President Biden downplayed the national security threat posed by the Chinese spy balloon that traversed the United States last week before getting shot down by the U.S. military off the East Coast.
"Look, the total amount of intelligence gathering that’s going on by every country around the world is overwhelming," Biden told Noticias Telemuno in an interview that ran Thursday. “It’s not a major breach."
Biden says the Chinese spy balloon he let traverse the entire country gathering surveillance was "not a major [security] breach." pic.twitter.com/dnMFciOJRB
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) February 10, 2023
“It's a violation of international law,” he added. “It's our airspace. And once it comes into our space, we can do what we want with it.”
The president explained he wanted the balloon shot down but the decision was made to wait due to concerns about falling debris.
"This thing was gigantic. What happens if it came down and hit a school in a rural area?" he said. "So I told them as soon as they could shoot it down, shoot it down. They made a wise decision. They shot it down over water, they’re recovering most of the parts, and they're good."
"Now that we know what we know — that the [Chinese spy] balloon had antennas and a communications system — do you regret not having insisted on bringing it down sooner?"
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) February 10, 2023
BIDEN: "No" pic.twitter.com/mj1X9iFJw2
The massive balloon was outfitted with multiple antennas, solar panels that powered a number of intelligence collection sensors, and explosives to disable the surveillance equipment, The Wall Street Journal reports. It traveled across the United States for seven days, entering Alaskan airspace near the Aleutian Islands on Jan. 28. After entering Canada, it came back to U.S. airspace over Idaho on Jan. 31. During its time in America, the balloon traveled near four sensitive military sites before getting shot down off the coast of South Carolina.