I could watch his face on repeat 1,000 times as he hears this from Karl!
ABC host Jonathan Karl reminded Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) that former President Donald Trump had failed to notify Americans on at least three occasions when Chinese balloons entered the country's airspace.
During an interview on ABC, Karl asked Rubio if President Joe Biden should have gone against the advice of the U.S. military and instead shot the balloon down over populated land.
Rubio agreed that the debris could have "hurt, harmed or killed people.""If that was the case, then I think it really would have been helpful for the president of the United States to get on national television and explain to the American people, this is what we're dealing with, this is what I'm going to do about it, and this is why I haven't done it yet. None of that happened. And I don't know why. I don't know why they waited so long to tell people about this."
But Karl pointed out that Trump had failed to disclose similar incidents at least three times.
Yesterday afternoon, Mike Pompeo told Fox News he was not aware of this happening "during our four years in office" to "the best of my knowledge."
Former US President Donald Trump's eldest son and businessman Donald Trump Jr. took a veiled jibe at a prominent Democratic Congressman over the suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that was shot down by the US military on Saturday. Referring to a suspected Chinese intelligence operative who reportedly developed extensive ties with a US Congressman, Trump Jr. said China is looking for “other means to collect intelligence” as the spy's “boyfriend” was “no longer on House Intel”.
The suspected surveillance balloon that had spent days flying above the United States was downed over its territorial waters on Saturday.
"Today's deliberate and lawful action demonstrates that President (Joe) Biden and his national security team will always put the safety and security of the American people first while responding effectively to the PRC's unacceptable violation of our sovereignty," Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said in a statement.
While Trump Jr. did not take any name, his tweet was apparently aimed at Eric Swalwell, a Democratic Congressman, whose alleged ties with a Chinese national named Fang Fang aka Christine Fang was reported first by Axios in 2020. Last month, Speaker Kevin McCarthy expelled Swalwell from the House Intelligence Committee, following through on his promise to unseat the progressive Democrat citing his association with a suspected Chinese spy who targeted US politicians.
"We are seeing reports of a balloon transiting Latin America. We now assess it is another Chinese surveillance balloon," said Pentagon press secretary Brig Gen Patrick Ryder. He provided no further details about the balloon's location.
Mr Blinken described the Chinese balloon over the US as "a violation of our sovereignty".
"This is an unacceptable as well as an irresponsible action," he said. "It's even more irresponsible coming on the eve of a long-planned visit."
America's top diplomat was set to visit Beijing from 5 to 6 February to hold talks on a wide range of issues, including security, Taiwan and Covid-19.
But on Thursday US defence officials announced they were tracking a high-altitude surveillance balloon over the United States.
While the balloon was, the Pentagon said, "travelling at an altitude well above commercial air traffic" and did "not present a military or physical threat to people on the ground", its presence sparked outrage.
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