Romney rises to Biden’s defense on Chinese spy balloon in break with GOP
Samantha-Jo Roth
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Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) defended the Biden administration’s decision to wait to shoot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina following an all-senators classified briefing Thursday.
In a break with his colleagues, the Utah senator said he was satisfied with the answers he received from administration officials from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Department of Defense, and State Department.
“My questions were satisfactorily answered, and I believe the administration, the president, our military, and our intelligence agencies acted skillfully and with care. At the same time, their capabilities are extraordinarily impressive,” Romney said as he left the briefing.
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Romney admitted that some parts of the operation could have been handled differently but said he felt the Biden administration made the right decision to shoot down the balloon.
“Was everything done 100% correctly? I can’t imagine that would be the case of almost anything we do. But I came away more confident,” Romney said.
Romney’s opinion differed from many other GOP senators who continue to criticize the Biden administration for not taking steps to shoot down the balloon sooner and say the White House had not been sufficiently transparent.
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“I still have a lot of questions about a Chinese spy balloon that hovered over the most powerful weapons known to mankind, which are called intercontinental ballistic missiles. These are weapons of mass destruction,” said Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) following the classified briefing on the matter.
“If they had taken it down over Montana,” he continued, “I guarantee you they could have taken down that balloon, the spy balloon, and the greatest risk would have been hitting a cow, a prairie dog, or an antelope.”