Republican demands Joe Biden, Kamala Harris resign after ‘catastrophic Chinese spy balloon spectacle’

Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., a member of the House Armed Services Committee, said Saturday that the Chinese spy balloon saga confirmed both President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris should resign from office.

Wilson’s calls for Biden and Harris to resign came hours after a U.S. fighter jet shot down a Chinese spy balloon off the coast of the lawmaker’s home state of South Carolina. The unmanned surveillance aircraft had flown from Alaska through Canada before entering the continental United States and traveling from Idaho to the East Coast over the last seven days. 

“The catastrophic Chinese Spy Balloon spectacle clearly threatened American families from Alaska to my home community in South Carolina and confirms President Biden and Vice President Harris should resign,” Wilson said in a tweet. “My call for their resignation was valid in August 2021 due to the surrender and disastrous withdrawal in Afghanistan, creating a safe haven for terrorists to attack American families.”

“It was not political in 2021, when the succeeding President, then Speaker Nancy Pelosi, would have been a Democrat, or now in 2023 with Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a Republican. It is irrelevant for American families which party is in power because the first criteria of a leader should be their capability regardless of party, and sadly Biden and Harris are failures,” the South Carolina lawmaker added.

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Wilson added that the need for Biden and Harris to resign is reinforced by their “open border policies” which have weakened national security.

“When the domestic attack occurs, Biden and Harris will not be able to adequately respond,” he continued. “Credible leadership is imperative to protect American families.”

In addition to Wilson, several GOP lawmakers have slammed the Biden administration in recent days and after the balloon was shot down Saturday, characterizing the president’s response as weak.

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“Why was this allowed to go clear across the country for so many days? You know, you look at this, national security is one of the biggest things that any country can do. It is a core function of government,” Rep. Russell Fry, another South Carolina Republican, told Fox News.

“It is clear that standard protocol for defense of U.S. airspace was ignored,” said Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee. “If press reports are correct, the Biden Administration hoped to hide this incident from the American people from the start. The White House owes Congress and the American people answers about this failure, and I intend to get those answers without delay.”

After the balloon was shot down Saturday, Biden told reporters he had ordered the Pentagon to shoot it down “as soon as possible” on Wednesday. They had held off, fearing that debris from the balloon could cause serious damage if it were to fall near a populated area.

“After careful analysis, U.S. military commanders had determined downing the balloon while over land posed an undue risk to people across a wide area due to the size and altitude of the balloon and its surveillance payload,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement.

“In accordance with the President’s direction, the Department of Defense developed options to take down the balloon safely over our territorial waters, while closely monitoring its path and intelligence collection activities.”

Fox News Digital reporter Andrew Mark Miller contributed to this report.