U.S. Rep. Matt Rosendale, R-Mont., told Newsmax on Tuesday he is frustrated with the Department of Defense after another balloon was spotted over Montana at high altitude on Sunday night, similar to the Chinese spy balloon that floated over the state in February on its way to traversing the country before it was shot down over the Atlantic Ocean.
“I called DoD and said, have you investigated this?” Rosendale told “The Chris Salcedo Show.” “Is it something that you were tracking? They said, you know, we have seen the size of this balloon. We have determined that it's not large enough to contain any surveillance equipment, and it doesn't necessitate us utilizing any more resources to go after it.
“I told them at that point, excuse me for not trusting your opinion, but the last time I was given that message, we ended up having a Chinese spy balloon with devices on it the size of a school bus that were literally tracking information [that] to this day we don't know, nor will we ever, what information was transmitted from that balloon back to China.”
Rosendale said because of the incident involving the Chinese spy balloon, “when we see things going on now, we ask questions, and we demand those answers.”
Rosendale tweeted Monday about his contact with the Defense Department, in which he wrote, “If the spy balloon in February taught us anything, it’s that Montanans are vigilant and want to know what is flying over our state AND will expose the Biden Administration for not protecting us!” He said a couple hours after the tweet, the Defense Department became more transparent about the balloon, with North American Aerospace Defense Command tweeting about it.
“They did the research. They checked it out, and they found out exactly what type of balloon it was,” Rosendale said. “A private balloon. FAA licensing and they had more information on it. But why they wouldn't give that to me initially, so that we could clarify what was going on?
“I could disseminate that information out to the general public so that we could push down any kind of rumors or conspiracy theories that take place.”
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