On Monday, John Kirby, the Coordinator for Strategic Communications at the National Security Council, provided an update on the numerous Chinese spy balloons that had been shot down in recent days by U.S. military personnel. Despite taking credit for safeguarding our nation’s borders, Biden was absent and there has been no response from him to address the American people on these events.
Kirby instead attempted to shift blame onto the Trump administration by claiming they “did not detect [the Chinese balloon program], we detected it. We tracked it.” However, there is still no evidence yet that these balloons even existed during Trump’s presidency, let alone flew over U.S. airspace.
The lack of response and inaction from Biden is concerning given that four unidentified objects have already been shot down in a matter of days by the US military forces and yet he has nothing scheduled on his agenda for the day and has not addressed the public at all regarding these occurrences.
Despite this, Kirby implored that people should trust the transparency of the U.S government and stated we “don’t need to look any further” for answers or information about these events; however, this lack of communication from both Biden and his staff does not create a sense of assurance amongst citizens as more information should be made available about what happened with these mysterious balloons and why they were flying over American airspace in the first place. Furthermore, with more questions arising around security issues related to Chinese activities near U.S borders, more clarity needs to be provided so Americans can feel safe and secure in their own country despite external threats from overseas countries such as China.
John Kirby shredded any ounce of integrity he had left in just a few seconds….pic.twitter.com/0lO5lFncH2
— Kimberly Klacik (@kimKBaltimore) February 13, 2023
Reporter grills Kirby on Biden's failure to secure the border at any altitude.
READ: https://t.co/6jW4e0UMZ2 pic.twitter.com/unBQ0cnLFe
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) February 13, 2023
KIRBY: "[Chinese balloon program] was operating during the previous administration, but they did not detect it, we detected it. We tracked it." pic.twitter.com/ynZGvGcTyr
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) February 13, 2023
“My office has been briefed by the office of the Secretary of Defense of the current Pentagon that it happened over Florida, it happened over Texas, and that it’s happened before,” he said during the interview.
“We have more detailed questions but what is unclear, Stuart, at this point is, did the Pentagon under the Trump Administration brief the Trump White House and give them the option to take action or did they decide not to brief them for whatever reason?” Waltz asked.
“And there is some speculation, I talked to Trump administration officials over the weekend, that the Pentagon deliberately did it because they thought Trump would be too provocative and too aggressive,” he continued.
“So that’s what we need to get to the bottom of and one person that I’m waiting to hear from that we haven’t heard from that list is former Secretary of Defense, General Mattis who was the secretary during this time period,” Waltz said. “What did he know and what did he decide to pass on and brief to the president.”
During a speech in Vero Beach, Florida later on Monday, Mattis claimed he had no knowledge of Chinese spy balloons under his watch.
“I don’t mean to make light of it. But don’t worry that it suddenly was able to find things out that satellites up in lower orbit weren’t spotting already,” Mattis said.
“You’ve gotta wonder was it stupidity or the left hand not knowing what the right hand were doing,” Mattis continued. “Why did the Chinese have time to do it. I’m going to tell frankly young guys who want to make 4-star general… bucket of rocks. But in this case, I would still say it’s serious.”
“And that I wouldn’t get overly worried about it. But there are some questions that we all as Americans need answers to. Did it really happen during past administrations?” Mattis asked. “Because there isn’t anybody from the past administration who is aware of it. I’m not for the first two years of that administration.”