Former Trump administration official Keith Kellogg ripped President Joe Biden Wednesday over Biden’s comments on a Chinese spy balloon at a Tuesday campaign event.
Biden claimed that the spy balloon incident was “more embarrassing than it was intentional” during a Saturday press briefing, according to Fox News. He made similar comments at a Tuesday night campaign reception. (RELATED: ‘A Stupid Statement’: Trump Rips Biden Over Chinese Spy Balloon Remarks)
“If he doesn’t believe Xi didn’t know the balloon was there, I have a bridge to sell him in Brooklyn,” Kellogg, a former national security aide to then-Vice President Mike Pence, told “America Reports” co-host John Roberts. “Of course he knew it was there. I don’t know why he says things like that. The entire world knew the balloon was there. You could see it. I’m pretty sure they have televisions in China as well. They knew it was there.”
WATCH:
Air Force fighters shot down the Chinese spy balloon Feb. 4, after it drifted across the United States and flew near sensitive sites, including Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana and Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri. The former base houses Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missiles, while the Air Force operates B-2 Spirit stealth bombers capable of carrying nuclear weapons from the latter.
“The reason why Xi Jinping got very upset in terms of when I shot that balloon down with two boxcars full of spy equipment in it is he didn’t know it was there,” Biden said at the Tuesday event. “No, I’m serious. That’s what’s a great embarrassment for dictators, when they didn’t know what happened.”
China claimed that the balloon was a civilian meteorological research platform and protested the shoot-down. The Department of Defense confirmed a second spy balloon flew over Latin American countries Feb. 3.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Chinese officials in Beijing Monday, where he said the United States does not support Taiwanese independence. The trip was postponed after the spy balloon incident.
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