Even as President Joe Biden attempted to bask in the glory of finally downing the infamous Chinese spy balloon, officials ripped the White House’s delay.
The president told reporters that he “ordered the Pentagon to shoot it down on Wednesday as soon as possible.” The decision was made to wait, however, out of caution that the debris could cause damage or injuries on the ground.
Biden went on to “compliment our aviators who did it.”
It has been widely reported that U.S. officials were quite aware of the balloon’s crossing into American airspace on Jan. 28. It was decided to withhold the news from the public, however, to avoid complications for Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s planned visit to China.
The military tracked it from when it was spotted over Alaska, while it flew into Canadian airspace, and then back into American skies on Tuesday.
JOE MUST GO – The American People Lost All Trust in Biden Due to His Connections with China – The Spy Balloon Proved It https://t.co/6STDiHVONM
— The Gateway Pundit (@gatewaypundit) February 5, 2023
Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), a member of the Intelligence Committee, released a statement saying Biden should have had the balloon shot down “over remote areas of Alaska or Montana.”
House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Greene (R-NC) added to the barrage of criticism. He declared it “indefensible that this threat was eliminated only after great public outcry and the damage to U.S. national security and American sovereignty was already done.”
Greene called the delay in action another demonstration of weakness by the White House.
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX) emphasized that the president needed to confront the threat prior to it being a national security issue.
McCaul pledged that he will insist on answers “and will hold the administration accountable for this embarrassing display of weakness.”
And Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) reasonably questioned if the spy balloon would have been shot down if the word did not leak out to the American people.
Even Democrats reluctantly found fault with the White House’s anemic response to the Chinese spy balloon. Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) said “the Chinese government’s incursion into our airspace is unacceptable and we need to treat it as such.”
She added that there should be repercussions for Beijing other than merely the postponement of Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s scheduled diplomatic visit.
A strong and immediate response was needed to show the Chinese communists that the U.S. will not stand for threats to its national security. Unfortunately but at the same time predictably, that did not come from the Biden White House.
