GOP lawmakers react to Biden’s ‘vastly’ different response to latest airspace intrusion

Several Republican lawmakers noted on Friday that President Biden’s decision to shoot down a mysterious object flying off the Alaskan coast suggests a “vastly changed” policy toward objects intruding into US airspace. 

Biden, 80, was hammered by several GOP lawmakers for his decision last week to allow a Chinese spy balloon to hover over the US mainland for days before ordering that it be shot down off the South Carolina coast. Many argued that the balloon should’ve been taken out as soon as it entered US airspace. 

When a smaller object, flying at a lower altitude, was detected by North American Aerospace Defense Command on Friday, rather than allow it to move further into US territory, Biden ordered the military to down it, which it did when an F-22 fighter jet fired a Sidewinder missile at the craft of undetermined origin, according to US officials. 

“Biden’s response to foreign instruments flying over our airspace vastly changed in a matter of days due to the American people,” Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) said in a tweet Friday, suggesting that Biden felt pressured to down the object much more quickly this time around. 

“Your pressure convinced him to no longer allow these devices to fly freely across our great country. Thank you,” Biggs added. 

Rep. Cory Mills (R-Fla.), a US Army combat veteran, told Fox News that Biden’s decision to shoot down the floating, cylindrical, and silver-ish gray craft on Friday “is exactly what the US should have done last time.”

“Why is it only now, when the administration was caught in a blunder just days before, did we take this strong action,” Mills told the outlet. “Either Biden doesn’t know how to play offensive or he’s slow to learn.”

Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kansas) also approved of the president’s order to take out the suspicious object before it had a chance to make it across the US mainland. 

“So we can shoot down suspicious objects BEFORE they get over our border… Just as I suggested,” Marshall said in a tweet.

The decision to down the latest object, however, left Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.), a former Green Beret and member of the House Intelligence, Armed Services, and Foreign Affairs committees, with more questions than answers. 

“I think it’s gonna continue to beg more policy questions,” Waltz told CNN host Jake Tapper on Friday.

“So, this one was at 40,000 feet. The president determined it was a safety of flight risk. Does that then imply if this one had been at 60-65,000 feet, like the first balloon, we would have let it continue to traverse into Canada and possibly the United States? Is that the new criteria now? Some type of interference with civilian aircraft?” Waltz said. 

Waltz also questioned whether any action at all would’ve been taken on last week’s balloon and Friday’s object had it not been for citizens that photographed the Chinese spy balloon.

“I still have the question if it had not been for some enterprising photographers in Montana, whether we would be taking this more decisive action at all, was it really the public outcry, the violation of our sovereignty and airspace, that’s driving this change of policy?” Waltz said, adding that these sorts of intrusions “shouldn’t be tolerated.” 

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Friday that the president “doesn’t regret the way we handled the first balloon.”

He added that at 40,000 feet, the object “posed a reasonable threat to the safety of civilian flight.”

 Pentagon spokesman Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder denied that congressional criticism influenced the swift decision regarding the latest object, instead reiterating that its lower altitude posed a greater risk to air traffic than the spy balloon, which flew at about 60,000 feet – roughly double that of the average jetliner.