“I think part of it is the president’s reluctance to take any action that would be seen as provocative or confrontational toward Chinese communists,” said Republican Tom Cotton, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Former President Donald Trump and his former director of national intelligence, John Ratcliffe, denied Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s assessment that similar balloons crossed the United States during his presidency.
“China had too much respect for ‘Trump’ for this to happen, and it never happened,” Trump wrote on the social media site TruthSocial.
But Republican Representative Michael Waltz backed Austin, telling the Washington Post that the Pentagon had informed Congress that Chinese balloons had been seen near the United States several times during Trump’s tenure.
He said the balloons had been seen near Texas and twice near Florida, as well as earlier sightings near Hawaii and Guam.
Democrats said Biden’s decision to wait to shoot down the balloon until it had passed over the United States protected civilians from debris falling to Earth.
“The president called for dealing with this in a way that balanced all the different risks. That’s exactly what happened,” US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”