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‘How Could Officials Know That?’: Tucker Carlson Rips Biden Admin For Claiming Chinese Spy Balloon ‘Posed No Threat’

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Fox News host Tucker Carlson blasted the Biden administration Monday for saying that a Chinese balloon “posed no threat” to national security.

“On January 28th, the balloon entered U.S. airspace over Alaska. From there, it traveled over the northwest territories of Canada and then it dropped back into the United States over Idaho. By last Wednesday, February 1st, it was spotted by civilians in the skies over southern Montana,” Carlson, an honorary member of the Daily Caller News Foundation board, said.

“A man staring out of the window of an office building in Billings saw what he thought was a UFO. It was too small to be the moon, he said,” Carlson continued. “He began to take pictures. It soon appeared on social media. Almost immediately the air space over Billings, over the entire town was shut down. Commercial flights were diverted. F-22 Raptors arrived from a nearby air force base along with refueling tankers and AWACS surveillance plane. It was a big story.”

WATCH:

The balloon, which the Chinese claimed was a civilian meteorological research platform that went off course, was shot down off the coast of South Carolina Saturday. A second balloon overflew multiple countries in Latin America, the Department of Defense (DOD) confirmed Friday.

“As Chinese officials have themselves acknowledged, this high-altitude surveillance balloon belonged to the People’s Republic of China. The balloon never posed a military or physical threat to the American people. However, its intrusion of our airspace for multiple days was an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty,” the Department of Defense said after the balloon was neutralized.

“Debris was still fluttering toward the ocean when the administration began telling lies, many of them about what had happened. That balloon posed no threat to American national security, the Biden Administration claimed,” Carlson said.” “Why? Because the balloon never transmitted data back to China. Now, how could officials know that? They never explained, nor did they say whether the Chinese military would send one of its aircraft all the way to the U.S. without a satellite uplink.”

Carlson noted other media outlets pushed claims from DOD officials that Chinese balloons had flown over the U.S. during the Trump administration, a claim disputed by senior officials in the Trump administration.

“So what is the real story here? Honestly, we don’t know. The Pentagon ignored our many questions today. Of course they did, because we’re not going to transcribe them. So once again, the people who owe you the truth are lying to you,” Carlson said. “So tonight all we know with certainty is that the Chinese military just flew an aircraft that reportedly contained explosives over the entire length of the United States and got away with it. That seems like a bad precedent.”