifted over the US, taking pictures, penetrating the country's defenses. Sending that info back to the CCP.

China gained a lot of intelligence from this administration's unintelligent response.

“Republican Representative Michael Waltz backed up Austin, telling the Washington Post that the Pentagon had notified Congress that Chinese balloons were spotted near the United States several times during Trump's tenure. He said balloons had been spotted near Texas and twice near Florida, as well as previously known sightings near Hawaii and Guam.”

uh huh, I see why no link.

https://www.newsweek.com/trump-never-informed-chinese-balloons-pentagon-congressman-1779069

He is being told by the Pentagon NOW that they confirm it happened back THEN. not confirming that he was told during the Trump admin when it supposedly happened.

The congressman continued in another tweet: "And according to several Trump Admin national security officials - they were never informed of these intrusions by the Pentagon."

even liberal fan favorite John Bolton says NOPE

John Bolton, who previously served as a national security adviser to the Trump administration, similarly told Fox News Digital on Sunday that he could "say with 100% certainty" that no balloons were spotted while he served in the White House. He added that he had not heard of such incidents after leaving the position.

Trump is mentioned five times in the article.

Biden should’ve taken quicker action. But his his pusillanimity towards China makes better sense when you remember Biden said of China “I mean, you know, they’re not bad folks, folks. But guess what? They’re not competition for us.”

U.S. Retired General Barry McCaffrey stated on NBC today that ""This is one of the most Bone Headed Moves by Chinese intelligence in the last 50 years"" .

RKL

Not one democrat/liberal can answer why the balloon was not shot down over the Aleutians?

Because there was no reason to shoot it down over the Aleutians. It posed no threat.

And what was it, like 7 days that balloon drifted over the US, taking pictures, penetrating the country's defenses. Sending that info back to the CCP.

You do realise, they know where it is going? So they were able to hide sensitive things, and most likely plant some misinformation in the process. It's called counterintelligence.

RKL

China gained a lot of intelligence from this administration's unintelligent response.

They didn't get squat.

near Texas and twice near Florida, as well as previously known sightings near Hawaii and Guam.”

near and near and near.

the Pentagon did not even define whether than meant within our claimed airspace and territorial waters or not.

they dont know, because it never happened.

So about the other one that did happen that crashed. why did Biden never tell us about it until now?

Shooting it down allows the Chinese to have the moral reason to reciprocate. China and your other adversaries now know you are vulnerable and have a knee jerk reaction.

The Tom Cotton likes are simply cowboys without much senses. The administration did exactly what they were supposed to do.

Blacklabel

So about the other one that did happen that crashed. why did Biden never tell us about it until now?

Because it's a big nothing-burger. It has no importance whatsoever.

Because there was no reason to shoot it down over the Aleutians. It posed no threat.

so at what point during its 7 day journey over our sensitive military areas did it become a threat?

let me guess, when the people saw it in the sky. they werent supposed to see it, thats why Biden hid it until then.

Not one democrat/liberal can answer why the balloon was not shot down over the Aleutians?

"American military officials on Thursday said they had detected a “high-altitude surveillance balloon” launched by China floating in the skies of Montana, causing a diplomatic panic that led Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken to postpone a planned trip to Beijing."

Answered.

and have a knee jerk reaction.

10 days for Biden to even decide what to do is knee jerk?

its more like he got caught hiding it and had no other option politically.

It was quite clear he didnt want to, due to his close connections with the CCP.

they might be angry at him now.

its more like he got caught hiding it and had no other option politically.

Do you think he should have hidden it like Trump?

And if he loses the next election over this weather balloon, do you think he should overthrow democracy like Trump tried? After all, you did support Trump trying to overthrow democracy in 2020, and still do...

(Just so everyone here knows what we're dealing with)

It's been said numerous times that the balloon didn't provide intelligence that Chinese satellites didn't already have.

Once again I'll go with the experts and not emotional Republicans.

It was quite clear he didnt want to, due to his close connections with the CCP. 

they might be angry at him now.

Interesting speculation. What happened recently?

It's been said numerous times that the balloon didn't provide intelligence that Chinese satellites didn't already have.

Once again I'll go with the experts and not emotional Republicans.

The above is the actual real world answer to this issue.

"On February 2, 2023, the U.S. Department of Defense and the Canadian Department of National Defence announced that the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) was tracking a high-altitude surveillance balloon believed to belong to China. The balloon was then flying at an altitude of 60,000 feet (18,000 m) over the northern U.S."

Blacklabel

Because there was no reason to shoot it down over the Aleutians. It posed no threat.

so at what point during its 7 day journey over our sensitive military areas did it become a threat?

None.

As usual, the GOP supporters are way off-target with their info.

