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Trump, others in his cabinet deny Chinese spy balloons flew across the U.S. during Trump administration
Hotair ^ | 02/05/2023 | Karen Townsend

Posted on 02/05/2023 8:43:48 PM PST by SeekAndFind

Democrats and their cohorts in the media are quickly coming to Joe Biden’s aid as critics say Biden didn’t handle the Chinese spy balloon incident well. The spy balloon flying across America can easily be thought of as a test of Biden’s inclination to use force against Chinese intrusion.

At first, the Biden administration and the Pentagon remained silent about the appearance of the balloon. Then a local news organization in Montana reported on it as it hovered over Billings. The word quickly spread to news outlets across the country. When would Americans have known about the story of a Montana news organization that had not reported on it? The most transparent administration – evah – sure doesn’t conduct itself as such. The administration was aware of the spy balloon approaching U.S. airspace when it was heading toward the Aleutian Islands. Allegedly they monitored it until the story broke. Why didn’t the president just call a news conference and address the balloon? Or, he could have used his bully pulpit, as Senator Marco Rubio suggested today on CNN, and told the American people what was happening and what he was going to do to handle the situation. As Biden is prone to do, he did nothing. He left it up to the Pentagon to decide when and where to shoot it down. As far as I know, Biden didn’t suggest that the military shoot the balloon in its leg.

The narrative today is that there were three times that Chinese spy balloons flew over the U.S. during the Trump administration. The catch is that no one from the previous administration is confirming that story. Trump, of course, was quick to deny that had happened during this time in office. Others like John Bolton, no fan of Trump these days, and Robert O’Brien also deny it.

Trump said China didn’t pull such a move because the country “respected us greatly.” It’s unclear if he meant China respected the United States or specifically his administration.

“This never happened. It would have never happened,” Trump told Fox News Digital on Sunday morning, adding that Beijing “respected us greatly” under his leadership.

“It never happened with us under the Trump administration and if it did, we would have shot it down immediately,” Trump said. “It’s disinformation.”

Bolton and O’Brien said they never heard of any such incidents during the Trump administration.

“I don’t know of any balloon flights by any power over the United States during my tenure, and I’d never heard of any of that occurring before I joined in 2018,” Bolton said. “I haven’t heard of anything that occurred after I left either.”

Bolton said that if the Biden administration has “specific examples, they need to tell Congress.”

He added: “I can say with 100% certainty, not during my tenure.”

“Unequivocally, I have never been briefed on the issue,” O’Brien said, telling Fox News Digital that his team, which included Matt Pottinger, who served as deputy national security adviser, and Allison Hooker, who served as senior adviser to Asia, also were not briefed on these activities.

Former Trump Defense Secretary Mark Esper said no one ever told him about it during his time at the Pentagon.

“I don’t ever recall somebody coming into my office or reading anything that the Chinese had a surveillance balloon above the United States,” Esper said during an appearance on CNN. “I would remember that for sure.”

And former acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller, who had previously served as director of the National Counterterrorism Center, also told Fox News he never had heard of a Chinese spy balloon while he was in government.”

“Never heard a whisper and I have to think if anything like that happened that would have been a huge issue,” Miller told Fox News Digital. “No. Absolutely never heard of anything like that while I was in government or at the Pentagon.”

I tend to think that the claims that it happened during the previous administration are conveniently being told now because Biden’s competence as Commander-in-Chief is again called into question. He has not lived down his disgraceful performance during the withdrawal from Afghanistan. He’s about to declare himself a candidate in the 2024 presidential election and has to pretend like he’s in charge and up to the challenges. Does anyone believe that this kind of thing happened during the Trump administration – not once but three times – and no one reported on it? Or, that the Secretary of Defense wasn’t briefed on a Chinese spy balloon in U.S. airspace? C’mon, man.

This is the media acting as the communication arm of the DNC and covering for the Democrat president in the White House. Same old, same old.



TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; Government
KEYWORDS: balloon; bloggers; china; newsforumabuse; searchandfind; searchworks; sidebarabuse; spying; trump

1 posted on 02/05/2023 8:43:48 PM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

If that had happened, we would have never heard the end of it. They’d have tried to impeach him.


