Pentagon shoots down Chinese balloon, GOP claims on the same day

[LetMyPeopleVote]

The GOP attacks on this balloon are bogus

Link to tweet

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/pentagon-shoots-chinese-balloon-gop-claims-day-rcna69273?cid=sm_npd_ms_tw_ma&taid=63e1007ce5939600012d162a&utm_campaign=trueanthem&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter

Our long national nightmare, which was neither long nor a nightmare, came to a deflating end on Saturday afternoon. NBC News reported:

The U.S. downed the Chinese surveillance balloon off the Carolina coast on Saturday, a U.S. official said, setting off a tense exchange between the two nations. An F-22 raptor with a single missile shot down the balloon at 2:39 p.m., according to a senior defense official. It was between 60,000 to 65,000 feet in the air when it was downed.

In a healthy and mature political environment, this would likely be seen as a story related to diplomacy, espionage and tense relations between the world’s two most powerful countries. After all, by all appearances, China made a serious mistake for which officials in Beijing appeared wholly unprepared. What’s more, the timing of the incident did China no favors: It was poised to welcome Secretary of State Antony Blinken and focus on its post-Covid vision......

Step Four was coming to the realization that similar incidents did, in fact, happen while Trump was in the White House. In fact, according to the Pentagon, Chinese balloons “transited the continental United States at least three times during the prior administration.”

Though the details surrounding those incidents are sparse, a Washington Post report added that the Defense Department notified Congress over the weekend of “several previous incursions of U.S. airspace by Chinese surveillance balloons, with earlier sightings near Texas, Florida, Hawaii and Guam. ... The defense officials said that several of those events occurred during the Trump administration, [Republican Rep. Michael] Waltz said.”

All of which led to Step Five, which largely consisted of Republicans pretending not to notice Step Four. In fact, Rep. Mike Turner appeared on NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” and when Chuck Todd reminded the Ohio Republican about balloon-related incidents from the Trump era, the House Intelligence Committee chairman brushed off the relevant detail and quickly went back to targeting the Democratic White House.....

I don’t doubt that GOP officials will continue to make a fuss, perhaps as some kind of clumsy effort to put Biden on the defensive ahead of tomorrow’s State of the Union address, but reality does not appear to be on Republicans’ side on this.

[Grins]

1. From the same people who bitch about "Gotcha!' Politics. NM

[Hugh_Lebowski]

2. Watch Gym Jordan and the other RePuQ asshats start Congressional Hearings

pathetically trying to drum themselves another Benghazi (which went down in flames, much like Durham's investigation). After all, when does 'reality' ever come into play for these sheep-shaggers?

IOW, Balloon-gate, anyone?