Republicans are warning that a suspected Chinese spy balloon that has been spotted hovering over the northern United States poses a threat to national security and are calling on President Joe Biden to shoot it down.
Biden asked for military options to deal with the balloon, but the Pentagon decided not to shoot it down because of fears that the debris could injure people on the ground, officials said Thursday. A Pentagon official said the balloon was traveling “well above commercial air traffic and poses no military or physical threat to people on the ground.”
However, some GOP lawmakers have called for a tougher approach.
“Biden should shoot down the Chinese spy balloon immediately. President Trump would never condone that,” Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said. he posted on Twitter on Thursday.
Representative. Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.), who previously served as Interior Department secretary under Trump, added: “Shoot. This. Below. The Chinese spy balloon is a clear challenge. In Montana we don’t fold. We shoot it down. Take a shot.”
Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) also sent a letter to the Pentagon concerned about the disruption to civilian traffic in his state. “The administration has failed to secure our border and now it has failed to secure our skies,” Daines wrote.
Trump took to his own social media site shortly after, writing in a send: “Knocking the ball down.”
The heated rhetoric is just the latest chapter in Republican efforts to paint Biden and other Democrats as soft on China. Others include attacks on Biden’s son Hunter for his business ties to China.
A defense official told The Associated Press that the spy balloon was trying to fly over US missile fields in Montana, but the US considered it of “limited” value in providing China with information it could not already obtain by other means. , as it were. through espionage. satellites.
On Friday, China admitted the balloon was theirs, but called it a “civilian ship” that blew up off course.
“The Chinese side regrets the unintentional entry of the aircraft into US airspace due to force majeure. The Chinese side will continue to communicate with the US side and properly handle this unexpected situation caused by force majeure,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry said. She said in a statement.
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