(RepublicanNews.org) – Calls to shoot down a Chinese spy balloon floating over Montana got a boost from former President Donald Trump who called on President Joe Biden to shoot it down.
The Pentagon is tracking the balloon, which has been described as the size of three school buses. Pentagon leader said January 2 that they considered shooting the balloon down but decided against it due to danger from falling debris.
That’s not good enough for several national lawmakers as well as those from Montana.
Republican senator Steve Daines called on the Biden administration for a “full briefing” on the situation.
Former South Carolina governor Republican Nicki Haley went farther, tweeting “shoot down the balloon”. She also called on the Biden administration to cancel Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s upcoming trip to China, which country, she says, the US needs to hold accountable.
Haley characterized President Biden as allowing China to “walk all over” the US.
Montana governor Greg Gianforte, a Republican, says that it’s not just the balloon, but also the Chinese-made phone application TikTok, that’s helping the Chinese Communist Party gather intelligence on Americans.
Republicans aren’t the only ones who see the social media app as dangerous. At the end of 2022, Congress banned the downloading or installation of TikTok on government phones.
But GOP lawmakers are taking the lead, with Missouri’s Republican Senator Josh Hawley and Colorado Republican Representative Ken Buck introducing legislation in January that would ban the application entirely from the US.
China had admitted that the balloon floating over Montana belonged to them. The People’s Republic of China said Friday February 3 that the “airship” is used for “research” and “mainly meteorological” purposes. In the same statement, the Chinese government said it regretted the “unintended entry” of the craft into US space, which it said was due to “force majeure.”
The US military shot the balloon down over the Atlantic Ocean the next day.
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