OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
A pair of former intelligence chiefs are pushing back on claims that Chinese spy balloons were discovered hovering over the U.S. during then-President Donald Trump’s term.
The intelligence chiefs, as well as others involved in national security matters during the Trump administration, have reportedly said that several Chinese balloons managed to breach U.S. airspace during that time but “went undetected” at the time, and it was only “discovered after” the 45th president left office that they were conducting surveillance.
The pushback comes amid criticism of the Biden administration over the weekend over the downing of a suspected Chinese spy balloon after it was allowed to pass over the breadth of the country for several days. One former Vice Chief of Staff of the United States Army, Jack Keane, said U.S. intelligence detected the balloon in waters off the west coast before it was allowed to enter American airspace. The balloon was shot down on Saturday off the coast of South Carolina.
“Fox News reported early on Sunday that a Chinese spy balloon crashed in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Hawaii late last year and that there were incursions into U.S. airspace during the Trump administration,” the Daily Wire noted, adding:
The claim that the Chinese spy balloons flew over U.S. soil under Trump generated strong pushback from the former president and from several of his top former officials, including John Ratcliffe, Director of National Intelligence; John Bolton, national security adviser; Robert O’Brien, national security adviser; Ric Grenell, acting Director of National Intelligence; and Mark Esper, Secretary of Defense.
A separate Fox News report quoted a senior Biden administration official who said, “U.S. intelligence, not the Biden administration,” believes 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 official added that the Trump administration was not aware of the incursions and that they were only discovered after Trump left office.
“This information was discovered after the [Trump] administration left,” the official said. “They went undetected. Two things can be true at once: this happened, and it wasn’t detected.”
In a tweet, Grenell wrote: “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.”
He added: And shame on the DC media activists who continue to allow the Biden team to be so weak by giving them aid & comfort in their lies and weakness. @jonkarl @maggieNYT @JuliePace lead the coverup.”
And shame on the DC media activists who continue to allow the Biden team to be so weak by giving them aid & comfort in their lies and weakness.@jonkarl @maggieNYT @JuliePace lead the coverup.
— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) February 5, 2023
“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,” the unnamed Biden administration official further explained to Fox News, adding that these activities are “often undertaken at the direction of the People’s Liberation Army.”
In an interview with Fox News on Sunday, Keane said, “Well, we’ve had all of our sensors watching this, you know, for some time. And certainly our military capability that was going to be involved got alerted. People have been planning it likely for a couple of days. I’m assuming the president, you know, made a decision within the last 24 hours to take this out. They probably presented him with a number of options of where the best place to do it, certainly heading to the East Coast, which is considerably more populated than Montana was. It was probably ruled out that they would do anything over land. If they weren’t willing to do it over Montana, they’re certainly not going to do it on the East coast of the United States or in transit to the East Coast. And they’re taking advantage of obviously doing this safely in terms of civilians.”
He added: “Remember, this was approaching the United States over water. 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.”
