Yes, Chinese Spy Balloons Flew Over The U.S. When President Trump Was In Office Too
By: Matt Novak (Forbes)
oops. it's starting to sound like biden is the only president in the last 5 years that allowed the US military to do their job.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Talking heads on cable TV are up in arms about the Chinese spy balloon that was floating across the continental U.S., before it was shot down Saturday afternoon. Conservative commentators have insisted President Joe Biden should've ordered the balloon be shot down earlier and that a foreign balloon flying over U.S. territory never would've happened under President Donald Trump. But it did happen under Trump, according to several new reports.
The Chinese government claims the balloon, which was first spotted by civilians on Wednesday over Billings, Montana, was actually just a weather balloon that was blown off course. But the Pentagon says it's definitely a surveillance balloon and China had the ability to maneuver the aircraft.
"I can nearly guarantee you that that balloon would not still be flying if we were still there," Mike Pompeo, former Secretary of State under Trump, told Sean Hannity on Friday.
But is Pompeo telling the truth? The Pentagon was quick to point out on Thursday that this kind of thing has happened before, though it didn't get into specifics.
"Instances of this kind of balloon activity have been observed previously over the past several years," Pentagon Press Secretary Pat Ryder said in a statement published online.
But several reports have been published in the past two days that give us a better sense of when spy balloons operated by New Cold War adversaries have sailed into U.S. airspace. Bloomberg News reported on Friday that Chinese balloons flew over the U.S. while President Trump occupied the White House.
"The balloon spotted this week over Montana was not the first time the U.S. has detected Chinese balloons over their territory—with previous incursions occurring during the Trump Administration," Bloomberg reported.
But an unnamed source from the Trump administration insisted to Bloomberg in that same article that it wasn't a big deal.
"One top national security official from the administration of former President Donald Trump said none of the Chinese spy balloons were near sensitive sites or had payloads as large as this one appears to carry," Bloomberg continued.
And if you can't trust an unnamed official who worked for Trump, who can you trust, right?
The Associated Press also has a new report that quotes a defense expert who said that Chinese spy balloons have been detected near sensitive sites in Hawaii, home to a large U.S. military presence, during the past five years.
"Craig Singleton, a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, said Chinese surveillance balloons have been sighted on numerous occasions over the past five years in different parts of the Pacific, including near sensitive U.S. military installations in Hawaii," the Associated Press reported on Saturday.
President Biden has been in office for two years, leaving three years of Trump's presidency in that window of five years.
The Wall Street Journal also independently reported that Chinese spy balloons have flown over the U.S. before, though didn't specify the era.
"China has sent surveillance balloons over the continental U.S. on at least a handful of occasions, U.S. officials said," the Journal reported on Friday.
In this photo provided by Brian Branch, a large balloon drifts above the Kingston, N.C. area, with ... [+] an airplane and its contrail seen below it. The United States says it is a Chinese spy balloon moving east over America at an altitude of about 60,000 feet (18,600 meters), but China insists the balloon is just an errant civilian airship used mainly for meteorological research that went off course due to winds and has only limited "self-steering" capabilities. (Brian Branch via AP)
And all of this still leaves open the possibility that other adversary aircraft have flown over the U.S. during the Trump years, aside from balloons. We still don't know why swarms of drones were flying over Colorado and Nebraska in December 2019 and January 2020. If you'll recall, President Trump was president at that time and we never got an answer to who was behind that.
Trump himself posted a video to Twitter yesterday, rambling about how the University of Pennsylvania might be compromised by Chinese spies, an accusation for which he provided no evidence. Trump, a known liar and continued threat to the safety and security of the United States, also called for a the U.S. government to shoot down the Chinese spy balloon.
Ignoring the incoherent ramblings of Trump for a moment, the Chinese spy balloon situation still left plenty of valid questions about what should've been done and when. Pentagon officials reportedly considered shooting down the balloon earlier this week, but didn't want to have debris hit anything on the ground. But the U.S. is a very large place with plenty of farm land. It seems illogical that there wasn't at least a stretch of land where the military could've safely forced the balloon down.
