Senate Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Roger Wicker (R-MS) issued a furious statement after he learned from a news report — not directly from the Pentagon, despite his repeated requests — that the Chinese spy balloon did in fact collect intelligence on sensitive military sites and send it back to China in real time.
“We have consistently learned more from press reports about the Chinese surveillance balloon than we have from administration officials,” Wicker said, following a report from NBC News on Monday.
“These revelations clearly demonstrate that the administration made an unacceptable mistake. I will not abandon my oversight efforts to discover the full range of information related to this event, and I intend to hold this administration accountable,” he said.
The report, based on comments from two current senior United States officials and a former senior administration official, said the Chinese spy balloon the Biden administration let traverse the continental United States for days gathered intelligence from “several” military sites and sent that information back to Beijing.
That was despite the Biden administration downplaying the significance of the balloon, saying the balloon could not get much more intelligence than Chinese satellites and arguing that it took measures to protect sensitive military sites.
Biden claimed he ordered the Pentagon to shoot down the balloon, but that military advisers recommended against it due to the risk from falling debris. However, a Bloomberg report said the administration had hoped to keep its existence secret from the American public so as not to derail an upcoming trip to Beijing by Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Wicker has previously pressed Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin for answers on the Pentagon’s handling of the spy balloon. He wrote in a previous letter that Austin had first told him that he was not aware of the balloon on January 29 because he was traveling in Asia, but then later said he was first notified of the balloon on January 27, before it entered U.S. airspace.
“Can you please explain the difference between what you told me on February 6 – which was that you had not known for a few days because you were traveling in Asia – and what you wrote in your letter, which is that you knew about the HAB [High Altitude Balloon] and were tracking it all along,” Wicker asked.
Wicker asked Austin why he did not request options to shoot down the balloon as it headed towards United States airspace until after it had traversed Alaska and Canada and then reentered the U.S.
He also requested information on Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl’s steps during the incident, and suggested that Kahl had leaked to the press for political reasons the existence of three Chinese spy balloons that had entered U.S. airspace during the Trump administration.
“I am concerned that Under Secretary Kahl leaked this information for partisan ends, because he left out an important fact, which was that the Trump administration was not aware of those previous balloons at the time, and therefore had no opportunity to counter them,” he said.
“When, and through what process, was the information regarding prior Chinese surveillance balloons cleared for release, and who cleared it for release?” Wicker asked.
WATCH: “I Think They’re Compromised” — Rep. Tim Burchett on Biden Admin’s China Balloon Debacle
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