Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS), the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, slammed the Biden administration for its handling of the Chinese spy balloon on Saturday, which was successfully shot down Saturday afternoon.
Wicker claimed the White House owed the American people an “apology” for its lack of transparency on the balloon and stated that allowing the vessel to fly across the United States showed weakness.
BIDEN SAYS ‘WE’RE GONNA TAKE CARE OF IT’ IN FIRST COMMENTS ON CHINESE SPY BALLOON
“Allowing a spy balloon from the Communist Party of China to travel across the entire continental United States before contesting its presence is a disastrous projection of weakness by the White House,” Wicker said. “It is clear that standard protocol for defense of U.S. airspace was ignored.”
Wicker added: “If press reports are correct, the Biden Administration hoped to hide this incident from the American people from the start. The White House owes Congress and the American people answers about this failure, and I intend to get those answers without delay.”
The Pentagon said on Thursday that it was monitoring a balloon over Billings, Montana, that it had “very high confidence” belonged to China. The balloon is movable and is located about 60,000 feet above the United States. The balloon traveled across the U.S. this week, to the Carolinas on Saturday where it was shot down.
Although Republicans supported shooting down the balloon, critics of the president claimed it should not have had to travel to the Atlantic ocean before doing so.
“The balloon should have been shot down before it crossed the continental United States, not after,” Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) said in a statement. “We still don’t know what information was collected and where it was sent. This was a dereliction of Biden’s duty, and let’s hope the American people don’t pay a price.”
Other conservative members of Congress have asked to open an investigation into the administration’s response to the balloon, which it admitted had unlawfully invaded U.S. airspace. Sens. Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Eric Schmitt (R-MO) are both calling for answers about the Chinese balloon, including why it was not shot down when it was first detected in the U.S.
Defense officials claimed they considered shooting the craft down before Saturday, however due to the estimated size of the balloon, roughly three bus-lengths, and the possibility of damage to people and property on the ground, they determined it would not have been safe.
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The Pentagon confirmed it identified a second spy balloon it believed belonged to China making its way through Latin America, but because it is not in U.S. airspace, little information on the balloon is known.
