Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said President Biden is “detached from reality” and “delusional” about the threat posed by China, after the U.S. shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon that traveled over the country earlier this month.
“He’s detached from reality. He’s delusional,” Johnson said of Biden on Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures.” “He says that we have control over it. We don’t. And the fact that he doesn’t acknowledge the fact that what is happening here is alarming and puts our nation in peril is itself alarming.”
Biden has been under heavy scrutiny from Republicans for waiting for days to shoot down the balloon, after it floated over key military and nuclear sites.
“We don’t exactly have the A-team in place right now, which is also more than unfortunate,” Johnson said. “We have got — to say the B-team isn’t probably even accurate. We do not have the A-team on the field right now. And it should alarm Americans.”
But while Republicans have jousted with Biden over his decision to allow the balloon to float over the U.S., defense officials have said that they recommended to the president that he allow the balloon to reach water before shooting it down due to concerns about the damage it could cause if it fell over land.
Johnson’s criticism of Biden comes as further reports have surfaced of the U.S. downing at least two more objects above U.S. and Canadian territory over the past few days.
While officials have not divulged much about those incidents, Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said U.S. officials believe they were balloons, after being briefed by the Biden administration.