comment: >
  
  It would have been leaked.  There were a lot of leaks during the Trump administration.
context: Conservatives in today's Daily Mail comment section: "That was just China doing a trial run. They were waiting until a weaker president was in office to send a proper balloon all the way over the US." Utter, utter morons. So by their own logic, the "trial run" with Trump told them that America would do jack shit about spy balloons. Do they have even the slightest inkling of how stupid they are? >
  
  The Daily Mail is such a joke. >
  
  Unfortunately it's the most widely read conservative newspaper in the world. People need to understand that it's every bit as damaging as Fox News. >
  
  There will always be a news ‘org’ for bigots. >
  
  Republicans said nothing when it happened under Trump, but now they're pretending to be outraged. >
  
  I don't think they noticed and I don't think they noticed when the same thing happened earlier during the Biden term.
  They have access to classified intelligence briefings (at least the leaders do) so they have no excuse for not knowing how nonserious all five incidents were. >
  
  It's still a serious incident but not because of anything Biden did.  It's serious because China violated our airspace. >
  
  I mean, I guess, but I just can't bring myself to be scared of a balloon.  What is this?  1865?  It's not like there's a bomb in there.  Chinese tech is not a danger to anyone.
  China sucks and all.  They put people in camps and torcher and kill them.  I'm just not scared of their "air force." >
  
  Japan tried a trick with balloons on WWII. Didn't work, only a few people died (after stumbling upon them after the war sadly), but with 21st century tech it may be as feasible as any other disposable drone aircraft to bomb the US. Imagine 1,000 balloons at once with small guided bombs. Imagine the utility if during a war, China and the US darken the skies and shoot down all the satellites in orbit. >
  
  You're kidding right?  a squadron of F-22s would love to shoot down 100,000 balloons.  It would be like a video game for them.  
  They probably train for it.  They certainly made short work of the first one. >
  
  I mean there is a reason those f-22’s waited till it was over the coast. 
  Yes it is plausible to put things like gases or bombs in something like that in hops people shot it down for it to cause more damage…. Which is clearly what the military also came to that conclusion because they waited to shoot it down. 
  Meanwhile I see so many people acting like they are military experts all the sudden. I’m not one I’m just thinking critically and everything adds up. 
  If what you are saying adds up those f-22’s would have handled that balloon before it was a viral internet craze. >
  
  Well they let the other ones just float by so it doesn't seem too dangerous. >
  
  None got shot down probably because Ivanka needed those trademarks >
  
  How many people have forgotten about those trademarks? >
  
  not me. >
  
  We didn't notice.  Trump flies so much we got used to seeing a hot air balloon up there..... >
  
  China played to his ego. >
  
  Imagine if they had even bigger balloons!! >
  
  The yugest * motions with hands * you've ever seen! >
  
  This is gonna be a hard flip-flop for MTG. I’m sure she’ll squirm her way through it while only being slightly racist. >
  
  Chinese spy balloons has the same zany outlandishness as Jewish space lasers, with the added benefit of being true. >
  
  Nah, one is far fetched. The other is not. >
  
  Spy balloons sounds stupid because satellites are a much better option.  If you told me a month ago that China was spying on us with weather balloons, I’d have thought Qanon had gotten loose again. I mean, I’d believe it from North Korea, but it just seems low effort for China. Israel can make laser satellites too, but to what purpose?  Both are totally possible but, to me at least, equally ludicrous. >
  
  There's a solid chance china had a good reason to use balloons over satellites. You're assuming you know best as opposed to Chinese engineers or intelligence. Jewish Space lasers are just silly childish ideas as of now, recon balloons are still much much closer to reality than the former. >
  
  “Chinese balloons briefly transited the continental United States at least three times during the prior administration,” the statement noted. Associated Press also reported that one other balloon crossed into the U.S. earlier in the Biden administration. >
  
  so basically if some random person doesn't glance at the sky and see a white blip this whole thing would be completely unknown? >
  
