Menendez: ‘I Think We Succeeded Largely’ in Keeping Spy Balloon from Getting ‘Incredible’ Info. and Minimized Potential Info. It Could Get

On Wednesday’s “CNN Newsroom,” Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) called for the U.S. to take on China “in a much more robust way than we are” and responded to a question on whether he’s confident in assertions that the U.S. was able to jam the spy balloon from transmitting information to China by stating that he thinks the U.S. “worked to minimize any potential signatures that our sensitive sites had that could have been picked up” by China’s spy balloon and he believes “we succeeded largely in avoiding” the balloon capturing “incredible information.”

Co-host Bianna Golodryga asked, “U.S. officials stress that they have confidence that they were able to jam any sort of information that this balloon may have been able to transmit back to China. Do you have confidence in that?”

Menendez responded, “We’re going to continue to ask tough questions, as we have at these classified hearings. I would just simply say, I do think they worked to minimize any potential signatures that our sensitive sites had that could have been picked up by this balloon. But there’s obviously a reason the Chinese use it, right? You can get information from satellites which are way out in outer space, but the ability of a balloon is to hang lower, stay longer, and ultimately capture incredible information. I think we succeeded largely in avoiding that, but that doesn’t leave the Chinese off the hook.”

He added, “I think we have to have a tougher policy overall as it relates to China. China’s our biggest geostrategic challenge, both now and in the future. When I held a hearing today at the Foreign Relations Committee on fentanyl and the number of deaths in America, precursor drugs are coming from China, they’re doing nothing in that regard. Their belligerence in the South China Sea, a million Uyghurs in concentration camps in the 21st century, and so much more. So, I think we should be taking on China in a much more robust way than we are right now.”

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