President Joe Biden's address to the nation about the three flying objects that were shot down after the Chinese spy balloon was shot down earlier this month is another of his "inconsistent messages" on the subject, and the administration needs to "take a knee and get their stories straight," retired U.S. Air Force Brigadier Gen. Blaine Holt told Newsmax on Friday.
"Now we're supposed to believe that we lobbed a half-a-million-dollar missile at a $12 balloon for a hobby club out of Illinois?" Holt, also a former deputy military adviser for NATO, said on Newsmax's "Wake Up America." "Big mistake."
Such actions are reckless, Holt added, as "we need to be able to assure the American people that if we see something coming toward America, and it's identified as not friendly, we'll take the appropriate action, and they've done everything but that."
Holt also on Friday pushed back at reports from U.S. officials that the balloon that was eventually shot down off the South Carolina coast was initially sent to spy on U.S. bases in Guam and Hawaii, but winds carried it off course to Alaska, Canada, and then the U.S. mainland.
"They're asking us to believe that it was going to be a harmless little spying mission, and it ended up falling into a big spying mission," Holt said. "Both are bad. Both should be unacceptable."
Holt said he wants to know what the follow-up will be, or if China is being told that the U.S. plans to review the countries' relationship to "find out if it's appropriate."
"But we're not doing those things," he said. "What we're doing is parsing: 'Oh, if it goes over Guam and spies on us where there's bombers, then that's OK, but if it's going to go over our nuclear missile fields, oh, that's not OK.' Come on."
Holt on Friday also commented on reports of the death of a top Russian defense official, whose body was found Wednesday after falling 16 floors from an apartment building window.
"If you don't play ball, and if [Vladimir] Putin does not hear the words he wants to hear, then this is what happens," said Holt.
The official, Marina Yankina, 58, was "responsible for the budgeting and resourcing of the war" with Ukraine, and it is known that Russia is under financial pressure in this area, said Holt.
Holt said he's heard reports that Putin will make a big announcement next Friday to mark the beginning of the invasion, and he believes that the Russians will take advantage of the anniversary to kick off their offensive push against Ukraine.
"The Russians see that the West is at least promising to bring higher-grade weapons to the battlefield," Holt said. "Are they going to take advantage of this now? On this one-year anniversary? And then Putin's got to play to a domestic audience and show, no, we have the upper hand here."
Holt also commented on reports that NORAD intercepted more Russian aircraft over Alaska this week. He said that while Russia has been known over the past 50 years to infiltrate airspace, such events will become more frequent.
"We've projected nothing but weakness," he said. "Even this balloon fracas probably has the Russian Air Force and Putin saying, Hey, toss a few bombers over there and check the response times for nuclear response. Why wouldn't they do that when we can't even get our story straight about what happened at altitude with this object?"
China and Russia are "working together" and want to test the U.S., Holt said.
"They are no friends of the United States," he said. "We've got to review where we're at strategically with these things. It's time for us to have a very, very comprehensive plan."
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