Rogin: Biden ‘Working Hard to Downplay’ Balloon So They Can try to Warm Relations with China

On Friday’s “CNN Newsroom,” Washington Post columnist and author Josh Rogin stated that “the Biden administration is working hard to downplay” the Chinese spy balloon incident “because they want to resume their previously pursued path of warming U.S.-China relations and they want to get the visit back on track and they want to minimize the impact of this crisis,” and he’s troubled by the Biden administration’s claim that the balloon didn’t get any valuable intelligence because no one can really say that when the whole balloon hasn’t been recovered.

Rogin stated, “Well, it’s very clear, Jim, that the Biden administration is working hard to downplay this incident because they want to resume their previously pursued path of warming U.S.-China relations and they want to get the visit back on track and they want to minimize the impact of this crisis, but their statements deserve some scrutiny. For example, how can they say that Xi Jinping may have known? The other way to say that is that he may have not known. Or, in other words, they don’t know. … And, in the end, it doesn’t matter, because he’s responsible for what his military does. And the second thing that I find a little bit troubling with the Biden administration’s message on this frankly is the message that, oh, we’re pretty sure they didn’t get anything good…most of the thing is still at the bottom of the ocean. So, how can they say that? And the third thing that I think is really a little problematic — and this is where they’re getting a lot of flack on the Hill — is that they say they waited ten days to shoot it down so they could aid recovery efforts. Well, again, the thing’s at the bottom of the ocean, most of it. They got the nylon, but not the electronics.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett