The feds ’emboldened’ China through their inaction, Greg Gianforte said
Montana Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte told on Friday that he was not briefed on the suspected Chinese surveillance balloon’s incursion into Big Sky Country airspace until it was many miles into the state.
Gianforte told “Tucker Carlson Tonight” he was not told of situation until the balloon had reached the state’s largest city, Billings – hundreds of miles from the western border at Idaho.
“It had already flown near [Malmstrom] Air Force Base and the ICBM silos. When I finally got informed, it was over our most populous city. It got spotted by a photographer at the airport,” he said.
The dirigible flew very close to Malmstrom – outside Great Falls – which Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont. houses some of the most powerful “weapons of mass destruction” in the world.
Montana Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte told on Friday that he was not briefed on the suspected Chinese surveillance balloon’s incursion into Big Sky Country airspace until it was many miles into the state.
Clearly, this went to the president’s desk. He was given options. For whatever reason, he chose not to act. And unfortunately, the result of that is that Americans are endangered, and our enemies are emboldened,” Gianforte told Carlson.
Of the claim from the feds that firing a missile or blowing up the balloon over land could result in civilian casualties, Gianforte insisted that wouldn’t be a concern in parts of his state.
Eastern Montana is probably one of the best places to take it down. We could have contained it. We could have found out what the mission truly was by recovering whatever electronics are on this balloon,” he said.
“If the Americans had flown a spy balloon over China, do you think you’d still be in the air? Of course not. We should have taken action. Unfortunately, we’ve emboldened our enemy today.”