Current Events > Chinese spy balloons flew over US airspace 3 times during Trump administration

(+) Yeah! (+)

sorry if this was already posted:

A balloon US officials are calling a Chinese surveillance tool spent days flying over the continental United States before it was shot down by an F-22 fighter jet on Saturday.

Pentagon leaders advised President Joe Biden against immediately shooting the flying orb out of the sky due to safety concerns for civilians as the high-altitude object was large enough to create a large debris field, a senior defense official who spoke on background told reporters Thursday.

The dayslong spectacle saw many Republicans criticize the Biden administration for what they viewed as a slow response to the foreign object, while some conservative leaders and pundits took the opportunity to pick at confidence under the Biden administration in general as they claimed no other leader such as Donald Trump would have let a Chinese spy balloon fly over the US.

"Would Trump have let China fly a spy balloon over our country?" Rep. Jim Jordan wrote on Twitter. "Would Reagan? JFK? Truman? No, no, and no."

But senior Pentagon officials said on Saturday that suspected Chinese surveillance balloons crossed into the US at least three times during the Trump administration and once earlier in the Biden administration, the Associated Press reported.

The senior defense official who spoke on background also said "a balloon of this nature" crossed over the continental US before the Biden administration but declined to specify when.

"It's happened a few times in recent years to include before this administration. But beyond that, I'm not going to go into the details," the official said.

It's also unclear if balloons spotted during the Trump administration were shot down. A Pentagon spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

Craig Singleton, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told the AP that Chinese surveillance balloons were sighted several times in the past five years. Some of them have been spotted near US military bases in Hawaii, he said, though he did not specify when.

Trump on Thursday shared a post on Truth Social from rightwing activist Jack Posobiec, who claimed without evidence that the Pentagon was saying "the quiet part out loud. The CCP [Chinese Communist Party] can send spy balloons over our nuclear silos and we will do nothing."

In a statement to Fox News, Mississippi Republican Sen. Roger Wicker claimed that "if press reports are correct, the Biden Administration hoped to hide this incident from the American people."

However, the times when suspected surveillance balloons crossed into the US under the Trump administration were never made public until this past week's incident.

South Carolina Republican Senator Tim Scott also chimed in and tweeted that "the balloon should have been shot down before it crossed the continental United States, not after," adding that the incident was a "dereliction of Biden's duty."

It's unclear what information the suspected Chinese spy balloon could have gleaned from its various positions. The Montana area the balloon flew over houses the Malmstrom Air Force Base which has intercontinental ballistic missiles.

US officials said the balloon poses little threat in terms of what intelligence it might gather.

The specific dimensions of the device were not disclosed to the public, but one senior official told ABC News that it was estimated to be the size of three buses.

A differing factor in this past week's balloon incident that the senior defense official did acknowledge is the length of time the object has been around.

"It is appearing to hang out for a long period of time this time around, more persistent than in previous instances. So that would be one distinguishing factor," he said.

https://www.businessinsider.com/conservatives-blame-biden-chinese-spy-balloon-crossed-into-us-trump-2023-2?amp

Even if Trump came out and said "Yes, in fact several of them crossed the country during my term as President." They'd love him the same and not say anything about it.

Strider102 posted...

Even if Trump came out and said "Yes, in fact several of them crossed the country during my term as President." They'd love him the same and not say anything about it.

He'll just say something stupid like that's how our great relationship works, or we have nothing to hide from them, and they'll est it up anyways

It only happened 3 times because Trump put a stop to it. Youre welcome.

Ask yourself why it's news now but it wasn't news then

"liberal media"

But did they even inform Trump about it?
They hid so much information because they were scared of what he would do.

Lol

I say we increase the defense budget by a few billion and send a armada of balloons to China

Expect a tweet from Donnie in the coming hours explaining how him and his best friend Goose shot down all 3 of these balloons and the illegitimate Biden administration doesn't want anyone to know how big of a Maverick he is, but he has a box of classified documents at Mar-A-Lago detailing his exploits.

So we know china has been doing this for a minute, we know what the balloons look like, the us government is saying they're pretty basic and not even really worth dealing with.

I think that last part is the weakest part of the story, and I suspect there's quite a bit more going on. Unfortunately I know fuckall about international spying, so I dunno how to unpick the story further.

Turtlemayor333 posted...

Ask yourself why it's news now but it wasn't news then

"liberal media"

I get the same vibes with the George Santos story. Why did it take until after he won to find out he was a liar. Either the media holds back info for blackmail or they or incompetent that they miss these stories.

boxoto posted...

But senior Pentagon officials said on Saturday that suspected Chinese surveillance balloons crossed into the US at least three times during the Trump administration and once earlier in the Biden administration, the Associated Press reported.

I just read title. I saw that in OP wtf so this is the fifth ballon 3 under Trump. One previously under Biden and the media/Government didnt say anything until now.

They only needed this one.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/1/0/AAZjY6AAEJ3y.jpg

That's more balloons then Biden! He has the most balloons the biggest balloons really Maga

This is gonna get brought up so much during the debate next year.

What's also funny is that if we don't have multiple satellites spying on China right now, I'll eat my hat.

Tim scott has just revealed he is far too incompetent to hold his office.

Pretending we don't know about surveillance methods literally allows us to send unlimited amounts of counter intelligence disinformation and manipulation.