A growing number of Republicans are calling on President Biden to quickly shoot down the Chinese spy balloon over Montana.
“President Biden should stop coddling and appeasing the Chinese communists,” Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Neb., tweeted Friday. “Bring the balloon down now and exploit its tech package, which could be an intelligence bonanza.”
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“Shoot. It. Down,” Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont., tweeted Thursday. “The Chinese spy balloon is clear provocation. In Montana we do not bow. We shoot it down. Take the shot.”
“Biden should shoot down the Chinese spy balloon immediately,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., tweeted Thursday. “President Trump would have never tolerated this. President Trump would have never tolerated many things happening to America.”
Those comments follow reports that Biden followed guidance not to shoot down the Chinese spy balloon because his administration does not view it as an immediate military threat. Another factor in the decision is the possibility of debris harming civilians and destroying property as it falls from the sky, according to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.
“Shoot down the balloon,” Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley tweeted Friday. “Cancel Blinken’s trip. Hold China accountable. Biden is letting China walk all over us. It’s time to make America strong again.”
Secretary of State Antony Blinken was scheduled to visit China in coming days and meet with President Xi Jinping, but suspended the trip Friday.
The People’s Republic of China said Friday that the balloon is Chinese civilian airship for weather research that deviated from its path.
“The airship is from China,” a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson confirmed. “It is a civilian airship used for research, mainly meteorological, purposes. Affected by the Westerlies and with limited self-steering capability, the airship deviated far from its planned course.”
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House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy did not go as far as some of his members to call for Biden to shoot down the balloon, but he did request a meeting of the Gang of Eight, which includes the top two leaders and intelligence committee members from both parties in each chamber.
“China’s brazen disregard for U.S. sovereignty is a destabilizing action that must be addressed, and President Biden cannot be silent,” McCarthy tweeted Thursday. “I am requesting a Gang of Eight briefing.”