A principle that I might have previously mentioned regarding the spreading of misinformation about President Donald Trump is:
It is the 48-hour rule. Wait 48 hours before you commit to buying into it. It will start to crumble in that time period, just like God made little green apples.
On Saturday, a report emerged that claimed three Chinese balloons were seen entering American airspace during the Trump Administration. This report was made just as Joe Biden was facing a lot of criticism for his slow response and came without any details from an unnamed defense official. The only thing that was clear was that the intruders did not occur over U.S. territory for the same length of time as the previous week. The report was quickly dismissed by the Trump team, including President Donald Trump.
Now there are more details of this story. According to a “senior administration official,” it’s apparently “U.S. intelligence, not the Biden administration” assessing that “PRC government surveillance balloons transited the continental U.S. 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.”
An official said that this was “part of a larger pattern.”
“These balloons are part of a PRC fleet that was developed to conduct surveillance operations. These have also violated the sovereignty of other countries,” explained the official, adding that such activities are often carried out at the direction “often” by the People’s Liberation Army.
According to the official, Chinese balloons were spotted on five continents over the years including East Asia, South Asia, and Europe.
Fox News Digital’s official stated that “Two things could be true simultaneously: this happened and it was not detected.”
Officials say the previous incident under Biden occurred four months ago when the balloon collided near Hawaii.
Let’s begin with the fact that the balloons were not detected. How could anyone respond? If true, this would appear to exonerate Trump and explain why they didn’t hear of it.
This raises another question: How could they be missed? This is why our military systems are designed to detect such things and raise more questions. If they are able to enter our airspace unnoticed, it could be a threat to national security. This would indicate a serious weakness in our detection defense.
The story has “evolved” – we heard it from an “unnamed senior officer.” Now, a “senior official” claims that this was from the “U.S.” These 51 ex-IC officials told us Hunter Biden’s laptop contained Russian disinformation. This assessment is based on what? How are the IC people “detecting” it now if it wasn’t detected by the military? What are their assumptions? They claim that the military cannot pick up slow-moving balloons.
There are more people who say they have never heard of this. Nearly every Trump official said that they had never heard of it. I covered Trump, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, and National Security Advisor John Bolton.
You can also add the intelligence personnel, John Ratcliffe and Ric Grenell, former Directors of National Intelligence.
Fox News Digital spoke to Ric Grenell, former acting Director of National Intelligence, about his leadership of the intelligence community during the onset of COVID. He said that he conducted “one of the largest intelligence deep dives” on China, their spying, and the origins of COVID.
He said, “It never rose up.” “We would have known if a balloon had risen if it had. Someone from the intelligence community would know, and it would bubble up to me to brief him.”
John Ratcliffe, the former Director of National Intelligence, refuted the claim. He led ODNI through Grenell’s departure and the Trump administration’s end.
It’s false. Ratcliffe stated on “Sunday Morning Futures” that he could refute the claim. “The American people have the ability to refute it.” Do you recall during the Trump administration when commercial airline pilots and photographers were discussing a spy balloon that was visible in the sky over the United States? And that this was something that a hateful media wasn’t reporting on?
He said, “I don’t recall that either because it never happened.”
You also have Robert O’Brien, National Security Advisor, Deputy Secretary of Defense for East Asia Heinoklinck, and Chris Miller, acting Defense Secretary, who previously held the position of Director of the National Counterterrorism Center.
If the ex-intel personnel claim they weren’t told, then how can these alleged “IC” people make this judgment now?
It’s safe to assume that something is rotten in this story. However, members of Congress should investigate what’s happening here. Is there a real danger being missed or is it the Biden team trying to gaslight us again?
