The Biden administration will transient top members of Congress on the Chinese spy balloon detected flying over several states this week.
Staff will sit down with the “Gang of Eight” — the highest leaders of the House and Senate from each parties — a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told Fox News.
Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy of California demanded the meeting after the balloon was discovered in US airspace.
“China’s brazen disregard for U.S. sovereignty is a destabilizing motion that have to be addressed, and President Biden can’t be silent. I’m requesting a Gang of Eight briefing,” he said in a tweet Thursday.
China insisted it was a weather research balloon that wandered off beam and has publicly looked to deescalate the situation.
“The Chinese side regrets the unintended entry of the airship into U.S. airspace as a consequence of force majeure,” they said in an announcement — using a legal term to point aspects beyond their control. US intelligence officials widely dispute the claim and imagine the balloon intentionally entered US airspace.
Secretary of State Blinken’s planned visit to Beijing next week was indefinitely postponed over the incident.
Because the balloon continues the linger over the continental United States, questions have grown about why the Biden administration has not acted to down the probe.
“If it was as much as Montanans, this thing would have been taken out of the sky the moment it entered our sovereign airspace,” Montana’s Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte said Friday. “It had already flown near [Malmstrom] Air Force Base and the ICBM silos. After I finally got informed, it was over our most populous city. It got spotted by a photographer on the airport.”
Missouri Republican Gov. Mike Parson said he too had been kept at the hours of darkness by Team Biden.
“We now have heard no explanation or plan to remove it. Why has this been allowed to achieve our heartland? Why has it not been eliminated?” Parson said.