2 posted on 02/05/2023 8:46:20 PM PST by laplata (They want each crisis to take the greatest toll possible.)
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To: SeekAndFind

If they had, some fascist far left azho would have leaked it to the DNC’s Mainstream Propaganda “media”. That crap is just another commie lib lie from their fart checkers.


3 posted on 02/05/2023 8:46:33 PM PST by FlingWingFlyer (Remember what FJB Brandon said, "...more than half of the women in my administration are women.")
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To: FlingWingFlyer; laplata




So if these anonymous reports are legit, the woke military generals' version of events is that they have 100% allowed Red China spy balloons to traverse the US for years, not even bothering to inform political leadership, and only shot down this one because the public noticed? OK
4 posted on 02/05/2023 8:47:34 PM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

What’s another lie to the MSM-Democrats?


5 posted on 02/05/2023 8:50:54 PM PST by Steely Tom ([Voter Fraud] == [Civil War])
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To: SeekAndFind

So the Biden/Pentagon representative lied


6 posted on 02/05/2023 8:55:51 PM PST by realcleanguy (quickly things are falling apart, now that the )
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To: SeekAndFind

If Demoncrats didn’t lie, they wouldn’t be able to speak.


7 posted on 02/05/2023 9:05:29 PM PST by trailboss800
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To: SeekAndFind

If I’m this angry over the slander already how will I feel if the pundits are right “Trump and family will face indictments and prison time”? 🤬


8 posted on 02/05/2023 9:13:31 PM PST by frank ballenger (You have summoned up a thundercloud. You're gonna hear from me. Anthem by Leonard Cohen)
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To: SeekAndFind

Thank you.


9 posted on 02/05/2023 9:14:45 PM PST by laplata (They want each crisis to take the greatest toll possible.)
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To: realcleanguy
So the Biden/Pentagon representative lied

Do you think that would be a novel concept? 🤗😜

10 posted on 02/05/2023 9:20:24 PM PST by Mark17 (Retired USAF air traffic controller. Father of USAF pilot. USAF aviation runs in the family )
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Comment #11 Removed by Moderator

To: SeekAndFind

Had that happen under President Trump it would been all over the media for years.

What they are saying about it happening under President Trump is total lies, deceit and deception to protect their communist puppet Biden.


12 posted on 02/06/2023 12:05:22 AM PST by Enlightened1
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To: SeekAndFind

If it did happen, then the ones who did not inform the administration need to be identified and tried for treason.


13 posted on 02/06/2023 3:15:12 AM PST by fruser1
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To: SeekAndFind

NAME the “Officials”!!


14 posted on 02/06/2023 4:02:41 AM PST by Ann Archy (Abortion....... The HUMAN Sacrifice to the god of Convenience.)
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To: frank ballenger

omg!


15 posted on 02/06/2023 4:04:02 AM PST by Ann Archy (Abortion....... The HUMAN Sacrifice to the god of Convenience.)
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To: fruser1

BINGO!! But it DID NOT happen!!


16 posted on 02/06/2023 4:04:57 AM PST by Ann Archy (Abortion....... The HUMAN Sacrifice to the god of Convenience.)
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To: SeekAndFind

This is why they hate Trump so, he uses the same playbook the Democrats do but he does it with facts and much better style.


17 posted on 02/06/2023 4:37:50 AM PST by Jolla
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To: SeekAndFind

“The narrative today is that there were three times that Chinese spy balloons flew over the U.S. during the Trump administration. The catch is that no one from the previous administration is confirming that story. Trump, of course, was quick to deny that had happened during this time in office. Others like John Bolton, no fan of Trump these days, and Robert O’Brien also deny it.”

So it’s a cover up, eh?/s


18 posted on 02/06/2023 6:19:31 AM PST by Eleutheria5 (Every Goliath has his David.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Why is the story whether there were spy balloons during the Trump Administration? The media is carrying Biden’s water for him. Any time anything bad happens, the media races off to see if it happened during Trump’s administration.


19 posted on 02/06/2023 6:58:29 AM PST by Opinionated Blowhard (When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.)
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