Trump’s last Pentagon chief pans Biden ‘Keystone Kops’ China balloon response
Mike Brest
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Former President Donald Trump’s last acting defense secretary is unaware of any instances of Chinese surveillance balloons encroaching airspace over the continental United States.
Christopher Miller, who served in an acting capacity from October 2020 through the end of the Trump administration, told the Washington Examiner in an interview on Monday, “I can say definitively that I was not aware of that ever happening.”
TRUMP DENIES ACCOUNTS OF CHINESE BALLOONS ENTERING US UNDER HIS WATCH
Miller is the latest in a string of former government officials who have denied the claim, which first emerged from a current senior defense official who told reporters on Saturday that “PRC government surveillance balloons transited the continental United States briefly at least three times during the prior administration.”
A Department of Defense spokesperson declined to provide additional details of those incidents, while a senior administration official told Fox News that “this information was discovered after the [Trump] administration left,” which could explain how Trump officials would be unaware of them.
The balloon first entered U.S. airspace last Saturday but then crossed into Canadian airspace until Tuesday, when it reentered U.S. airspace over Idaho before it became publicized over Montana the next day, according to a senior defense official. The balloon traveled across the country before the U.S. military shot it down over the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of the Carolinas on Saturday afternoon.
“The Chinese Balloon situation is a disgrace, just like the Afghanistan horror show, and everything else surrounding the grossly incompetent Biden Administration,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Sunday. “They are putting out that a Balloon was put up by China during the Trump Administration, in order to take the ‘heat’ off the slow moving Biden fools. China had too much respect for ‘TRUMP’ for this to have happened, and it NEVER did. JUST FAKE DISINFORMATION!”
Former Defense Secretary Mark Esper, who was Miller’s predecessor, also denied having knowledge of a Chinese spy balloon, while five senior Trump administration officials told Politico they were never told of such incidents occurring when they were in office. The Biden administration has offered to brief some former Trump officials on the newly discovered intelligence, the outlet reported.
Defense officials said this current balloon debacle was different from the previous three due to the length of time it spent over U.S. airspace and that it went inland. U.S. officials told Fox News on Sunday that a Chinese spy balloon crashed into the Pacific off the coast of Hawaii four months ago, while Rep. Michael Waltz (R-FL) told CNN the Pentagon briefed members of Congress about previous Chinese surveillance balloons that flew near Texas and Florida during the Trump administration.
President Joe Biden authorized the military to bring it down on Wednesday once it was deemed safe to do so, which defense officials determined would not be until it was no longer over U.S. territory due to concerns over the damage it would cause. The balloon, which was reported to be the size of multiple school buses, was at 60,000-65,000 feet in the sky as it traversed the continental United States.
Miller described the military’s handling of the Chinese spy balloon as akin to the famous “Keystone Kops,” referencing humorously incompetent police officers depicted in various silent films. He added, “We look really feckless when a silly ass balloon [travels] across the United States over some of our sensitive military facilities, and we just kind of let it go. So it’s beyond understandable for me, I’d love to know more about what the decision-making process was inside the administration.”
The Pentagon’s decision not to shoot the balloon down until it traversed the country from west to east has garnered near universal condemnation in conservative circles on Capitol Hill, accusing the president of failing to act. Conversely, defense officials argued that choosing not to allowed them to gain intelligence from the balloon itself.
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“I would also note that while we take all necessary steps to protect against the PRC surveillance balloon, collection of sensitive information to surveillance balloons overflight of U.S. territory was of intelligence value to us,” the current senior defense official, who briefed reporters over the weekend, said. “I can’t go into more detail but we were able to study and scrutinize the balloon and its equipment, which has been valuable.”
The mission is now a recovery one, as U.S. Naval and Coast Guard troops work to gather the remnants of the spy balloon. A senior military official that briefed reporters said the debris is in water about 47 feet deep and over a seven-mile radius.