Former CIA Operative, Tracey Walder also stated on NBC today that she thinks this Balloon was collecting Nuclear Signatures, Radiation Signatures, Radar Signatures and yo need a low flying aircraft to do it, a balloon will do the job since satellites are too high to collect this data.

2020hindsightsToday  09:40 am JST

Not one democrat/liberal can answer why the balloon was not shot down over the Aleutians?

Because there was no reason to shoot it down over the Aleutians. It posed no threat.

So if no threat, why shoot it down--after it crossed the US--over the ocean off the coast of SC?

And what was it, like 7 days that balloon drifted over the US, taking pictures, penetrating the country's defenses. Sending that info back to the CCP.

You do realise, they know where it is going?

Did they? Biden claims he did not find out about the balloon until it was over Montana. For non-Americans--Alaska is a US state, and most of the Aleutians are part of that state.

So they were able to hide sensitive things, and most likely plant some misinformation in the process. It's called counterintelligence.*

Then why did Biden want to shoot it down when it was over Montana?

No, it's not called counterintelligence. Counterintelligence tries to prevent spying, not allow it.

Total nonsense story. Another distraction from what really matters to the world.

Maybe it was been guided,by all these Chinese Wifi routers

so maybe this is another one of those things that Gen Milley talked about secretly on the phone with his CCP General buddy and never told anyone about.

So whats the end game if it did happen during Trump and a balloon was near us and he was never told and it had never been mentioned and no one else knew until yesterday?

Does that take the heat off Joe for letting one clearly float over our military for 7 days while hiding it and doing nothing? plus he hid the on that crashed.

does this justify Biden lack of action in a totally different situation?

nope.

RKL

Not one democrat/liberal can answer why the balloon was not shot down over the Aleutians?

Because there was no reason to shoot it down over the Aleutians. It posed no threat.

So if no threat, why shoot it down--after it crossed the US--over the ocean off the coast of SC?

To study and scrutinise the ballon to gain intel from it.

No, it's not called counterintelligence. Counterintelligence tries to prevent spying, not allow it.

Yes. So a part of counterintelligence is giving your enemy misinformation that they think is intelligence. It's highly likely the US intelligence did this here.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Saturday ... that three other Chinese surveillance balloons had transited the United States during Donald Trump's administration

Though I'm quite conservative, I'm not always the biggest Trump fan -- but I call baloney on this one.

Trump had lots of enemies in "the swamp," especially within the military and intelligence communities -- and if something like that had happened while he was president, the "swamp creatures" surely would have made sure we knew about it.

One of CNN's "anonymous sources" would have been saying, "Trump knew about Chinese balloons but didn't do anything about it!"

This surely would have come out during the 2020 campaign, at least. Such a revelation would have politically devastated Trump. So why didn't it come out then?

It just seems way too "convenient" for the Biden administration to suddenly be making this claim about Trump now.

You have to admit, the memes have been awesome!

This whole China balloon story has really shown the Repubs for the craven, hypocritical, fools they are.

It once again proves that no matter what our enemies and adversaries do, the Repub party will side with them against our own government. They are already in Russia's back-pocket, now China - expect them to cozy up to The Mullahs and KJU next. More "love letters".

Viktor Orban is their new hero - because they can't say "We love Putin" out loud.

The American people look at this Repub clown show in disgust - which will be reflected clearly at the polls in 2024 - where once again, expect howls of "rigged" when they lose in mass.

Hakman

One of CNN's "anonymous sources" would have been saying, "Trump knew about Chinese balloons but didn't do anything about it!"

That would be unlikely. Because nobody in CNN would think that it was worthy of news, and definitely not something that would affect a political campaign.

Two things that Putin and Xi are good at - playing and manipulating the US far-right to turn against their own government.

China doesn't need balloons to collect intel - their space-based assets are fully capable. But they could send a balloon with a couple old refrigerators underneath and watch the Repubs go apoplectic - which as we've seen with the far-right meltdown, is exactly happened.

Putin and Xi just smile as they pull the strings and watch all the Repubs dance to their tune.

its more like he got caught hiding it and had no other option politically.

It was quite clear he didnt want to, due to his close connections with the CCP. 

they might be angry at him now.

Gee Blacklabel, they must be very unhappy with him about this then…

your BS is embarrassing to read.

https://www.reuters.com/technology/biden-blacklist-chinas-ymtc-crackdown-ai-chip-sector-2022-12-15/

Stranger : The above is the actual real world answer to this issue.

:No, is not.

"I think part of it is the president's reluctance to take any action that would be viewed as provocative or confrontational towards the Chinese communists," Cotton added.

Nailed it.

