Pentagon Report Says Chinese Spy Balloon Flew Over Florida While Florida Man Was President, Per CNN

CNN reported on Monday night it obtained an excerpt of an intelligence report issued by the U.S. Air Force determining that a “high altitude balloon” from China flew above the United States in 2019, including over Hawaii and Florida when noted Florida resident Donald Trump was president.

The new revelation is the latest development showing that Chinese spy balloons had appeared over the United States before one that drifted through the United States last week. That one was shot down on orders from President Joe Biden on Saturday.

The Air Force issued the report in April 2022, stating that China “deployed multiple [high altitude balloons] that can operate at 65,000ft – 328,000 ft and for months at a time.” The Air Force also ascertained that a balloon “circumnavigated the globe” in 2019 and “drifted past Hawaii and across Florida before continuing its journey” at an altitude of at least 65,000 feet.

CNN said that in addition to previous reports that at least three of China’s balloons floated over the United States under the Trump administration and one at the beginning of the Biden administration, this indicates the military’s awareness of the balloons’ operations and capabilities.

Before the findings, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Biden’s order “to increase both our vigilance and the assets that we were deploying to be able to detect Chinese efforts to spy against the United States” after this week’s events led the intelligence community to “detect things that the Trump administration was unable to detect.”

Trump claimed on Truth Social on Sunday that any reports that Chinese balloons operated over the U.S. under his presidency were “FAKE DISINFORMATION.”

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