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Marco Rubio said that the Chinese spy balloon appearance was purposefully planned to appear in U.S. airspace just days ahead of Secretary of State Antony Blinken‘s trip to China
The top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee claimed that the now infamous spy balloon was a message to the world from Beijing that they do not view the U.S. as a mega-power anymore.
While agreeing with Blinken canceling his trip to China, Rubio was otherwise critical of the Biden administration’s response to the balloon, claiming the president should have immediately addressed the nation on television to inform the public before it was shot down by the U.S. military.
‘I don’t know why they waited so long to tell people about this,’ the Florida senator said during an interview with ABC News’ This Week host Jonathan Karl on Sunday morning.
Meanwhile, Republican House Intelligence Chairman Mike Turner alleged on Sunday that the Biden team is trying to distract from the balloon ordeal by offering a briefing on the classified documents found at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence.
Top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee Marco Rubio claims the Chinese spy balloon was ‘a message’ that Beijing ‘believes internally… that the United States is a once-great superpower that’s hollowed out, it’s in decline’
Rubio said the Biden administration should have told Americans about the balloon’s presence over the U.S. sooner
Turner revealed to NBC’s Meet the Press that he was offered last week a congressional briefing on Trump’s handling of classified documents. The offer came the same day Americans first learned of a suspected Chinese spy balloon flying over the country.
‘You can see they want to change the news,’ the Ohio Republican said.
He added: ‘There is nothing scheduled on the balloon, but they’re scheduling Donald Trump.’
Rubio, for his part, claimed that the delay in informing Americans of the balloon’s existence was viewed by China as positive for their message of the declining power of the U.S. on the world stage.
‘When was it spotted? Why was it not brought down sooner over other areas? I’m open-minded to listening to the arguments they make about why it wasn’t dealt with sooner,’ Rubio said.
U.S. officials said they only waited to strike down the balloon because they wanted to minimize the risk to civilians. They only announced the presence of the vessel after it had already flown down from Alaska.
‘This was deliberate. They did this on purpose,’ the senator said as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) insists the threatening vessel that consumed U.S. attention this week was just an astray weather balloon.
‘They understood that it was going to be spotted, they knew the U.S. government would have to reveal it, that people were gonna see it over the sky,’ he continued. ‘And the message they were trying to send is what they believe internally, and that is that the United States is a once-great superpower that’s hollowed out, it’s in decline.’
‘The message they’re trying to send the world is, ‘Look, these guys can’t even do anything about a balloon flying over U.S. airspace. How can you possibly count on them if something were to happen in the Indo-Pacific region? How can you count on them if they’re not gonna do anything about a balloon over U.S. airspace? How are they going to come to the aid of Taiwan or stand with the Philippines or Japan or India when the Chinese move on their territory?”
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner said President Biden’s team is trying to ‘change the news’ away from the Chinese spy balloon and his document scandal by offering a Capitol Hill briefing this week regarding Trump’s classified documents. He said he has not yet heard about a briefing regarding the Chinese ‘spy balloon’ recently shot down off the East Coast
The Biden White House offered the House Intelligence Committee a briefing on Trump’s classified documents in the midst of the Chinese spy balloon scare
Blinken was meant to make a diplomatic trip to China, but canceled the plans after the balloon incident.
‘I don’t know how you could possibly make that trip happen at this point,’ Rubio said, agreeing with the decision to nix the visit.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken (pictured in South Korea on February 3) canceled his upcoming diplomatic visit to Beijing following the Chinese spy balloon ordeal this week
The alleged surveillance device was shot down off the coast of South Carolina by American fighter jets on Saturday after crossing over multiple U.S. states at a low enough altitude to be seen by the naked eye – alarming millions across the country.
Turner said Sunday that he has not yet been made aware of any coming security assessments by the Biden administration for Congress on the incident.
But officials are coming next week to brief lawmakers on classified files recovered from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago mansion in Florida, Turner said, where they had been improperly stored until an August FBI raid.
Additionally, Turner said Biden officials would brief lawmakers on classified documents recovered from former Vice President Mike Pence, as well as from the president himself.
Biden has been found in possession of as many as 30 classified files from his time as vice president and as a senator from Delaware, which were recovered from his Wilmington, Delaware residence and a Washington, DC think tank where he’d previously kept a private office.
Bipartisan requests for more information came from both sides of the aisle in Congress – and Turner claimed Sunday that they’d all been stonewalled.
It’s why the congressman now believes the Biden administration is offering the briefing now to distract from the diplomatic crisis caused by China’s ‘spy balloon.’
‘The Biden administration told the American public that they raided Donald Trump’s home because it was a national security risk. But what we found in the intelligence community and the intelligence committee is that the Biden administration had not engaged at all anyone who is in national security on the issue of threats from these documents,’ Turner explained.
This map shows the routes of two suspected Chinese spy balloons making their way across the hemisphere
An F-22 Raptor fighter jet fired a single AIM-9X missile to take down a Chinese spy balloon and its payload, which was equipped with cameras, sensors and radars
‘It took Congress to step in and say, ‘We want a security threat.’ And then they tried to deny giving the briefing to us from that threat.’
He added, ‘What’s interesting is that the moment this balloon became public, I got a notice not from the administration that I’m going to get a briefing on this balloon, but they have to rush to Congress now to talk to us about Donald Trump’s documents. You can see they want to change the news.’
Turner blasted the Biden administration for ‘making no attempt’ notify Congress of the balloon before it was first made public, despite it first crossing into North America on January 28.
However, when asked about the alleged Chinese spy balloon incidents that occurred during the previous administration under Donald Trump, Turner did not answer directly – instead pivoting to Biden’s perceived lackluster public response.
Defense officials estimated the balloon was about the size of three buses at a height of 120 feet, and that the debris field would be substantial, estimated at seven miles when it was shot down off the coast of South Carolina on Saturday
‘Well, that’s what they’re saying now, but I think that the administration needs to come forward because this is not an ability to say that this is a crisis that was handed to them,’ Turner said.
‘This is a crisis that has developed as a result of this president during his administration, allowing China to do a similar act before, not responding, and then, clearly, in this one not seeing the urgency of what was unfolding.’
He said the Biden administration showed it ‘lacked urgency’ by allowing the balloon to ‘go across our most sensitive sites’ before it was finally shot down.
The president told reporters on Saturday that he wanted the balloon shot down on Wednesday, but was cautioned against making the order due to the risk of civilians getting hurt by falling debris.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told CNN on Sunday that it fell within a seven-mile debris field in the Atlantic Ocean.
