Austin: Spy Balloon Forced Us to ‘Button Down’ Nuclear Bases

In an interview Wednesday with CBS News, woke Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin stated that in response to the Chinese spy balloon that flew over the country last week, the United States ensured that its nuclear bases “were buttoned down” and that “movement was limited and communications were limited so that we didn’t expose any capability unnecessarily.”

Asked what he was concerned that the balloon might be looking for, Austin answered, “Well, I — certainly, all of our strategic assets, we made sure that we were buttoned down and movement was limited and communications were limited so that we didn’t expose any capability unnecessarily.”

Austin confirmed that by “strategic assets,” he meant the nuclear force.

He was then asked, “So, the nuclear bases across this country from Montana to Whiteman in Missouri, all across, they were all buttoned up?”

Austin responded, “They were.”

Well, that’s comforting. Good thing everything is buttoned up while we allowed a Chinese spy balloon to hover across the U.S. for five days unobstructed.

Lloyd Austin

Austin’s Priorities As Defense Secretary

Austin came into office as Defense Secretary defining the coronavirus pandemic as America’s greatest national security challenge, and declaring climate change to be an “existential threat” that he intended to meet by “electrifying our own [military] vehicle fleets.” “Climate change is making the world more unsafe and we need to act,” Austin asserted in April 2021. “Today,” he added, “no nation can find lasting security without addressing the climate crisis. We face all kinds of threats in our line of work, but few of them truly deserve to be called existential. The climate crisis does.”

In early 2021 as well, Austin claimed that yet another of his top priorities as Defense Secretary would be to address the allegedly pervasive problem of sexual assault in the U.S. military, saying: “Sexual assault is a problem that plagues us. It is a readiness issue. It is a leadership issue. We’re going to lead real change for real results.”

To learn more about Lloyd Austin, click here.

EDITORS NOTE: This Discover the Networks column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

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