Republicans criticize Biden for waiting to shoot down Chinese balloon

A U.S. Air Force fighter jet on Saturday shot down the balloon off the coast of South Carolina, a week after it first entered U.S. airspace near Alaska, triggering a dramatic spying saga that has further strained American-Chinese relations. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Saturday the U.S. military was able to collect "valuable" intelligence by studying the balloon, and that three other Chinese surveillance balloons had transited the United States during the presidency of Biden's predecessor Donald Trump, something Republican Trump denied.

Republican U.S. lawmakers on Sunday criticized President Joe Biden for waiting days to shoot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon as it floated over the United States, accusing him of showing weakness toward China and initially trying to keep the breach of U.S. airspace undisclosed. A U.S. Air Force fighter jet on Saturday shot down the balloon off the coast of South Carolina, a week after it first entered U.S. airspace near Alaska, triggering a dramatic spying saga that has further strained American-Chinese relations.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Saturday the U.S. military was able to collect "valuable" intelligence by studying the balloon, and that three other Chinese surveillance balloons had transited the United States during the presidency of Biden's predecessor Donald Trump, something Republican Trump denied. Republican Tom Cotton, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee said: "We should have shot this balloon down over the Aleutian Islands," where the balloon first entered U.S. airspace over Alaska on Jan. 28. "We should never have allowed it to transit the entire continental United States."

Cotton told the "Fox News Sunday" program that he believed Biden, a Democrat, had waited to disclose the penetration of U.S. airspace because he wanted to salvage Secretary of State Antony Blinken's planned diplomatic trip to Beijing, which ultimately was postponed. "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.

BIDEN ORDER Biden said on Saturday he issued an order on Wednesday to down the balloon after it crossed into Montana, but the Pentagon recommended waiting until it could be done over open water to protect civilians from debris crashing to Earth from nearly twice the altitude of commercial air traffic.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, on CNN's "State of the Union" program, said Biden's approach safeguarded Americans on the ground. "The president called for this to be dealt with in a way that balanced all of the different risks. That's exactly what happened," Buttigieg said.

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," Schumer told a news conference. The Pentagon will brief senators on the balloon and Chinese surveillance on Feb. 15, Schumer said.

PREVIOUS SIGHTINGS Trump on Sunday disputed Austin's statement that Chinese government surveillance balloons had transited the continental United States briefly three times during his presidency.

"China had too much respect for 'TRUMP' for this to have happened, and it NEVER did," Trump wrote on social media. Speaking on Fox News Channel's "Sunday Morning Futures" show, Trump's former director of national intelligence John Ratcliffe also denied such balloon incidents.

But 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. Republican Mike Turner, chairman of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, said he believed China was using the balloon to figure out how to counter U.S. nuclear weapons and missile defense systems.

"The president has allowed this to go across our most sensitive sites and wasn't even going to tell the American public," Turner said on NBC's "Meet the Press" program. "There was no attempt to notify Congress, no attempt to put together the Gang of Eight (bipartisan group of congressional leaders). I think this administration lacks urgency." Republican Marco Rubio, vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told the ABC News program "This Week" that China was trying to send a message that it could enter U.S. airspace. Rubio said he doubted that the balloon's debris would be of much intelligence value.

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." Washington rejected that explanation.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)