(Jacob Bruns, Headline USA) President Joe Biden and top officials in his administration allegedly attempted to cover up last winter’s discovery of Chinese spy balloon in American airspace, NBC News reported.
Last Jan. 27, Gen. Glen VanHerck, the Air Force commander in charge of defending American airspace from foreign intrusion, called President Joe Biden’s top military adviser, Gen. Mark Milley.
The two discussed the presence and trajectory of the object. The timing of the call suggests that top officials knew about the balloon, and still allowed it to float across a large portion of America while hiding that fact from Congress.
According to the report, United States intelligence officials noticed the large balloon floating over the Pacific Ocean and allowed it to enter into Alaskan airspace. Top military officials monitored and observed the object as it floated across North America.
One former senior U.S. official suggested that the government intended to keep the spy balloon a secret from the public, at least for a time.
“Before it was spotted publicly, there was the intention to study it and let it pass over and not ever tell anyone about it,” the former official noted.
But the same official quickly denied that the president and his administration intended to keep the presence of the balloon a secret for good.
“To the extent any of this was kept quiet at all, that was in large part to protect intel equities related to finding and tracking” the official added. “There was no intention to keep this from Congress at any point.”
Still, the balloon caused much turmoil for the Biden administration, among which many complained about the negative press coverage in the wake of the balloon.
“It caused so many problems,” one senior administration official told NBC.
The administration did not make the call shoot down the balloon until Feb. 4, two days after it came over the continental United States.
By the time it reached the continental United States, Biden and his administration still had not notified Congress, despite having known about the balloon for approximately one week prior.
VanHerck, however, continues to regard the handling of the balloon as a success.
“The process worked exactly as it should,” he said.
“While we can be critical of the decision of where and the timeline to shoot it down, I think in the end the best decision and outcome happened,” he added. “We kept the American and Canadian people safe.”
