‘No Comparison’: Rubio Shuts Down Comparisons Between Trump And Biden Over Chinese Balloon
Republican Florida Sen. Marco Rubio said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that there is “no comparison” between the Trump administration and Biden administration over their respective handling of Chinese surveillance balloons.
The U.S. took down the spy balloon Saturday afternoon after the craft was spotted floating over several states over multiple days, including Idaho and Montana. The Pentagon was tracking the balloon as it headed eastward over the Carolinas before hovering above the Atlantic Ocean. U.S. military jets were seen flying near the balloon while there were several recovery vessels in the waters below.
Tapper first asked what type of information the spy balloon may have been able to gather, with Rubio stating that while he doesn’t have a definitive answer on what type of information was collected but said the larger takeaway is that the balloon sent a “clear message.”
“I think beyond just the ability to collect information, it is the ability to send a clear message, and that is that we have the ability to do this and America can’t do anything about it,” Rubio said. “If they’re not going to be able to stop a balloon from flying over U.S. airspace, how is America going to come to your aid if we invade Taiwan, take land from India, or Islands from the Philippines and Japan?”
“The Pentagon says they know of Chinese doing this four other times, previously once at the beginning of the Biden administration, three times during the Trump administration,” Tapper said. “You’re saying ‘no, that’s not true’?”
“No, what I’m saying – well the difference is this,” Rubio said. “Have we seen the Chinese fly these balloons in the past? Yes. I think there’s Twitter pictures of it flying at one point off the coast of the U.S. down south somewhere. The existence of the balloons is not a mystery to people in that field. What we’ve never seen, what is unprecedented and whoever the source is at the Department of Defense would have to acknowledge this, what is unprecedented is a balloon flight that entered over Idaho, over Montana, over all these sensitive military installations, Air Force bases, ICBM fields, right across the middle of the country, that has never happened before, that’s unprecedented.”
“That it flew briefly over some part of the continental U.S., that’s one thing,” Rubio continued. “But what we saw this week, this is unprecedented. This is no comparison anything that may have happened up to this point.”
The Department of Defense released a statement Thursday claiming that “instances of this kind of balloon activity have been observed previously over the past several years.”
Former Defense Sec. Mark Esper, who served in the Trump administration from July 2019 through November 2020 said he was “surprised” to hear comparisons being drawn, noting he does not recall any similar incident during his time in office.
“I don’t ever recall somebody coming into my office or reading anything that the Chinese had a surveillance balloon above the United States.”
“I would remember that for sure,” he added, while on CNN.
AUTHOR
BRIANNA LYMAN
News and commentary writer.
RELATED TWEET:
BREAKING: 2 Former DNI Directors say report of Chinese balloons under Trump is fake news.
Another day, another lie from the corporate media.https://t.co/20BKKsIXFi
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) February 5, 2023
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Biden lie when he tried to deflect his and DOD’s ineptness in dealing with this CCP spy baloon by saying this had happened before under Trump. This lie debunked by former CIA Director, former Secy DOD and others and the fact that we never heard anything about this over the WOKE media.
The Obama 3/Biden Admin occupants of WH knew about this Ballon on Sat., Jan 28 as it flew over US territory in Aleutian Islands, AK and said nothing. Where was NORAD who said nothing? It wasn’t until a reporter in Billings, MT reported it that this became known among American citizens.
Biden was keeping this a secret so that didn’t interfere wih SOS Blinkens planned visit to Communist China to kowtow to President for Life XI and deflect away from Hunter Biden laptop issue.
This spy balloon was allowed to fly across the entire conteninel USA including dozens of sensitive US installations for 5 days until finally being shot down over the Atlantic on Saturday, Fec 4. We don’t buy that DOD was worried about debris falling on populated areas especially since Montana is mostly open plains.
The CCP is sticking the U.S. in the eye with a hot stick and humiliating us. They are telling our people thatw they can do what they want when they want and that we are to be subjected to their will.
Let’s face it, the Biden Cartel is compromised by the CCP and the mega millions they have funneled to the Bidens.
Remember, the Marxist Dems impeached Trump over a phone call. The primary purpose of the federal govt. is to insure the safety and security of the people and they aren’t doing so. So many examples of real reasons Biden should be mipeached including this spy baloon failure; failure to secure our borders; money laundering in Ukraine and China; the debacle in Afhanistan; mishandling of critical top secret documents; constant lying to the US public, etc. etc.
We will hear more lies in his State of Union speech including that under his admin. manufacturing and jobs have increased; inflation was started by Trump policies; he is saving China attacks on Taiwan by supporting a war in Ukraine, etc. etc.