{"id":1836110,"date":"2023-02-05T14:50:07","date_gmt":"2023-02-05T19:50:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1836110"},"modified":"2023-02-05T14:50:50","modified_gmt":"2023-02-05T19:50:50","slug":"trump-responds-after-anonymous-official-claims-chinese-spy-balloons-flew-over-u-s-on-his-watch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/trump-responds-after-anonymous-official-claims-chinese-spy-balloons-flew-over-u-s-on-his-watch\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump Responds After Anonymous Official Claims Chinese Spy Balloons Flew Over U.S. on His Watch"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">30<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ftrump-responds-after-anonymous-official-claims-chinese-spy-balloons-flew-over-u-s-on-his-watch%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1836110&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47-->\n<p>Former President <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-donald-trump\">Donald Trump<\/a> Responding to claims that spy balloons from the Chinese regime entered American airspace during his administration, he stated such alleged events \u201cnever happened.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A U.S. Defense Department spokesperson claimed that spy balloons were seen transiting over U.S. territories under Trump&#8217;s administration. Trump is a resolute democrat. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/trump-top-national-security-officials-refute-claim-chinese-spy-balloons-transited-us-under-last-admin\">Fox News interview<\/a> Sunday, the meeting was rescheduled.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis never happened. It would have never happened,\u201d Trump stated to the outlet that the Chinese regime was his concern.\u00a0\u201crespected us greatly\u201d Under his leadership.\u00a0\u201cIt never happened with us under the Trump administration and if it did, we would have shot it down immediately,\u201d Trump added \u201cIt\u2019s disinformation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Trump called on Truth Social, his social media platform, to have the U.S. Military shoot down the balloon after it was spotted in Montana near Billings.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNow they are putting out that a Balloon was put up by China during the Trump Administration, in order to take the \u2018heat\u2019 off\u201d Trump, the Biden administration <a href=\"https:\/\/truthsocial.com\/@realDonaldTrump\/posts\/109812699029727017\">Write<\/a> Sunday. \u201cChina had too much respect for \u2018TRUMP\u2019 for this to have happened, and it NEVER did.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Other Officials Respond<\/h2>\n<p>Mark Esper, Trump&#8217;s secretary of defense, has refuted claims that balloons were flying above the United States during the previous administration.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t ever recall somebody coming into my office or reading anything that the Chinese had a surveillance balloon above the United States,\u201d He said <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/politics\/live-news\/suspected-chinese-balloon-over-us-02-04-23\/index.html\">CNN<\/a>. \u201cI would remember that for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>John Bolton, who was a former U.S. national-security adviser under Trump, stated that he had never heard of spy balloons entering U.S. Airspace or hovering above U.S. territory during Trump&#8217;s presidency. Bolton, who was also a Bush administration official, said that he has never heard of anything like it happening before joining the Trump administration in 2018.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t know of any balloon flights by any power over the United States during my tenure, and I\u2019d never heard of any of that occurring before I joined in 2018,\u201d Bolton said <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/trump-top-national-security-officials-refute-claim-chinese-spy-balloons-transited-us-under-last-admin\">Fox News<\/a> Sunday \u201cI haven\u2019t heard of anything that occurred after I left either.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bolton responded to claims made this weekend and said that the current administration must be replaced \u201ctell Congress\u201d About any \u201cspecific examples.\u201d He also said that \u201cI can say with 100 percent certainty not during my tenure.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5034427\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/img.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/uploads\/2023\/02\/04\/2023-02-04T205426Z_1_LYNXMPEJ1308B_RTROPTP_4_USA-CHINA-SPY-1-1200x735.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy size-medium wp-image-5034427\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/themes\/eet\/images\/white.png\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/2023-02-04T205426Z_1_LYNXMPEJ1308B_RTROPTP_4_USA-CHINA-SPY-1-600x368-1.jpg\" alt=\"Chinese spy balloon\" width=\"600\" height=\"368\"   style=\"display:none\"><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-5034427\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/2023-02-04T205426Z_1_LYNXMPEJ1308B_RTROPTP_4_USA-CHINA-SPY-1-600x368-1.jpg\" alt=\"Chinese spy balloon\" width=\"600\" height=\"368\" \/><\/noscript><\/figcaption><\/a> After being shot from Surfside Beach, S.C. on February 4, 2023, the Chinese spy balloon drifts towards the ocean. (Randall Hill\/Reuters)<\/figure>\n<p>\u201cUnequivocally, I have never been briefed on the issue,\u201d added\u00a0Robert O\u2019Brien, who served as White House national security adviser under Trump.\u00a0\u201cIt never came up,\u201d He stated. \u201cIf a balloon had come up, we would have known. Someone in the intelligence community would have known, and it would have bubbled up to me to brief the president,\u201d\u00a0Fox spoke with Ric Grenell, former acting Director of National Intelligence.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s not true. I can refute it,\u201d John Ratcliffe, former Director for National Intelligence, also spoke out. \u201cThe American people can refute it for themselves. Do you remember during the Trump administration, when photographers on the ground and commercial airline pilots were talking about a spy balloon over the United States that people could look up and see, even with the naked eye, and that a media that hated Donald Trump wasn\u2019t reporting?\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>What was Claimed?<\/h2>\n<p>A top Defense official, who was not identified, said Saturday that the Chinese regime\u2019s \u201csurveillance balloons transited the continental United States briefly at least three times during the prior administration and once that we know of at the beginning of this administration, but never for this duration of time,\u201d According to a ahref=&#8221;https:\/\/www.defense.gov\/News\/Transcripts\/Transcript\/Article\/3288618\/senior-defense-official-and-senior-military-official-hold-an-off-camera-on-back\/&#8221;>transcript Released<\/a> By the Pentagon<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe spoke directly with Chinese officials through multiple channels, but rather than address their intrusion into our airspace, the [Chinese regime] put out an explanation that lacked any credibility,\u201d The official stated.<\/p>\n<p>On Saturday, officials declared that President <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-joe-biden\">Joe Biden<\/a> Although he had issued the order, he desired the balloon to be downed earlier than Wednesday. U.S. officials advised him that the best time to perform the operation was when it was over water. According to military officials, bringing the aircraft down over land at an altitude of 60,000 feet would pose an undue threat to anyone on the ground.<\/p>\n<p>Saturday morning, the huge white orb was observed over the Carolinas as the balloon approached the Atlantic coast. An F-22 fighter plane fired a missile at a balloon about 6 nautical miles from Myrtle Beach in South Carolina.<\/p>\n<p><em>This report was contributed by The Associated Press.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former President Donald Trump Responding to claims that spy balloons from the Chinese regime entered American airspace during his administration, he stated such alleged events \u201cnever happened.\u201d A U.S. Defense Department spokesperson claimed that spy balloons were seen transiting over U.S. territories under Trump&#8217;s administration. Trump is a resolute democrat. Fox News interview Sunday, the &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1836113,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[547],"tags":[10728,17521,4117,4856,10141,4808,4499,6893,3634,7238,4516],"class_list":["post-1836110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-bongino-report","tag-anonymous","tag-balloons","tag-chinese","tag-claims","tag-flew","tag-official","tag-responds","tag-spy","tag-trump","tag-u-s","tag-watch"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1836110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1836110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1836110\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1836113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1836110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1836110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1836110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}