Biden $400K missile to pop a $12 balloon, commander-in-chief good judgment? Track balloons Trump?

On 2/17/2023, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters that Biden launched a $439,000 missile to pop a $12 balloon near Alaska — but insisted that it was “exactly the right thing to do” either way. Kirby faced the press one day after the Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade said its silver party-style balloon may have been one of three unidentified objects that Biden ordered shot down this past weekend.

Newsmax Reporter James Rosen grills John Kirby on Biden’s decision to use $400,000 Missiles to shoot down Benign Objects. James Rosen asked John Kirby if Biden could do it all over again, would he use expensive missiles to take out benign objects. Three objects were shot down last week – one over the Yukon in Canadian airspace and two over US airspace. “You have tried to portray this entire sequence of events as one in which the commander-in-chief demonstrated good judgment at the right time and did the right things,” Rosen began.

“The president’s critics obviously see it differently,” Rosen went on. “And what they depict is a commander-in-chief who … was able to track this Chinese balloon from the inception of its mission off of Hainan Island all the way to US airspace and across the country. And eventually that was shot down after the Chinese had had a good look at whatever they wanted to see with that balloon, and who then presided over a series of missions in which millions and millions of dollars were spent and missiles were fired at objects that you now concede most likely were benign in nature.”

Rosen added, “That suggests the commander-in-chief who overreacted after allowing the Chinese spy balloon to do what it did and then went trigger-happy on a bunch of kites and balloons that had no military threat to them. What do you say to that depiction of events?”

Kirby replied that “no Americans in the air or on the ground were hurt… [and] no significant surveillance [was] achieved by the Chinese by balloon … No apologies here.” Rosen interjected: “Knowing everything he knows now, would he take the exact same steps and shoot off these expensive missiles at these benign objects?”

Biden on Thursday said the three objects shot down by $400,000 sidewinders were likely weather balloons. The Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade told Politico it believes one of the balloons shot down was theirs. The cost of that balloon: $10-$15. Biden likely used a $400,000 missile to shoot down a $12 balloon. However, Joe Biden allowed a China spy balloon to traverse across the continental US.

“Knowing everything he knows now, would [Biden] take the exact same steps and shoot off these expensive missiles at these benign objects?” Newsmax Chief White House Correspondent James Rosen asked Kirby. Kirby refused to say.

“Given the situation we were in, the information available, the recommendation of our military commanders, it was exactly the right thing to do at exactly the right time,” Kirby told NPR reporter Scott Detrow. Detrow pressed Kirby, asking if the Biden administration had “any feeling of frustration of perhaps this was a $12 hobby balloon from a group of kids in Illinois.” “Again, given the information that we had at the time, and legitimate concerns about potential surveillance in the wake of the Chinese balloon, you make decisions based on the best information that you have,” Kirby said.

On 2/17/2023,CBS White House reporter Weijia Jiang asked NSC Strategic Communications Coordinator John Kirby on how the Biden Administration was able to track Chinese spy balloons during the Trump years since the radar was just upgraded to track them. Kirby struggled to come up with a plausible response.

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Biden $400K missile to pop a $12 balloon, commander-in-chief demonstrated good judgment? How to track balloons during Trump?