  Also a lot of people in other threads were talking about how these likely weren't spy balloons, and were just weather related or whatever china said officially, because satellites would have a clear advantage and balloons are too blatant or something. But does this mean it's some established tactic for spying? >
  
  *Tonight on FOX News*
  President Biden SHOOTS DOWN harmless Chinese weather balloon, could this mean war? >
  
  I wonder how much money DJT got paid by China to allow it. >
  
  That doesn’t even make sense and you know it >
  
  Not to have the US military ignore weather balloons. Yes, that doesn't make sense. >
  
  One of the wide array of services purchased by China. >
  
  Yeah, I could see it as a bonus. Odd ask but I get that point. >
  
  Now that Republicans know that Trump allowed three Chinese CCP balloons pass across the US during his tenure, they will now start railing on Biden for daring China and possible war by blowing up the CCP balloon. >
  
  Because it didn’t happen, Trump could fart with out it being reported on every news source. All the sudden you believe this would have been missed by a Media that loathed every step trump took >
  
  The focus needs to be on the hypocrisy.  I don’t doubt the DOD when they said it was smarter to just ignore the balloon this time, and it tracks that they would say the same thing the last few times.  The different here is people saw it, so it couldn’t just be ignored, so they shot it down.  Maybe to save face, maybe because the math changes when everyone already knows it’s there and the benefit now outweighs the cost.  Who knows, but it’s all beside the point.  The GOP should be raked for hypocritically saying this makes the US look bad when they did the same thing in the same situation, and almost certainly would have done the same thing in this situation as well. >
  
  Hannity was making a fool of himself Friday over it saying “unbelievable!” over and over, but he won’t care. He will not acknowledge the other three times. Dude is wrong all the time, these shows all are, and they will just move on. It will not matter to these idiot shows >
  
  “And President Trump showed great restraint by not shooting them down, unlike warmonger Brandon trying to spark world war 3 with his balloon massacre!” >
  
  Fox “news” has been parading angry republicans one after the other, who all want to go to war over the balloon. >
  
  China played to his ego.  Trump couldn’t stomach to shoot down a balloon that looked like himself >
  
  Republicans are already claiming this is a false story since no one saw the previous balloons and are claiming Biden is “weak” for not acting sooner.
  Meanwhile, if he’d shot the balloon down in the Bering Sea, they’d argue he was unnecessarily provoking North Korea, Russia and China by firing a missile into international waters and should be removed from office. >
  
  And had it been shot down over those obviously GOP states, then they'd be lambasted for endangering ~~their voters~~ the residents. >
  
  After all, he and Chairman Xi have been good buddies. Nothing to complain about. >
  
  Well that explains why china thought they could get away with it >
  
  How many of them were shot down? You know because Drumpf was such a big strong guy >
  
  It doesn't sound like any of them were! >
  
  Off topic because it makes the former guy look bad (too), and their talking points are null and void in 3...2...1... >
  
  Won't matter because Republicans don't read HuffPo >
  
  They read? >
  
  Nah they don’t read. They have someone else read it to them and they form their own sentences in their head that aligns with what they believe. 
  Narrator - “this article says Trump is a raging narcissist and can not be trusted!”
  GOP listener - “Trump is awesome, super trustworthy and I should give him money for that wall!” >
  
  It wouldn't surprise me if Trump administration helped launch some of the spy balloons for China >
  
  The balloons were bigger and faster. Those were the best balloons under Tr@mp! >
  
  Wasn't Trump also doing business with Chinese banks while he was president? Which would mean he was also compermised by China as well as Russia. >
  
  Am I really the only one who thinks it’s entirely scummy that politicians are turning something that threatens homeland security into a divisive political game? Who gives a shit who let China fly spy balloons the most or the longest? It shouldn’t have been in our airspace period. It’s all fun and games until they have a payload on board and it’s dropping bombs on American soil. >
  
