(FreedomBeacon.com)- The Chinese government put President Joe Biden to the test again recently, and according to many people in Washington, he failed miserably.
When the Communist country sent a surveillance balloon to fly over the United States last weekend, they tested the might and fortitude of the president. Yet, Republican Representative Ryan Zinke from Montana said he believed the ordeal – and how it was handled by the Biden administration – was “another example of showing weakness.”
Zinke is a former Navy SEAL, so he knows a thing or two about military operations. He said that the balloon “should have been shot down” the moment that it entered U.S. territory. Instead, the Biden administration allowed it to fly from one coast to the other – right across the heart of America – before finally shooting it down over the Atlantic Ocean.
That means the balloon was able to traverse the entire continental United States – in plain sight – before Biden decided to do something about it.
Zinke commented on the situation:
“I’ve been to the Aleutian chain. It’s one of the most isolated, desolate spots on the face of the planet, and then it drifts over Montana and the governor doesn’t know about it. Congress doesn’t know about it. Look, this thing should have been shot down the moment it entered the U.S. airspace, period.”
It wasn’t until last Thursday that the public was made aware of the balloon’s presence. That happened after a Montana photographer saw it flying over the city of Billings.
On Saturday, Biden administration officials said at a press briefing that the Pentagon was tracking the Chinese balloon ever since it first entered U.S. airspace, which happened right near the Aleutian Islands. That happened way back on January 28.
Once photos of the Chinese balloon began to circulate online and then on many major media outlets, public officials everywhere were questioning why the Biden administration was allowing it to continue floating over the United States. The concerns ramped up once confirmation was made that the balloon belonged to China.
The balloon ended up flying across the entire country, going from Montana through Missouri and finally exiting the continental U.S. off the coast of South Carolina. Once it was clear over the ocean, a missile ultimately took it down.
After the balloon was shot down, a senior official serving in defense for the Biden administration said:
“The president was comfortable with us taking the balloon down if we could avoid undue risk to civilians, and so we worked up an option to take it out over the water, and that’s what we did this afternoon.”
Still, Zinke said there were missed opportunities for the Biden administration to take action much earlier and send a stronger message to China. He commented about the defense official’s statement:
“That doesn’t hold any water in the Aleutian chain and Montana,” since both are very rural landscapes that would have provided little to no threat to civilians below.
