Republicans decided for some reason to run with the idea that the balloon originating with Chinese authorities and believed to be used in espionage operations should have been shot down earlier — when it was over U.S. land, at which point it would have been unclear how accurate officials could have been in trying to ensure nothing impacted those on the ground. Portions of the equipment were bigger than a bus, and the eventual debris field over water was seven miles.
Available details indicate that U.S. authorities were actually able to protect against the possibility of the balloon allowing China to gather particularly substantial intelligence, at least beyond what is ordinarily collected. That obviously majorly undercuts the idea that the Biden administration was rhetorically flying blind and makes you wonder why some of these Republicans were so melodramatically insistent on shooting it down as the first response above others. Did they even consider the possibility of other options for addressing the threat through other and more doable means before shooting it down became a possibility?
“We could track the exact path of the balloon and ensure no activities or sensitive unencrypted comms would be conducted in its vicinity,” an official in the Biden administration described in CNN as senior in status said this week. “The U.S. military took immediate steps to protect against the balloon’s collection of sensitive information, mitigating any intelligence value to the PRC.” Legislators brought information about the situation were apparently informed similarly, according to CNN. “The officials told lawmakers that the US has assessed that little new intelligence was gleaned by the Chinese balloon operation because the Chinese appeared to stop transmitting information once the US learned of the balloon, in addition to US measures to protect sensitive intelligence from China’s spying operations, according to the sources,” that outlet reported.
Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) was notably supportive of the Biden administration’s response, saying: “I believe that the administration, the president, our military and intelligence agencies, acted skillfully and with care. At the same time, their capabilities are extraordinarily impressive. Was everything done 100 percent correctly? I can’t imagine that would be the case of almost anything we do. But I came away more confident.”
Details including reports from CNN, Fox, and the Defense Department indicate there were similar incidents during the Trump administration that simply went apparently undetected — and therefore unaddressed according to the course of action the Biden administration undertook last weekend. Trump has predictably claimed otherwise, which Fox noted in some of its reporting saying at least one such incident nevertheless took place, clearly wrecking the implication from Trump he had special knowledge proving what happened.