  No this sickens me too. They are constantly beating war drums to keep justifying the need to spend more on defense so they can eliminate threats before they reach the US. This encourages the public to be fearful and now they are sending mixed messages and they wonder why people are reaching for the crazy sauce. >
  
  Trump was happy to oblige. He loves pleasing tyrants. >
  
  I have a feeling that
  These balloons are everywhere and only picked out when it serves a political agenda >
  
  100% this is just the establishment trying to saber rattle at China. The people in the comments going a long with it is the scariest shit I've seen all day. >
  
  I find it mildly amusing 🥹 >
  
  It's mildly amusing, until 20 years down the future you are bombarded with red-scare propaganda everyday and you march alongside the streets of Washington calling for the violent overthrow of China, the same way your countrymen had for Iraq, the same way they had for Korea and the same way they had at the start of the Vietnam war.
  Propaganda used to stoke the population of a nation against another, all so that the gears of the military industrial complex can be well oiled isn't "amusing". >
  
  Was he ever briefed…. Oh right. Never mind. >
  
  No, depends. >
  
  Does it really matter what administration was in charge our airspace got violated >
  
  But only now makes it on the news right >
  
  official DoD announcement... >
  
  The number of idiots claiming Biden was showing weakness and this would have never happened under trump….doesn’t matter because they will move the goal posts and say “for this long” or “this far over the middle of the country” or some other stupid qualifier. >
  
  The people that need to hear this will not. They’ll just say they hate Trump so they made this up. >
  
  The key part is being missed because everyone here apparently doesn’t read.
  “None of those four incursions reportedly lasted as long as the trip by the suspected spy balloon that the U.S”
  Aka this is the first time we know of that this happened this long.
  “The official said Chinese balloons briefly transited the continental United States at least three times during the prior administration. “
  Meaning trust it it happened 4 times before (there was another time under Biden it entered our air space) apparently this is the first to go this long and be noticed.  Why they allowed it to happen?  Idk the casualty bullshit doesn’t really match up.   I think they were tracking its signal or frequency etc to now know what the Chinese use to use it against them.  It’s also a nice distraction for the Biden admin with the papers incident but there’s likely something else going on… or it’s China doing it due to their literal economic collapse. >
  
  Proving that once again the GQP will always attack their “opponents” despite being guilty of the same or worse >
  
  Fuck China🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸💪🏼💪🏼💪🏼 >
  
  I wonder if an unnamed senior defense official has ever lied before 🤔 >
  
  What? Why didn’t anybody notice? I mean I saw it clearly in the sky and knew it wasnt normal >
  
  Of course someone noticed, you're reading about it aren't you? >
  
  This is me talking on just a hunch, not knowledge, but why do I feel like this balloon stuff is an obvious distraction from something else? Why else would they dangle something that obvious over us in broad daylight? >
  
  Where is the dates, times and locations that the balloons traveled during the last presidency? How come nobody looked up in the sky and saw it and took pictures? Considering this would have happened before the world shut down. My thinking is this story is damage control. >
  
  official DoD announcement... >
  
  It was an unnamed source unless there is new information you have a link to. >
  
  I know it’s nothing new, but I’m so sick of the lack of transparency with how our government communicates to its citizens. >
  
  Had we shot it down over mainland U.S., the R's would be screaming that we're endangering our citizens with debris or stray missiles.  Can't win with these clowns. >
  
  Does nobody want to just think about this being a threat instead of internalizing the problem. Lets focus on the fact that we are constantly being spied on and literally do nothing about it and just argue about whatever fucking clown is in office or was. The problem is china and we should cut all trade >
  
  Is there a source for this? In the time that he was in office, I do not recall this kind of news story breaking even once, and this balloon is pretty hard to miss. >
  
  Article:
  
  Suspected spy balloons from China crossed into the continental United States at least three times while Donald Trump was president, according to a statement Saturday by the Department of Defense citing an unnamed “senior defense official.”
  
  This would have been everywhere on the news at the time. >
  
  If the president at the time was transparent then it would have been all over the news