The Biden administration has received significant backlash over its delayed response to a suspected Chinese spy balloon spotted in the sky above the United States earlier this month.
Although the vessel was ultimately shot down after it had traveled from coast to coast, many Republicans asserted that it should have been destroyed much earlier, expressing serious concerns about what information the Chinese government might have been able to collect.
President Joe Biden only attracted more criticism when he suggested that the invasion of U.S. airspace by the communist regime was not a “major breach.”
Biden claims the Chinese spy flight was not a major breach, and @gen_jackkeane joins to share his input. WATCH: pic.twitter.com/UM9k1ltkh5
— Brian Kilmeade (@kilmeade) February 10, 2023
The day after the Telemundo interview aired in which Biden downplayed the severity of the situation, however, the Pentagon confirmed that another object was spotted in the sky just off of Alaska’s coast.
This time, however, the Department of Defense scrambled to address the potential threat in a timelier manner.
According to Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder, a military aircraft “successfully took down a high altitude airborne object off the northern coast of Alaska at 1:45 p.m. Eastern Standard Time” on Friday.
Although initial reports were light on details, Ryder indicated that the object was about the size of a “small car” and had been traveling at an altitude of about 40,000 feet. He said that it “posed a reasonable threat to the safety of civilian flight.”
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby also provided a briefing on the matter but similarly provided few details about the craft itself.
“It came inside our territorial waters — and those waters right now are frozen — but inside territorial airspace and over territorial waters,” he said.
Ryder indicated that there is no evidence connecting this incident to the Chinese balloon.
“While I won’t go into specifics due to classification reasons, I can say that we have located a significant amount of debris so far that will prove helpful to our further understanding of this balloon and its surveillance capabilities,” he said.
U.S. Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) asserted that the latest development serves as further proof “that Joe Biden’s failed foreign policy has left America much weaker than before he took office,” adding: “Biden’s refusal to shoot down the Chinese spy balloon sent a message to all of our foreign adversaries that America’s skies are as wide open as our southern border.”