White House rejects criticism over wait to hit spy’ balloon

The White House has hit back at Republican criticism of Joe Biden over his eight-day wait to shoot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon that flew over military sites.

“The president gave instructions to have it shot down in a way that was safe,” the US transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg , told CNN’s State of the Union of Saturday’s operation offthe Carolina coast .

“The debris field that was created by this balloon, which was shot down, it’s about seven miles long. And so any time the military is considering an option, they have to consider the safety of the American people.”

Biden wanted the balloon downed on Wednesday but was advised to wait for when it was over water, officials told reporters, after it was determined bringing it down over land from 60,000ft would pose an undue risk.

But Marco Rubio of Florida, the Republican vice-chair of the Senate intelligence committee, asked: “Why didn’t they take action? At this time, that’s number one. The other thing that we need to know about is why did it take so long for them to disclose this to the American public?”