Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” that “until a few months ago,” our intelligence and our military did not know about Chinese spy balloons.
Anchor George Stephanopoulos said, “I want to start with this question of the Chinese spy balloons and other aerial objects. Three incidents in a week. President Biden took some heat from your Democratic colleagues for not shooting down the spy balloon sooner. What can you tell us about these last two incidents, Friday and Saturday night? Are you confident in the administration’s response?”
Schumer said, “Yes. You know, I was briefed by Jake Sullivan last night, so let me get right to it, and I’ll give a little background and get to your specific. The bottom line is until a few months ago. We didn’t know of these balloons. Our intelligence and our military did not know. This went as far back as President Trump at least three times.”
Stephanopoulos said, “It’s wild. We didn’t know, isn’t it?”
Schumer said, “It is wild that we didn’t know. Absolutely, and I’ll get to that in a minute. Now they are learning a lot more, and the military and the intelligence are focused like a laser on first gathering and accumulating the information, then coming up with a comprehensive analysis of what went on before, what’s going on now, and what can go on in the future. You can be sure that if any American interests or people are at risk, they’ll take appropriate action. Until they get that comprehensive analysis, however, we have to look at each balloon individually.”
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