Chairman McCaul: Biden’s Handling of CCP Spy Balloon is ‘Betraying the Nation’
Washington, D.C. – House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul joined both Fox News‘ “Sunday Morning Futures” with Maria Bartiromo and CBS‘ “Face the Nation” with Margaret Brennan to discuss the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) spy balloon, how the United States should be confronting the China challenge, oversight of the Biden administration, and the catastrophic withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Watch the full interview here.
Watch the full interview here.
On the CCP’s Spy Balloon:
“I think the motivation intent is clear here – [the CCP wants] to get imagery and intelligence on our military capability, particularly nuclear, and they’re building quite a nuclear stockpile themselves. Why do they want to do this?…They are preparing for a military conflict, and they’re trying to collect information about our military capabilities in the U.S. in preparation for that conflict. There’s no question about it in my mind and that’s why that balloon was so dangerous for the president to allow it to go forward once it entered U.S. airspace around Alaska. It should have been immediately shot down. It was not, and now the damage is severe in terms of compromising national security. He can’t secure our borders, but now he can’t secure our airspace over the United States of America. President Biden’s response to the CCP’s provocation is betraying the nation.”
On Keeping US Tech Out of the Hands of the Chinese Military:
“[Export controls] will be one of my number one priorities as the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in this Congress – to stop the export of technology to China that then goes into their most advanced weapons systems. In this case the sophisticated spy balloon that went across three nuclear sites. This was an act of espionage in the plain sight of the American people.”
On the Chairman’s Oversight Priorities:
“Well, we have subpoena power. I was a federal prosecutor for many years, I know how to conduct an investigation and a prosecution – that’s essentially what we’re doing here. We’re going to try and get them in a cooperative way, if not, we’re going to serve subpoenas.”
On Holding the Biden Administration Accountable for their Disastrous Afghanistan Withdrawal:
“There are a lot of questions unanswered there. I am doing this not for me or the Republican Party, I’m doing it for America, and our veterans who served so bravely, and our Gold Star Mothers who deserve answers as to why this went so badly, jeopardizing Americans and leaving behind so many American citizens and Afghan partners.”
“Well, it’s important because it’s a very extraordinary measure of relief to have an emergency cable sent from Kabul to Washington, the Secretary of State, and the White House… I want to know what they were dissenting, why they were dissenting, I think I know why, but why would they refuse to produce a document like that? And if they do [continue to] refuse, I do have the subpoena power that I fully intend to exercise, and I also want to know why the Taliban was put in charge of the entire evacuation leading to 13 servicemen and women dying.”
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