Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) defended President Joe Biden’s handling of the Chinese spy balloon that flew over the US, breaking with several top Republicans who criticized the administration for being slow to act.
Romney told reporters after an all-senators classified briefing on Thursday that the Biden administration made the right call to wait to shoot down the balloon.
“My questions were satisfactorily answered and I believe the administration, the president, our military and our intelligence agencies acted skillfully and with care. At the same time, their capabilities are extraordinarily impressive,” Romney said.
“Was everything done 100 percent correctly? I can’t imagine that would be the case of almost anything we do,” he added.
But, some senators left the briefing still arguing that the Biden administration failed to act quickly.
“China sent a spy balloon to fly all across America. The Biden administration had a chance to shoot it down over Alaska and they chose to let it spy all across America,” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR.) told reporters. “We all know it was a spy balloon trying to collect information across the United States. I will say that you don’t know that in advance though. That’s why we shouldn’t let Chinese aircraft float on their merry way all across the United States.”
