Governor Chris Sununu (R-NH) said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” that President Joe Biden’s response to the Chinese ballon incident was “too little too late.”
Partial transcript as follows:
KARL: Governor Sununu, thank you for joining us. Before we get to politics, I’ve got to ask you about the — the big story over the weekend, over this past week, the Chinese spy balloon. Did the president make the right call to shoot it down?
SUNUNU: Too little, too late. Look, at the end of the day, they saw this balloon coming. This is all about China poking at us. This is all about China testing the American resolve, whether it’s with TikTok or the balloon or whatever the thing is going to be next month. They know that tensions are escalating, and they want to see what kind of leadership we have. And, no, the president failed on this one, should have been a lot more transparent, should have taken action a lot sooner and gotten it done. But, believe me, this is not the last we’re going to see of China. I know the president wishes that, but it’s not.
KARL: But — but the military advice he had was to wait until it was over water. Do you think he should have disregarded the military advice?
SUNUNU: There were clearly opportunities to take care of — to take care of the balloon before it finally got over the Atlantic. They — there were reports that they saw it coming in from the Pacific, that it was coming in over the forest, that it was coming in over the Aleutian Islands. So, there was a lot of opportunity to take care of this before it ended up in Montana and they realized, oh, gee, we have a problem. So, again, you have to have leadership. You have to be transparent. You have to be fast-acting. They weren’t. They weren’t at all.
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