Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin Takes Ridiculous Victory Lap Over Downing Of China Spy Balloon

The Biden administration’s handling of the security threat presented by the China spy balloon was was awful, but they can’t stop patting themselves on the back for some reason.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has released a statement praising Biden.

These people are simply not grounded in reality.

From the Department of Defense:

Statement From Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III

This afternoon, at the direction of President Biden, U.S. fighter aircraft assigned to U.S. Northern Command successfully brought down the high altitude surveillance balloon launched by and belonging to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) over the water off the coast of South Carolina in U.S. airspace. The balloon, which was being used by the PRC in an attempt to surveil strategic sites in the continental United States, was brought down above U.S. territorial waters.

On Wednesday, President Biden gave his authorization to take down the surveillance balloon as soon as the mission could be accomplished without undue risk to American lives under the balloon’s path. After careful analysis, U.S. military commanders had determined downing the balloon while over land posed an undue risk to people across a wide area due to the size and altitude of the balloon and its surveillance payload.

In accordance with the President’s direction, the Department of Defense developed options to take down the balloon safely over our territorial waters, while closely monitoring its path and intelligence collection activities…

Today’s deliberate and lawful action demonstrates that President Biden and his national security team will always put the safety and security of the American people first while responding effectively to the PRC’s unacceptable violation of our sovereignty.

Mike Miller reacted at RedState:

Yet another “Profile in Courage” moment with Joe.

And monitoring the surveillance balloon’s intelligence activities? So what? The balloon was undoubtedly transmitting data to Chinese satellites in real-time, so to paraphrase Hillary Clinton, what difference did it make if the U.S. was monitoring its intelligence collection activities? They think you’re stupid, America.

That last line is really key. The Biden administration thinks everyone is as dumb as the people who voted for them.

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