2020hindsightsToday  10:02 am JST

Not one democrat/liberal can answer why the balloon was not shot down over the Aleutians?

Because there was no reason to shoot it down over the Aleutians. It posed no threat.

Did the Biden administration issue such statement? Because that concept would contradict Biden wanting to shoot it down over Montana.

So if no threat, why shoot it down--after it crossed the US--over the ocean off the coast of SC?

To study and scrutinise the ballon to gain intel from it.

Back to the Aleutian Islands scenario--it could have been shot down then. If it wasn't a threat when floating over Alaska and didn't need to be shot down, then when did it become a threat? And if it didn't, then no need to shoot it down over SC.

No, it's not called counterintelligence. Counterintelligence tries to prevent spying, not allow it.

Yes. So a part of counterintelligence is giving your enemy misinformation that they think is intelligence. It's highly likely the US intelligence did this here.

No, and if the US wanted to give China misinformation then why did Biden want to shoot the balloon down over Montana? Or it is he was not aware of the idea to give China misinformation (if the US even did that)?

Gotta face up to it--this administration let the CCP walk all over the US with their satellite balloon almost as egregiously as the administration allows illegals to enter this country to freely walk the streets.

"I think part of it is the president's reluctance to take any action that would be viewed as provocative or confrontational towards the Chinese communists," Cotton added.

Nailed it.

Nailed nothing and Cotton is a corporate conservative shill clown.

China now owes much more to Lee Kuan Yew and neo-liberalism now than Marx.

And it makes them all the more potent and dangerous than if they were actually socialists.

Repubs are ignorant. Shooting down the balloon in the frigid cold waters off Alaska would have made recovery near impossible. Same with downing it over the Rockies or a dense forest or even in Canada. Biden made the right call. Debris path was over 7km long.

It’s incredible the republicans criticizing the military for not shooting this down earlier because it’s the military who will decide when to shoot it down, so that it is safe. Missiles, bullets, and debris fall down on places and people. Said the republicans when China flew how many balloons over the US while Treasonous Trump was in in control. FFS, support your military and say great job! Shooting it downs easy, now, where the debris lands is a different problem.

Hard to believe the people here that are against shooting down the balloon in the first place and so Anti-American .

Hard to believe the people here that are against shooting down the balloon in the first place and so Anti-American .

Criticising Biden and the US military is Pro-American?

hear this, Biden gave the military the green light to shoot it down when it was safe and they did,

did you hear the statement form the Defense dpt, there were at least 3 spy balloons that crossed the US under president Trump, he did nothing. the hypocrisy form the right is pathetic LOL

maybe those Ivanka trademarks were at risk. LOL

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HClgjyUrWY

Not one democrat/liberal can answer why the balloon was not shot down over the Aleutians?

not one maga/ republcian can explain why Trump didnt shoot down at least 3 spy ballons during his presidency, yes it is a fact and has been confirmed by the Defense dept. so any excuses!?

RKL

Because there was no reason to shoot it down over the Aleutians. It posed no threat.

Did the Biden administration issue such statement?

Yes.

https://www.defense.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/Article/3288543/f-22-safely-shoots-down-chinese-spy-balloon-off-south-carolina-coast/

Back to the Aleutian Islands scenario--it could have been shot down then. If it wasn't a threat when floating over Alaska and didn't need to be shot down, then when did it become a threat?

It never became a threat.

And if it didn't, then no need to shoot it down over SC.

To gain intelligence from the balloon. I said this before.

Yes. So a part of counterintelligence is giving your enemy misinformation that they think is intelligence. It's highly likely the US intelligence did this here.

No, and if the US wanted to give China misinformation then why did Biden want to shoot the balloon down over Montana? Or it is he was not aware of the idea to give China misinformation (if the US even did that)?

The shoot down of the balloon is to gain intelligence. The counterintelligence is what they allowed the balloon to see.

Gotta face up to it--this administration let the CCP walk all over the US with their satellite balloon

There is no evidence of this.

Hard to believe the people here that are against shooting down the balloon in the first place and so Anti-American 

the facts actually show Biden gave the military the go ahead to shoot it down when it was safe to do so.

they shot it down over the ocean. did Trump shoot down any of the at least 3 spy ballons that flew over the US, nope

There's funny and then there's this! Even at the height of the Cold War the US military communicated with Soviet Union military brass. There is a long tradition of acting professionally with other militaries. That doesn't mean you have to like them.

so maybe this is another one of those things that Gen Milley talked about secretly on the phone with his CCP General buddy and never told anyone about.

Schumer said downing the balloon into the ocean likely enables U.S. intelligence officials to examine its remnants.

Why not shoot it down over the waters off the coast of Alaska?

