There are some things in life you might expect would receive a fairly unified response from commentators and politicians, such as natural disasters, mass shootings, or terrorist attacks.
You might think there would be a unified response to the news a foreign power sent a massive spy balloon across the country. But some commentators appear to be trying to cast the outrage around a suspected spy balloon as the result of Republicans blowing it out of proportion.
And on Monday, co-host Ana Navarro suggested Chinese officials are relishing the Republicans’ response to the balloon.
Sunny Hostin asked if she believed one of China’s goals in sending the balloon was to “show Biden’s weakness.”
“They love this,” Navarro responded. “They love that Republicans turned this into this big drama.”
She went on:
“They wanted this thing to be spotted. If you’re going to spy, you’re not going to send a giant balloon all across the United States for a week, right? The Chinese know how to spy, you know, they can do it better. They wanted to create a crisis, a national crisis, an international crisis, they wanted it to be elevated, and be visible, and be talked about, and they got it.”
Watch the video below:
Sunny Hostin: "Do you think they [China] wanted to show Biden's weakness as well?"
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) February 6, 2023
Ana Navarro: "They love that Republicans turned this into this big drama." pic.twitter.com/E2hCxnylyq
Her comments come after the Pentagon revealed a suspected Chinese spy balloon was hovering above parts of the continental U.S.
Biden said he ordered the balloon to be shot down “as soon as possible” when he heard about it on Wednesday.
And on Saturday, it was shot down by an F-22 off the coast of South Carolina.
China has satellites and other covert espionage tools at its disposal, so why send a giant balloon into U.S. airspace?
For one, the administration looked a little impotent as a foreign spycraft drifted around the country.
But while satellites have high-tech cameras, they cannot just hang out around a certain area as they have to make orbital passes. Spy balloons, on the other hand, can be equipped with high-tech cameras, and other sensors. They can fly closer to a target than a satellite. They are also cheaper than drones or satellites and can linger in an area for longer.
So it’s possible there was one reason China sent the balloon: to embarrass Biden. Or there could be multiple reasons: to make Biden look weak, test the United States’ response to balloons and detection capabilities, and gather intelligence without risking losing an expensive drone.
Just because China has more advanced tools for spying does not mean such a brazen act should be minimized. It was not just some little issue Republicans blew out of proportion. It was essentially a foreign power saying, “Yeah, we are spying on your sensitive military installations, and you can’t do anything about it,” — though the military eventually did respond by downing the balloon with a missile.
But even if the goal was solely to make Biden look weak and create drama by getting caught, it should not insulate the administration from criticism of how it handled a violation of the country’s sovereignty.