Mark Esper gave CNN a glimpse at the potential response Donald Trump’s administration would have had to the balloon hovering in Montana airspace reportedly belonging to the Chinese government, and it sounds a tad different than the response from President Joe Biden’s White House.
Speaking to CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on Friday, Esper, the former secretary of defense under Trump, said he was “surprised” the Biden administration had ultimately decided to not shoot the balloon down, though he did make clear he was not privy to potential consequences the White House could be considering.
“I’m surprised by this. I think it is a brazen act by the Chinese to do this,” Esper said on CNN This Morning, calling the balloon incident just the latest in decades of the country spying on the U.S.
Esper clarified that shooting the balloon down would be secondary to an attempt to actually bring the balloon down without destroying it.
“My interest would be not necessarily in shooting it down, but bringing it down so we can capture the equipment and exactly what they’re doing. Are they taking pictures? Are they intercepting signals?” he said.
The former secretary of defense claimed the balloon could be gathering data on missile fields and bomber bases in the area.
Esper said if he could not bring down the balloon safely, he would ultimately shoot it down. He called for a the U.S. to send a “clear” message back to China.
“To me this is a brazen act and so at the political level, we have to push back. We have to defend American sovereignty and we have to make clear to the Chinese that we’re not going to tolerate this,” he said.
On Friday, the Chinese government admitted the balloon does in fact come from Beijing, but claimed it was a civilian device used for meteorology despite U.S. defense officials believing it is a surveillance device, CBS reported.
Watch above via CNN.
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