As the Chinese spy balloon starts to make its way east and get close to the Atlantic ocean, Bloomberg News reported that the Biden administration knew it was approaching the west coast of the U.S. for about a week. Why wasn’t that made public? Apparently the White House was hoping that nobody would notice:
As it turns out, US authorities were well aware of the unidentified object that had entered American airspace on Jan. 28, that had then left and re-entered over North Idaho on Tuesday. But with such a high-profile trip at stake, keeping it on the down-low was key.
By the time the thing became visible in Montana, President Joe Biden had already been briefed and the White House was scrambling to decide whether to blast it from the sky.
The gravity of the situation was only exacerbated by Montana being home to Malmstrom Air Force Base, which houses a large portion of the US’s Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missiles.
[…]
For now, the White House opted not to inform the American public. Events, however, soon forced Biden’s hand.
Earlier today President Biden said “we’re gonna take care of it” in response to a question about the balloon. Maybe that has something to do with why the FAA is keeping commercial air traffic out of the area as the balloon starts to head out over the Atlantic:
FAA ground stop at CHS, MYR, ILM airports (in the vicinity of the #spyballoon) amid reports the US is considering plans to shoot it down once it reaches open water. pic.twitter.com/FnT1o9Whl7
— Jacqui Heinrich (@JacquiHeinrich) February 4, 2023
Add it all up and former Obama adviser David Axelrod sees the Right doing some unjustified pouncing:
Whatever else the China balloon has done, it certainly has provoked a lot of hot air from a lot politicians and conspiracy theorists and right-wing media personalities who don't know diddlysquat and have no responsibility for the security of the country or safety of people.
— David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) February 4, 2023
As usual, now imagine that take if this happened when Trump was in office.
"Let me explain why the problem is my political opponents and not the hostile foreign nation's spy technology flying over the country unabated." https://t.co/1vhL7QEtGb
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) February 4, 2023
The threat of an adversary invading our airspace with “whatever else the Chiba balloon has done” is not the problem, it’s you right wingers responding to it!
— TheRightWingM 🇺🇸🇺🇦 (@TheRightWingM) February 4, 2023
Republicans are pouncing and seizing again!
It’s your fault for noticing Joe’s incompetence https://t.co/KbTpBY3Kph
— Keith Maniac, Online Safety Expert (@from_maniac) February 4, 2023
Hey, we got caught flat-footed and look completely flummoxed once again, but the real problem is the people pointing it out https://t.co/YM0NB1T93a
— patrick (@TN_Patricoa) February 4, 2023
They couldn’t be more predictable.
***
Related:
Biden finally comments about the Chinese spy balloon over U.S.
MSNBC’s Chris Hayes is trying to think of a reason to care about the China spy balloon story
Somebody broke Bill Kristol: You have to see his crazy Chinese spy balloon tweet
