As expected, after the Chinese spy balloon was shot down off the South Carolina coast on Saturday, Democrats went into action to push the narrative that Biden demonstrated decisive leadership.
“I strongly condemn President Xi’s brazen incursion into American airspace, and I commend President Biden’s leadership in taking down the Chinese balloon over water to ensure safety for all Americans,” Sen. Chuck Schumer said Saturday. “Now we can collect the equipment and analyze the technology used by the CCP.”
But not everyone sees it this way.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, is understandably perplexed at the way Joe Biden handled the Chinese spy balloon, which was finally shot down on Saturday after being allowed to travel across the continental United States for days, and he told CNN during on State of the Union that Biden’s actions amounted to dereliction of duty.
“I think the dereliction of duty begins with this,” Rubio began, “Why not on Tuesday or Wednesday — you know people are gonna see this. At some point, you’re gonna have to disclose it, and they probably didn’t want to, because they didn’t want to have their hands forced on canceling this Blinken visit, so they didn’t have to talk about it. But why didn’t the president go on television?”
“Presidents have the ability to go before camera, go before the nation, and basically explain these things early on, and the failure to do so — I don’t understand that,” he continued. “I don’t understand why he wouldn’t do that, and that is the beginning of dereliction of duty.”
“And what are we going to do the next time this happens?” Rubio asked. “Are we going to allow it to fly through here again and shoot it down once it gets to the East Coast? I mean, these are questions the White House needs to answer, and I don’t think these are partisan claims I’m making. I think there would be a broad agreement that we need to know moving forward what our policy is going to be with regards to this.”
These are all very good questions — and Democrats not only refuse to acknowledge these issues; they think it’s unbecoming to even ask them.
“No foreign power can violate our sovereignty. I applaud [Joe Biden] for his order to shoot down China’s spy balloon in a smart and safe way,” said Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.). “Fine to ask tough questions, but those already playing politics with this only serve the interests of our adversaries.”
Biden’s inaction and lack of forthcoming are, despite Democrat claims to the contrary, serious issues. And I suspect Rubio’s use of the phrase “dereliction of duty” is no accident. Language calling for Joe Biden to be impeached has often accused him of dereliction of duty — be it for the border crisis or the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan.
“If we leave any Americans behind — if we leave thousands of those Afghans who fought along our side behind bravely—Joe Biden deserves to be impeached for a high crime and misdemeanor of dereliction of duty,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said during an Aug. 2021 appearance on Fox & Friends.
It sounds to me as if Spy Balloon-gate is the latest transgression that Republicans have added to the growing list of impeachable offenses of Joe Biden.