Former President Donald Trump denied claims that Chinese balloons entered U.S. airspace on at least three occasions under his watch, stressing it “NEVER” happened.
While decrying the current balloon scandal as a “disgrace,” Trump criticized his successor and postulated that Biden’s allies peddled information to the media to deflect criticism over the president’s handling of situation with China.
MTG SAYS TRUMP WOULD NOT HAVE LET CHINESE SPY BALLOON ENTER US, OFFICIALS SAY OTHERWISE
“The Chinese Balloon situation is a disgrace, just like the Afghanistan horror show, and everything else surrounding the grossly incompetent Biden Administration,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “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!”
Military leaders have confirmed that a high-altitude suspected surveillance balloon from China entered U.S. airspace on Jan. 28 and drifted through U.S. and Canada for about a week until it was shot down off the Carolina coast on Saturday. Senior Pentagon officials allege that there were at least three occurrences under Trump and another prior one under Biden, the Associated Press reported.
What remains unknown is the extent of the four other alleged intrusions. The latest balloon floated across the continental United States, including portions of Middle America. It is unclear whether the prior alleged instances were minor infractions or breaches on the scale of the latest one.
A handful of former Trump administration officials have also denied knowledge of a similar instance of a Chinese balloon hovering through the continental U.S., including former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, and Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe.
Pentagon Press Secretary Pat Ryder alluded to previous encounters with Chinese balloons in a statement Thursday.
“Instances of this kind of balloon activity have been observed previously over the past several years. Once the balloon was detected, the U.S. government acted immediately to protect against the collection of sensitive information,” Ryder wrote in a statement.
China has rebuffed claims that the balloon was intended for surveillance purposes, insisting it was a civilian aircraft that served meteorological purposes and happened to breeze close to sensitive military outposts. Beijing also denounced the decision to blast it.
Trump joined a growing chorus of Republican detractors who have lamented that the Biden administration’s decision not to move faster to blow up the balloon. Some critics such as Sen. Ted. Cruz (R-TX) have also highlighted the fact that the military did not disclose the balloon’s existence until after it was spotted by civilians.
“On the balloon, I ordered the Pentagon to shoot it down on Wednesday as soon as possible [for safety],” Biden told reporters Saturday. “They successfully took it down.”
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Pentagon officials defended the timing of the strike against the balloon, explaining that they waited until it was off the coast of the continental U.S. to avoid causing any harm to civilians from the debris.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken postponed his trip to China amid the developments. Biden is set to deliver his State of the Union address Tuesday.
