A Biden official has confirmed that Chinese spy balloons allegedly flown during the Trump administration were found out about after former President Donald Trump left office.
Shortly after the Chinese spy balloon was shot down on Saturday, media outlets began reporting that former President Donald Trump allowed Chinese spy balloons to pass through the United States on multiple occasions.
The Biden administration just proved this to be false.
“Information suggesting that Chinese spy balloons traveled over the continental United States during the Trump administration was “discovered after” former President Trump left office, a senior administration official told Fox News,” Fox News reports.
On Sunday, a senior administration official told the outlet that U.S. intelligence assesses that “PRC government surveillance balloons transited the continental U.S. briefly at least three times during the prior administration and once that we know of at the beginning of this administration, but never for this duration of time.”
The explained to Fox News that “this information was discovered after the [Trump] administration left.”
“They went undetected,” they said.
“These balloons are all part of a PRC fleet of balloons developed to conduct surveillance operations, which have also violated the sovereignty of other countries,” they explained, also noting that this sort of conduct is “often undertaken at the direction of the People’s Liberation Army.”
“Two things can be true at once: this happened and it wasn’t detected,” the official said.
Also on Sunday, former acting Director of the United States National Intelligence (DNI) Richard Grenell denied the recent report claiming Chinese Spy Balloons flew across the United States under former President Donald Trump.
“Yes, Chinese Spy Balloons Flew Over The U.S. When President Trump Was In Office Too,” the piece from Matt Novack published on Forbes read.
The article was extremely vague and weakly sourced.
In a tweet on Sunday, Grenell strongly denied the piece and hammered the Biden administration for pushing the fake news.
“Biden’s DoD is shamelessly using an anonymous source to say that Chinese balloons flew over the US under Trump – and the Trump team allowed it,” he tweeted. “It is a lie. We never heard this – ever. Congress should demand @SecDef tell the truth. Shame on @JakeSullivan46.”
Biden’s DoD is shamelessly using an anonymous source to say that Chinese balloons flew over the US under Trump – and the Trump team allowed it.
It is a lie. We never heard this – ever.
Congress should demand @SecDef tell the truth. Shame on @JakeSullivan46.
— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) February 5, 2023
Former Director of the United States National Intelligence John Ratcliffe also denied the report while joining Fox News host Maria Bartiromo for an interview on Sunday morning.
“Former ODNI John Ratcliffe just denied Biden admin claims Chinese sent 3 balloons into US on Trump’s watch: “I can refute it. It didn’t happen.” He said this was first time and “the damage is incalculable.” He also suggested Biden & his nat’l security team “compromised”” investigative journalist Paul Sperry said on Twitter.
BREAKING: Former ODNI John Ratcliffe just denied Biden admin claims Chinese sent 3 balloons into US on Trump's watch: "I can refute it. It didn't happen." He said this was first time and "the damage is incalculable." He also suggested Biden & his nat'l security team "compromised"
— Paul Sperry (@paulsperry_) February 5, 2023
As Biden continues to pat himself on the back for allowing the Chinese spy balloon to surveil the entire country before shooting it down, many are furious with his inaction.
During an interview on Fox News yesterday, Former Vice Chief of Staff of the United States Army and retired four-star General Jack Keane slammed Biden over his inaction.
He made these remarks on Fox News shortly after the U.S. military shot down the balloon over the Atlantic Ocean, following its passage over South Carolina.
“Remember, this was approaching the United States over water,” Keane said. “It was approaching the Aleutian Islands over water. And we had plenty of opportunity to take it down then. And that’s when it should have happened. We had to be tracking it from mainland China across the Pacific Ocean, and we had plenty of warning to put together an operation that we are conducting now on the east coast that should have been done there.”
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