A senior administration official told CNN on Sunday that the discovery of three alleged Chinese spy balloons passing over the US mainland during the Trump administration came only after President Joe Biden entered office. The official made no mention of when or how such occurrences were found.
According to the individual, the intelligence community is prepared to brief top Trump administration officials on the Chinese monitoring operation, which the Biden administration believes has been implemented in nations on five continents over the past few years, according to the official.
The Pentagon reported similar balloon incidents under the Trump administration after the Biden administration revealed last week that a suspected Chinese spy balloon was floating above Montana. Mark Esper, a former defense secretary in the Trump administration, responded by saying he was “surprised” by that assertion.
“I don’t ever recall somebody coming into my office or reading anything that the Chinese had a surveillance balloon above the United States,” he said.
On Truth Social this week, the former president added that rumors of Chinese balloons passing across the US during his term were “false disinformation.”
According to the Biden administration official, the issue was not uncovered until after the Trump administration had left. However, the official did not mention how or when those occurrences were found.
CNN reported on Sunday that the Pentagon had informed Congress of earlier Chinese surveillance balloons that had flown over Texas and Florida during the Trump administration.
In a statement to CNN, Rep. Michael Waltz said,
“currently, we understand there were incursions near Florida and Texas, but we don’t have clarity on what kind of systems were on these balloons or if these incursions occurred in territorial waters or overflew land.”
At the start of the Biden administration, a second Chinese spy balloon briefly passed over the US mainland, according to a senior administration official.
But according to sources, the balloon that was shot down by the US military on Saturday was unique in both the route it followed, coming from Alaska and Canada into the US, and the amount of time it loitered above critical missile installations in Montana.
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According to the senior administration official, analyzing the capabilities of the balloon shot down on Saturday is still ongoing. But the official said that.
“closely observing the balloon in flight has allowed us to better understand this Chinese program and further confirmed its mission was surveillance.”
The Biden administration has been under fire from Republicans for not bringing the balloon to an end sooner when it was initially seen over Alaska on January 28.
According to CNN on Sunday, House Republicans are debating whether to vote this week to approve a resolution denouncing the Biden administration for how it handled the balloon.
