Rep. Chris Stewart, R-Utah, told Newsmax on Friday he is not satisfied with information he has received about the suspected Chinese spy balloon that traversed the United States before being shot down off the coast of South Carolina on Feb. 4.
"Of course not. Who would be?" Stewart said on "The Record With Greta Van Susteren." "The president and the administration, as an example, knew for a week before that this balloon was en route to the United States. They didn't tell anyone. They didn't tell members of Congress, even members of the intelligence community.
"They knew that it was going to overfly the U.S. and was going to spend three — potentially four — days here, and at the same time, they were still going to send Secretary [of State Antony] Blinken to China. Just pretend this thing wasn't happening."
Stewart, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said he's unhappy with what the Biden administration has told lawmakers even after the balloon was shot down. He said what he really wants to hear from the administration is that it's not going to let it happen again.
"Our policy should be very clear: We will destroy another balloon such as this before we allow it to enter our airspace or to overfly the U.S. for days like this balloon was allowed to do."
The balloon reportedly was equipped with electronic surveillance technology capable of monitoring U.S. communications, and it traveled over or near key U.S. military installations in Montana, Nebraska and Missouri.
There have been reports the U.S. was able to jam the balloon's sensors so it couldn't retrieve or send information. The remnants of the balloon are at the FBI's lab in Virginia, and Stewart said he wants to know about its capabilities.
"At the time, the administration was claiming, 'No, no, we've been able to jam any of the data relays,' " Stewart said. "I don't think that we know that's true at all, and I'd like to know how much information were they able to convey while they were flying over Malmstrom Air Force Base [in Montana], or some of our missile bases.
"The second thing I would like to know is, are there U.S. manufactured chips or other pieces of equipment that found its way through the supply chain into Chinese surveillance?"
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