Suspected spy balloons from China crossed into the continental United States at least three times during the Trump administration, according to a statement Saturday by the Department of Defense citing an unnamed “senior defense offical.”
None of those four incursions reportedly lasted as long as the trip by the spy balloon shot down Saturday by the U.S. military. And none of the other balloons was apparently blown out of the sky, though that was not immediately confirmed.
The spy balloon visits while Trump was in office undermined outrage by Republicans who complained that Biden didn’t order the balloon this time around shot down quickly enough — or that he shouldn’t have allowed the balloon to enter U.S. airspace to begin with.
Trump himself joined the call for the Biden administration to destroy the most recent balloon in a message Friday on Truth Social, saying: “SHOOT DOWN THE BALLOON.” But he did not discuss his own administration’s experience with China spy balloons.
Likely Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley also beat up on Biden for not taking more immediate action, but also failed to address balloons in the last administration.
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