As was reported Monday, the Biden administration seemingly attempted to relieve criticism about its refusal to down an alleged Chinese Communist Party-controlled spy balloon before it entered the United States by claiming that a few more balloons flew into the country during the presidency of Donald Trump.
Our investigation revealed that the claims are very likely false. According to Townhall, U.S. officials have said that they know for a fact that Chinese spy balloons traveled through the U.S. during the Trump presidency but did not explain how the aircraft went undetected at the time.
Meanwhile, a number of senior Trump administration officials have denied the Biden administration’s claims outright. Mike Pompeo, who worked as director of the CIA and the Secretary of State during Trump’s presidency, appeared Monday on Fox News to address the allegations.
“I certainly never became aware that there was a three-bus-size floating device coming across our country for five days — either as CIA director or Secretary of State,” said Pompeo. “I’ve talked to others who were on my teams, they don’t know anything about it either.”
“I’m completely confounded about what they’re speaking about and frankly, it looks like an effort to deflect from what was a disastrous handful of days,” asserted Pompeo.
POMPEO: "I certainly never became aware that there was a three-bus-size floating device coming across our country for five days…it looks like an effort to deflect from what was a disastrous handful of days…" pic.twitter.com/rVKhA0pN8e
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) February 6, 2023
He added, “It seems unimaginable to me that someone on my team working over at the Pentagon or the CIA and State — we have liaison officers someone in the political chain of command over at the Department of Defense — it seems unimaginable that somehow this wouldn’t have gotten to the political leadership in the White House or State Department or the CIA.”
Pompeo concluded his thoughts by saying that if in fact there had been Chinese spy balloons flying over the U.S. during Trump’s presidency, he can not “figure out how that happened,” and that “If it did,” an explanation is owed to both himself and the American people.
POMPEO: "It's unimaginable to me…that somehow this wouldn't have gotten to the political leadership in the White House or State Department or the CIA…if it did, someone needs to explain it to me and to the American public as well." pic.twitter.com/yWWxucFfq5
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) February 6, 2023
Other members of the Trump administration who have reportedly denied ever hearing even a little bit about this allegation of multiple spy balloons flying liberally during Trump’s presidency include former national security advisor John Bolton, former defense secretary Mark Esper, former White House national security advisor Robert O’Brien, and the former acting director of national intelligence Richard Grenell.
@RichardGrenell denies it as well.
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) February 6, 2023