Reasonable people can disagree on whether the waiting game chosen by the Biden administration was the right course of action. But the question of whether something similar would've happened under Trump appears to have been answered. It did.
Update, 3:20 pm ET: The balloon was shot down around 2:40pm ET by the U.S. military over the Atlantic Ocean. Local TV news in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina captured the moment on a YouTube livestream. This story has been updated with that information.
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watching the results when gullible people paint themselves into ideological corners is pure comedy.
Exactly, watching China spy on us over the last decade is pure comedy.
They are just returning the favor, right?
Since I assume the American officials don't believe a lot of what the CPC says, and I must say that I don't believe some of the things the CPC has said as well, for reasons or examples that I do not intend to disclose right now, there is absolutely no reason why the CPC would believe what the American officials will announce as the contents of the balloon they shot down. Surely it is only the Americans that will be recovering the contents, and if they are not inspected by an international group that includes nations that are not American poodles, I'm not going to believe what they announce either, unless they actually admit that the balloon contained ONLY meteorological instruments normal for a weather balloon, in which case it would certainly expose the unnecessary hysterical paranoia and panic of the Americans to the rest of the world - so personally I think what they will announce is predictable. .
The contraption hanging from the balloon was roughly the length and width of 3 buses with a dozen solar panels supplying electricity to instruments of some sort and apparent Antanae array.
I am sure the Columbians have an interest as they let the second balloon (identical in appearance)
transit their country without shooting at it.
Remember though, just about every scientific surveillance program any country has
can also be used to spy.
It certainly goes both ways,
Do you imagine the CPC doesn't know the contents of the balloon? Of course they know.
I'm not going to believe what they announce either
Surprise, Surprise!
Arvo...
Rather be an American poodle than a Chinese rat...
I'd rather be a Canadian than an American or a Chinese, in fact, I'm ashamed that I AM a Canadian that IS an American poodle, so I will certainly keep voting Conservative to oust the mere shadow of his father.
At least as a Canadian you have the privilege to vote...more than some countries have..
Sad that you feel that way about your own country.. certainly not that sentiment here...we are to busy doing our own thing.
I think Justin's father was the best Prime Minister Canada has ever had, but Justin sure as hell isn't filling his shoes.
Actually I'm proud to be a Canadian and do love it, my country - the only way you could take away my passport is to pry it from my cold dead hands. I'm ashamed of Canada's present leadership.
This could be somewhat overblown unless there is something else we don't know. Which is probably everything.
None the less, I bought a pack of balloons for a birthday party Friday and they were made in China. Chinese balloons seem to be everywhere.
LOL. Watch what you say and do once you blow them into shape. You never know for sure.....
Ahhh but balloons are not environmental friendly now...
They land in the ocean etc when released or shot down and choke the sea life...
China is not a friend of the world environment and they should ban them..
I am eagerly awaiting the soon to come moment when Lauren Boebert and/or Marjorie Taylor Greene say they are calling for the impeachment of President Biden because he didnt shoot down the Chinese balloon fast enough.
After all, that is the purpose of all this isnt it?
Arvo...
Chinese weather balloon..
And pigs might fly...
If it's really the same old thing and no big deal, then why shoot it down?
Maybe it's not really no big deal, after all.
Double negative, lol?
Yeah, I thought about that. I could have put quotes around “no big deal” or maybe said it wasn’t such a big deal. But then I got distracted by something I don’t remember now.
The only thing I see it accomplishing really is more hostility between the populace.
After 48 hours or so of Biden admin leaking to imply the trump admin ignored balloons, it’s now being reported these ballon incursions, which were not overflights of the entire continent were only discovered during the Biden admin.
Of course, the mopes have their talking point and won’t pay attention as details come out.
Yeah, they leak it to the press but behind closed doors?
hilarious, especially coming from a republican congressman with a criminal record.