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Three Chinese spy balloons entered the US during the Trump administration but were never shot down or publicly disclosed.
Reporting the latest Chinese balloon shot down off the South Carolina coast on Saturday, The US Department of Defense He said three more of these vessels “briefly transited the continental United States at least three times during the previous administration.”
The revelation stunned Mark Esper, the former defense secretary, and comes as Trump and other Republicans claimed he would have shot down the balloon while calling on Joe Biden to resign over the stalled attack on the spacecraft.
One such Republican was US Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who tweeted Saturday: “Just spoke with our GREAT President of the United States, Trump. He would never have allowed China to fly a spy balloon over our country and our military bases and assets.
‘Pres Trump would have shot it down before it entered the US.’
The Defense Department reported that three Chinese spy balloons entered US airspace during the Trump administration, a revelation initiated by the former president’s own defense secretary. Trump (left) has chastised Joe Biden (right) for not immediately firing on the ship when he first found out about it last week.
US Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene was among the Republicans who claimed that Trump would have shot down the balloon if he had been president.
Trump called for the balloon to be shot down and said that when he returns to the White House, he will use the FBI and the Justice Department to hunt down “Chinese spies.”
According to a senior Pentagon official, three balloons came to the US during the Trump years, but never for as long as the one that recently flew across the country.
The balloon reportedly entered the US last week from Canada, hovering over Montana, which is home to nuclear silos, as it headed southeast before flying off the coast of South Carolina.
esper said CNN that he was ‘shocked’ by the Pentagon’s statement, saying he was never told about Chinese surveillance balloons entering the US when he served between July 2019 and November 2020.
“I never remember anyone walking into my office or reading anything about the Chinese having a surveillance balloon over the United States,” Esper said, adding that he would “remember that for sure.”
Biden first became aware of the balloon on January 28, when it was spotted over Alaska. The US military tracked him over Canadian airspace and when he re-entered US territory on Tuesday.
Fearing the debris could hit ‘sensitive’ areas as it traveled across the country, officials warned the president not to shoot it down until it was flying over the ocean.
US officials confirmed that an F-22 Raptor fighter jet shot down the balloon with a single AIM-9X sidewinder missile at 2:38 p.m. Saturday, off the coast of Myrtle Beach.
However, the belated response drew the ire of Republican officials, criticizing Biden for not immediately complying with the order to shoot down the balloon.
US Representative Joe Wilson and Senator Josh Hawley condemned the Biden administration over the balloon incident, with Wilson calling on the president to resign.
US. Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina said that both Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris should resign because of the fiasco.
“The catastrophic Chinese spy balloon show clearly threatened American families from Alaska to my home community of South Carolina and confirms that President Biden and Vice President Harris should resign,” Wilson said in a tweet.
“It is irrelevant to American families which party is in power because a leader’s first criteria should be ability regardless of party, and sadly, Biden and Harris are failures,” he added.
US Senator Josh Hawley had called for a hearing against Biden over the “great threat to internal security”.
He tweeted: “Homeland Security Committee needs to have public hearings NOW on Chinese spy balloon – how did Biden let this happen?”
Other Republican officials weighed in on the issue, warning that waiting to shoot down a Chinese spy balloon showed only weakness.
Senator Tim Scott echoed the outrage of his colleagues, saying that allowing a CCP balloon to fly over the United States “is the embodiment of weak leadership.”
‘Weakness tempts aggressors. The force stops them,’ he tweeted.
Senator Marsha Blackburn also questioned the decision to shoot down the balloon only after it was made public.
“Makes you wonder if Biden’s Defense Department would have shot him down if the American people hadn’t found out,” he tweeted.
Mike Pence, Trump’s former vice president, tweeted: “Shoot down the Chinese spy balloon,” then called on US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to condemn the surveillance incident at their now-cancelled meeting in Beijing.
Republican officials have not publicly commented on the revelation that such balloons were found during the Trump administration.