The Pentagon is warning that shooting down the Chinese spy balloon could endanger the lives of Americans with falling debris, but that hasn’t stopped Republicans from calling for it to be shot down.
Here is just a sample of the Republicans who would like to kill some Americans with falling debris:
Biden should shoot down the Chinese spy balloon immediately.
President Trump would have never tolerated this.
President Trump would have never tolerated many things happening to America.
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) February 2, 2023
Shoot down the Chinese spy balloon.
Go ahead and send the Secretary of State to China next week.
Have @SecBlinken Look them in the eye and tell em- it better never happen again.
That’s Peace Through Strength🇺🇸
— Mike Pence (@Mike_Pence) February 3, 2023
(Mike Pence isn’t very up on current events. Sec. of State Blinken’s trip to China was already canceled before he tweeted.)
Former President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social and called for the U.S. to shoot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon that was spotted in American airspace. https://t.co/l4rVVhDRxx pic.twitter.com/y5kfgBBtj9
— NEWSMAX (@NEWSMAX) February 3, 2023
(Trump is an expert on killing Americans. He wiped out nearly a million of us during COVID.).
Why won’t Biden shoot down the Chinese spy balloon that is currently flying over the United States?
The Chinese Communist Party is a threat to our existence.
— Sen. Marsha Blackburn (@MarshaBlackburn) February 2, 2023
(Marsha Blackburn doesn’t understand why Biden is so reluctant to jeopardize innocent American lives.)
It turns out that President Biden immediately considered shooting down the Chinese spy balloon, but there was a reason why he decided against it right now.
CBS News reported:
A source familiar with the situation told CBS News that, when briefed on Wednesday, Mr. Biden had initially wanted to shoot down the balloon. But as he sought military options from Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Milley and others, they advised against such action because of the risk to people on the ground.
The administration was still deciding Friday what to do about the balloon when it reaches an area where it would be safe to shoot down, a U.S. official told CBS News.
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The balloon is not small. It is three buses long, so shooting it down in an area with any population would put lives at risk. The balloon also does not contain any more intelligence-gathering capability than China already has with satellites, so it is not an immediate threat to national security or the American people.
Republicans want to shoot down the balloon as a political gesture, and they don’t care if people die.
The bigger threat to human life isn’t the Chinese balloon, but the Republicans who want to shoot it down right now.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
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