Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) called for an investigation on Monday into why former President Donald Trump wasn’t notified of suspected Chinese spy balloon incidents during his presidency.
Officials revealed that there had been four other balloon incidents previously, with three of those occurring during the Trump administration. Trump has fervently denied that the previous incidents took place, calling it disinformation. Greene is alleging that the Pentagon purposefully withheld the information from Trump’s administration.
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“If it’s true the Pentagon purposely did NOT tell President Trump of Chinese Spy Balloons during his administration then we had a serious breach in command during the Trump admin. The POTUS is the Commander in Chief. We must investigate and hold accountable those who broke rank,” Greene tweeted.
If it’s true the Pentagon purposely did NOT tell President Trump of Chinese Spy Balloons during his administration then we had a serious breach in command during the Trump admin.
The POTUS is the Commander in Chief.
We must investigate and hold accountable those who broke rank.
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) February 6, 2023
Pentagon press secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder seemed to say that the Pentagon was aware of previous balloon incursions in a statement Thursday.
“Instances of this kind of balloon activity have been observed previously over the past several years,” he said. “Once the balloon was detected, the U.S. government acted immediately to protect against the collection of sensitive information.”
However, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby has since said that the Pentagon was only aware of the incursions after President Joe Biden came into office.
Trump, on the other hand, dismissed the claim that incursions had occurred under his administration altogether.
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“The Chinese Balloon situation is a disgrace, just like the Afghanistan horror show, and everything else surrounding the grossly incompetent Biden Administration,” he wrote on Truth Social. “They are putting out that a Balloon was put up by China during the Trump Administration, in order to take the ‘heat’ off the slow moving Biden fools. China had too much respect for ‘TRUMP’ for this to have happened, and it NEVER did.”
Various former Trump officials, including former national security adviser John Bolton, have also denied that any such incursions took place. Kirby said that the White House has reached out to several former Trump officials to offer a briefing on the subject, though he didn’t name which ones.
