South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem told Newsmax that the Biden administration disclosed little to governors while a Chinese balloon was tracked over U.S. airspace earlier this month.
Joining "The Record With Greta Van Susteren" on Thursday, the Republican governor said she was shocked that the administration failed to communicate with her even when the balloon made its way over South Dakota.
"I found it alarming that the first I heard of this was through the actual people who step up and serve right in my state," Noem said of the South Dakota National Guard, which informed her of the aerial object before the federal government.
She added: "I didn't hear anything from the White House or the Pentagon."
After being tipped off by a member of the National Guard that debris potentially could land in her state, Noem said she reached out to the White House. However, the governor claimed, they still "weren't getting any information back."
"Our National Guard was in communication, so we allowed them to continue to do the communication," Noem stated. "Although, I was not ever updated until they had an off-the-record phone call two days later."
But at that point, "the rest of the governors in the country thought the balloon was still over Montana," she continued. "And at that time, from the communication that I had, I knew it was already through South Dakota ... and headed towards the East Coast."
Noem also said that during her call with the Biden administration, the officials could not confirm whether "this object, as it is floating across our country, does not have chemical or biological weapons on board."
"They said it ... was able to maneuver," she said. "It wasn't able to have the strength to go in reverse against the jet stream, but it could go perpendicular and that it could be maneuvered and was being controlled by someone else."
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