President Biden has proven he is incompetent on the world stage. Whether it’s his disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal or his edging us closer to WWIII, it doesn’t get much worse than him.
And now Joe Biden gave the military a horrific stand-down order that endangers everyone.
Joe Biden has been handing away America’s security on a silver platter to the Chinese government.
Weeks ago, he allowed the infamous Chinese Spy balloon to fly unimpeded across the country – only shooting it down after traversing from West to East coast.
The excuses heaped up by the administration were laughably thin.
Shooting down the balloon would “endanger” people on the ground because of how big it is.
Americans were really supposed to believe that shooting down a balloon over rural Montana was going to have catastrophic collateral damage.
But now we’re learning Biden denied the military’s request to shoot down the balloon before it entered U.S. airspace near Alaska.
Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) told a think-tank audience on Thursday that the Pentagon declined a request from Alaska’s 11th Air Force to fire down a Chinese spy balloon before it reached American airspace.
At the Hudson Institute, Sullivan stated that the Alaska unit’s F-22 and F-35 fighter jets had monitored the balloon “from afar” and asked permission to shoot it down before it entered US airspace on January 28, but were rejected. The North America Aerospace Defense Command includes the 11th Air Force (NORAD).
“Our Alaska commanders requested permission to shoot it down. Was denied,” Sullivan said in comments first reported by the Financial Times. “I’m not sure that’s public, but it’s a fact,” he said.
The balloon originally entered US airspace over the Aleutian Islands on January 28, then flew into Canadian airspace before returning to US airspace on January 31. Yet, according to previous Pentagon briefings, President Joe Biden was not told until February 1.
Air Force Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder, Pentagon Press Secretary, informed the Financial Times that NORAD Commander Gen. Glen VanHerck had directed the 11th Air Force to “identify and monitor the high altitude balloon,” and that “it did not present an immediate military threat.”
VanHerck pushed the decision to “higher authority,” according to Ryder, while NORAD and Northern Command proceeded to “develop options.”
On February 1, Biden apparently directed the military to shoot down the balloon when it was safe to do so.
The military did not do so until February 4, when it flew across the continental United States and out into the Atlantic Ocean from South Carolina.
The Pentagon has not stated when or where the balloon was first monitored, or why it was not shot down before entering US airspace and hovering over vital military locations.
Despite the fact that the Aleutian Islands and some parts of Montana are sparsely populated, the Pentagon claimed it did not want to shoot down the balloon after it entered US airspace because it did not pose a risk to civilian aircraft and because it was concerned about avoiding casualties on the ground.
After people spotted the balloon in Montana, the Biden administration canceled Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s trip to Beijing. Before civilians noticed the balloon, the Pentagon claims it was planning to publicize its presence.
Stay tuned to The Federalist Wire.
