As Mr. Carlson notes, everything about the Biden administration’s claims, reversals, contradictions and justifications surrounding the China spy balloon is ridiculous in the extreme. All of it, just plain nuts. WATCH:
.
This is so stunningly incredulous, and transparently politically orchestrated, it’s laughable.
The U.S. Intelligence Community (IC) defended the actions of the Biden administration last Saturday by saying three Chinese spy balloons had previously been deployed during the Trump administration. However, President Trump and all national security heads including Mike Pompeo (CIA), Richard Grenell and John Ratcliffe (DNI) denied ever hearing about these balloons.
To reconcile the claim of historic Chinese spy balloon operations, against the denials and absence of briefings for the Trump IC officials, the current Intel Community (and Biden Administration) are now claiming they only discovered the prior balloon flights *AFTER* President Trump left office.
Oh, and due to national security issues, the IC cannot explain how they found out after the fact.
Yes Alice, that’s their story, and they’re sticking to it.
WASHINGTON DC – The Biden administration is willing to brief former Trump officials on newly discovered intelligence that China sent spy balloons into U.S. airspace during their time in charge.
The offer, described by senior Biden administration officials on Sunday night, comes as former President Donald Trump and senior members of his national security team say they were never briefed on such an incursion by a Beijing-sent aircraft.
“This information was discovered after the prior administration left. The intelligence community is prepared to offer key officials from the Trump administration briefings on [China’s] surveillance program,” one of the officials said. The official, along with several others, asked not to be named in order to discuss sensitive information.
The more I see how much attention was exhausted focusuing on the Chinese balloon, the more I am inclined to believe the attention was manufactured by internal deep state operatives.
Secretary of State Anthony Blinken cancelled his trip to China over the spy balloon issue, and beyond the general cancellation, he also cancelled a rare meeting with Chairman Xi. Xi never almost never meets with foreign ministers, only Presidents and Prime Ministers. So, what gives? Did the intelligence community expose the balloon crossing to stop the Xi/Blinken meeting? I don’t know, but something is fishy.
Former Director of National Intelligence (DNI) John Ratcliffe gives his .02 cents. Ratcliffe takes the position that it was an intended spy and surveillance operation by China, and it was successful. WATCH:
.
House Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI), Chairman Mike Turner (R-OH) appears on Meet the Press to discuss his perspective on the motive of China to send a massive surveillance balloon over key U.S. military facilities.
According to Chairman Turner, it appears (a) the balloon was designed to capture some intelligence that satellites cannot; and (b) the flight path of the surveillance balloon was steered to cover areas housing key the strategic military bases and missile defenses. WATCH (Transcript Below):
CHUCK TODD: Joining me now is the Republican Chair of the House Intel Committee, Mike Turner of Ohio. Chairman Turner, welcome back to Meet the Press.
REP. MIKE TURNER: Good morning, Chuck.
CHUCK TODD: All right. Let me start with what you know here. So the decision to take this down – what more have you learned? And you’re part of the so-called Gang of Eight. I don’t think you guys have gotten a personal briefing, but I know staff has. What more can you tell us about the take-down operation?
Interesting video capture appears to show the moment the U.S. military hit the Chinese surveillance balloon with some type of detonation.
3:15 P.M. EST – THE PRESIDENT: On Wednesday, when I was briefed on the balloon, I ordered the Pentagon to shoot it down, on Wednesday, as soon as possible. They decided — without doing damage to anyone on — on the ground. They decided that the best time to do that was as it got over water, outside — within our — within the 12-mile limit.
They successfully took it down. And I want to compliment our aviators who did it. And we’ll have more to report on this a little later.
Thank you.
Apparently, the Chinese surveillance airship has been taken out of commission inside the 12-mile range of U.S. territorial waters on the South Carolina Atlantic coast.
Delivering remarks to the press pool, Joe Biden confirmed the Chinese dirigible was taken down. According to his statement, Biden ordered the airship to be shot down last Wednesday (lol sure), but the military advised him to wait until it crossed the U.S. and could be taken down over water.
Several U.S. jet fighters were seen circling the coastline, and the FAA had shut down the airspace above the Atlantic near Myrtle Beach prior to the operation to remove or destroy the surveillance airship.
According to the Associated Press, Joe Biden is planning to shoot down the Chinese ‘surveillance’ balloon possibly later today when it reaches the eastern shore of the Atlantic Ocean.
The mumbling mumbler who mumbles said, “We’re going to take care of it”, when asked about the ongoing issue earlier today. WATCH:
(Via Associated Press) – WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is considering a plan to shoot down a large Chinese balloon suspected of conducting surveillance on the U.S. military, by bringing it down once it is above the Atlantic Ocean where the remnants could potentially be recovered, according to four U.S. officials.
Two of the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive operation, said President Joe Biden had given the go-ahead. In a brief remark Saturday in response to a reporter’s question about the balloon, Biden said: “We’re going to take care of it.”
Apparently, the Chinese spy balloon isn’t the first. Additionally, according to the Pentagon, there are several more floating around over various countries. All of that said, what exactly is going on here and why doesn’t anyone just get rid of it?
These and other questions are posed by Tucker Carlson who seems as confused as anyone else about what exactly the nature of these Chinese Balloon things are all about. WATCH:
It does seem a little silly that our entire media apparatus is fixated on a Chinese balloon which could simply be destroyed if that was what the U.S. government really wanted to do. It’s all a little odd at this point…
I mean, what the heck else is going on while everyone is fixated on this balloon.
WASHINGTON DC – Not everyone in Washington is freaking out about the suspected Chinese spy balloon flying high over the United States. Some former officials say it’s giving U.S. diplomats exactly what they need: more leverage over Beijing.
The Chinese airship forced the U.S. military to scramble fighter jets, prompted lawmakers to demand answers from the Biden administration and led Secretary of State Antony Blinken to indefinitely postpone his trip to Beijing this weekend.
In his customarily subtle way, where ‘subtle’ is like a brick through a window, President Trump delivers advice to Joe Biden about how to deal with Chinese Chairman Xi Jinping’s spy balloon:
Personally, I like the added emphasis with the exclamation point. However, now that President Trump has recommended this approach, the Biden team have to take shooting down the balloon off the table – or else they will look like they are following Trump’s advice. lolol
Some days I just miss the way he says, Chy-na.
Shawn Farash has some fun with this below:
This is a little goofy, and likely another expression of the Beijing dragon doing the propaganda dance. According to multiple media sources a high altitude “spy balloon” is drifting over U.S. airspace and the Pentagon has discussed options for shooting it down yet they didn’t.
It’s goofy because the balloon is floating well above commercial airline routes and, well, what could China capture via balloon that they are not already capturing via satellite surveillance. It’s just odd. {Direct Rumble Link}
I can understand not shooting it down – after all, that approach would likely then involve bits of the thing falling to the ground, which then would pose both a hazard and a need to collect all the debris. It seems more like a Beijing propaganda effort than an actual risk to any U.S. military interests.
.