As opposed to, you know, letting the CCP take a virtual tour of the US from Montana to the Atlantic coast.

This same kind of thing happened three times when Trump was president, and he didn’t do anything.

at least three Chinese balloons passed over the US during trumps administration. Of course the GOP only has a one-sided perspective of life which is we can do no wrong, but don’t you ever do a minor wrong.

So Trump let three of these float around over the US? Aw my gawd! Like that’s terrible like.

The strong confident war president Biden shot it down!

Yeah!!!!

China needs to build about 10,000 of these balloons and stop wasting money on satellites and space stations.

gawd!

at least three Chinese balloons passed over the US during trumps administration. Of course the GOP only has a one-sided perspective of life which is we can do no wrong, but don’t you ever do a minor wrong.

Proof? The Dems can’t show any this happened, and the deflection is just not helping Joe.

Trump hid a great many items besides the stolen classified documents. Like his tax returns which show he in fact didn't donate part of his salary which he claimed when was president. He's like a fortune cookie. Crack one open and find another.

Now the balloon was in US airspace for three weeks. Stop watching Faux news. Biden didn't shoot anything down.

So is Biden a warmonger or not? You keep changing your mind.

Sure there is.

Where? If it’s there, the Dems and the media could prove it. What, you think we’re just going to take their word on it? Lol

Trump and several members of Congress came out and said he was never informed of the balloons, which probably isn't true either. It's likely he was briefed on it, but was too lazy to read the briefings as previously reported.

Ok, show us verifiable and indisputable truth first, if you can’t then it’s more leftist garbage.

Proof? The Dems can’t show any this happened,

Defense dpt confirmed it in a statement, go look it up.

I know how difficult it is for the GQP to look up the actual facts.

The Biden administration is willing to brief former Trump officials on newly discovered intelligence that China sent spy balloons into U.S. airspace during their time in charge.

The offer, described by senior Biden administration officials on Sunday night, comes as former President Donald Trump and senior members of his national security team say they were never briefed on such an incursion by a Beijing-sent aircraft.

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/02/05/trump-officials-deny-chinese-spy-balloons-00081257

Oh this is getting good. Trump is going to be forced to do one of two things;

Admit he was lying when he said he was never briefed on these three balloon incursions that occurred on his watch.

Or admit that his administration was so inept that it didn't even know the balloons were there or the info was misplaced.

I'd put my money on No. 1 - Trump knows his flock doesn't care if he's caught flat out lying - it's happened so many times already.

Trump is mentioned several times in the posted article.

I'd put my money on No. 1 - Trump knows his flock doesn't care if he's caught flat out lying - it's happened so many times already.

It goes from never happened, to who cares pretty damn quick.

but he's a weak pacifist for failing to shoot down a Chinese balloon filled with hot air...

Without a doubt.

Oh this is getting good. Trump is going to be forced to do one of two things;

Admit he was lying when he said he was never briefed on these three balloon incursions that occurred on his watch.

Radcliffe debunked that.

Or admit that his administration was so inept that it didn't even know the balloons were there or the info was misplaced.

Radcliffe debunked that as well and now the left has…..

but the defense dept is the woke left deepstate

yet Trump increased funding to the deepstate Defense dpt. LOL

Trump had a bad habit of ripping up reports and documents and throwing them in the trashcan without reading them. His staff had to retrieve them and stick them back together. Three of them were about Chinese balloons.

Oh this is getting good. Trump is going to be forced to do one of two things;

Admit he was lying when he said he was never briefed on these three balloon incursions that occurred on his watch.

Radcliffe debunked that.

Just like Trump, he is either lying or was so incompetent, he didn't know - I'd vote for No 2.

Or admit that his administration was so inept that it didn't even know the balloons were there or the info was misplaced.

Radcliffe debunked that as well and now the left has…..

See above.

but he's a weak pacifist for failing to shoot down a Chinese balloon filled with hot air...

Without a doubt.

On this thread, on the Ukraine thread you say he's a warmonger. ROFL.

So if Chinese balloons flew over the US on Trump's watch, what do you have to say about that?

the balloon traveled unhindered over sensitive U.S. nuclear missile sites, and that he believed China was using it "to gain information on how to defeat the command and control of our nuclear weapons systems and our missile defense systems."

Scary.

So the US has a leader who lets the CCP send satellite balloons over the US' military installations and nuclear silos.

Just wondering if China would find any of that information garnered useful, you know, for getting an idea of how strong the US' detection capabilities are (well, we know its weak at least over Alaska), placement of nukes and so forth. Just in case China were to use that information for something that might threaten the US somewhere in the world.

Not an issue?

Oh, then just let the balloon blow across the ocean and over Europe. No need to shoot it down, right? Because it wasn't a threat,