Caught Lying: Biden Admin’s Kirby Can’t Explain How Balloons Could be Tracked During Trump Years
In the wake of the first Chinese Spy Balloon crossing the continental United States, the Biden Administration attempted to save face by announcing that similar incidents also occurred during the Trump years.
In early February, the Biden Administration admitted that a China spy balloon had been seen crossing over the US. It was first spotted a week earlier in Alaska, at the end of January, flying from there through Canada and down to the continental US. US Citizens in Montana first saw the balloon. Over the next week, it was allowed to traverse the entire US, finally being shot down after crossing over South Carolina and reaching the Atlantic Ocean. Its debris is yet to be recovered. To most Americans, the event seemed unprecedented.
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The Biden Administration immediately moved to damage control. They insisted that a similar event happened during the Trump years three times, a narrative that the media ran with.
However, several Trump officials, including the former President himself, contradicted the story. Former Trump advisor John Bolton, former DNI Ric Grenell, Former Defense Secretary Mark Esper, Former Secretary of State and CIA Director Mike Pompeo, Former President Trump, Defense Secretary Mattis, and former DNI John Ratcliffe spoke out that that this was a lie.
Keith Kellogg, who served on the Trump White House National Security Council before taking over as national security adviser to then-Vice President Mike Pence in 2018, claimed that either such events never happened, or if they did, Trump was never told.
“During that time this never ever came up. So for them to say it happened during the Trump administration, we weren’t aware of it and we would’ve taken immediate action. If it did happen under President Trump and he was not told, that’s more than just egregious, that’s a dereliction of duty.”
Since the first spy balloon, the Biden Administration has increased the sensitivity of US radar to locate and track these balloons in the future, leading to several more objects being shot down in recent weeks. On Friday, CBS White House reporter Weijia Jiang asked NSC Strategic Communications Coordinator John Kirby about this. She wondered how the Biden Administration could know about any spy balloons during the Trump years since the radar was recently upgraded to track them.
“..the reason why you were able to detect and shoot down these three objects. The president yesterday that it was because they fine tuned [the radar]. So what were you doing before, if anything, to track Arial objects.”
Kirby struggled to answer the question. He mentioned earlier that radar filters were looking for larger, lower, and faster objects, which Kerry called “kinetic,” which is why the Biden administration didn’t see the high, slow weather balloon before US citizens spotted it.
Kerry went on to discuss how policies were set to change and how quickly but failed to answer how the Biden administration was, or how the Trump administration could be expected to, track these balloons beforehand.
BREAKING: @WhiteHouse John Kirby struggles to explain how @JoeBiden administration was able to track Chinese spy balloon during @realDonaldTrump administration since radar was just upgraded to track them . WATCH. pic.twitter.com/l3Ivzjie7J
— Simon Ateba (@simonateba) February 17, 2023
Some Twitter users pointed out the absurdity of the Biden Administration’s implication.
So we have radar that can see into the past?
— Told Ya So (@RammerJammer018) February 17, 2023
Apparently the radar was adjusted not only to look lower and slower, but also to look backwards into time gone by. Impressive 🙄
— Politicat 🇺🇸 On GETTR/Truth (@politicat1) February 17, 2023
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However, others guessed that reviews of old data might explain things.
My guess is they went back through old Satellite imagery and discovered them after the fact. Either that or they're just lying as usual.
— Mike Lyons (@DS_Apostate) February 17, 2023
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