‘Shoot the Thing Down!’: Right Loses Their Minds Over Chinese Balloon
Meanwhile, the US military determines the airship "does not present military or physical threat"
While President Biden was closing out his workweek crowing over unexpectedly strong unemployment figures for the nation, those on the political right were not only trying to politicize the appearance of a Chinese balloon over the United States — they seemed to be working themselves into full-on paranoia over the airship.
The federal government gave Biden armor for his economic policies Friday by reporting that the January jobs picture showed nonfarm payrolls increased by 517,000 — far higher than the 187,000 market estimate.
The unemployment rate fell to 3.4 percent versus the estimate for 3.6 percent. That is the lowest jobless level since May 1969.
While Biden spent the day pouncing on those numbers as the continuing success of his economic policies, his political opponents were utterly fixated on the Chinese balloon which made its way into Montana and continued sailing high above the continental United States.
The “maneuverable” balloon was first spotted Tuesday, has already traveled over sensitive military sites — and is expected to remain in American airspace for several more days, US officials say.
The US military assessed that it wasn't a threat.
“In regards to our announcement last night regarding the high altitude surveillance balloon, I’m not going to have much new information to provide other than to say that the North American Aerospace Defense Command continues to monitor it closely,” Pentagon spokesman Patrick Ryder told the press. “While we won’t get into specifics in regards to the exact location, I can tell you that the balloon continues to move eastward and is currently over the center of the continental United States. Again, we currently assess that the balloon does not present a military or physical threat to people on the ground at this time, and we’ll continue to continue to monitor and review options.”
Further, Secretary of State Antony Blinken cancelled an upcoming meeting with Chinese officials in protest of the balloon flying over the United States.
Not good enough, according to the political right.
Donald Trump Jr not only demanded an immediate military response to the balloon, he connected its arrival with that perennial right-wing boogyman, Hunter Biden.
“You think the billion-dollar Chinese investment in Hunter Biden was because he was a ‘wonderful investor?’ All those incredible crackheads on Wall Street. You know, there’s lots of them, folks. The Chinese, you know, they don’t do any diligence, they just hand out billions like Oprah hands out books,” the former president's son said in an online video, in which he appeared highly agitated and not entirely coherent. “Like, stop. Shoot the thing down, figure out what’s going on. Don’t look like a weakling. If some of this stuff was even, like, one percent of this was happening under my father and it involved me, it would be a global story, non-ending, it would never end. Incessant bombardment.”
His father, the one-time occupant of the Oval Office, not only politicized the balloon — he pulled it into his grievances with the Justice Department and FBI over the various criminal investigations against him ongoing.
“Congress needs to dig deep into the financial operations of the University of Pennsylvania, its Chinese donors, the Biden Center, and the Biden family, and figure out what the hell is going on,” pulling familiar strings on the right in which the Biden family has somehow been corrupted by the Chinese government. “As president, I took the most dramatic action of any administration to curtail China’s ability to conduct espionage in the United States. And when I’m back in the White House, those efforts will be expanded in a very, very big way.
“Instead of hunting down Republicans, a reformed FBI and Justice Department will be hunting down Chinese spies. We will create new partnerships with businesses and universities to give them the tools to protect themselves from insider threats,” added Trump, who has announced a new bid for the White House in 2024. “We will also impose whatever visa sanctions and travel restrictions are necessary to shut off Chinese access to American secrets in compliance with our demands and in compliance with our laws.”
It wasn't only the Trumps hyperventilating over the balloon — but also those who ought to know better, such as former defense secretary Mark Esper.
“I think it is a brazen act by the Chinese to do this. We were just talking about whether or not it has more or less intelligence value than what they currently have. I don’t think we know. And so, my interest would be not necessarily shooting it down, but bringing it down so that we can capture the equipment and understand exactly what they’re doing,” he said in an on-camera appearance on CNN. “Are they taking pictures? Are they intercepting signals? What are they doing, and what is the level of technical capability? It will tell us a lot about what they’re trying to do, what they’re trying to learn, and what their capability is of doing that. Now failing that, I would definitely shoot it down, provided that there’s no risk to people on the ground.”
Except that there is a risk in shooting it down, according to the US military.
“We do continue to monitor the balloon. We do know that it is a surveillance balloon. In terms of the size, I’m not able to get into the specifics other than to say that it is big enough that, again, in reviewing our approach, we do recognize that any potential debris field would be significant and potentially cause civilian injuries or deaths or significant property damage,” Ryder said. “So, again, this is part of the calculus in terms of our overall assessment. But, again, we’ll continue to monitor it.”
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