The Biden administration initially intended to keep the presence of a Chinese spy balloon a secret, as revealed by NBC News.
“Before it was spotted publicly, there was the intention to study it and let it pass over and not ever tell anyone about it,” a former official explained to NBC News.
NBC reported that a senior Biden administration later denied that there was an attempt to keep the balloon secret.
“To the extent any of this was kept quiet at all, that was in large part to protect intel equities related to finding and tracking,” the official said.
“There was no intention to keep this from Congress at any point.”
However, a senior administration official denied this, stating that any secrecy was to protect intelligence operations.
U.S. military jets confirmed the balloon’s surveillance equipment and, after it collected intelligence from sensitive military sites, President Biden ordered it to be shot down.
Subsequently, Biden reportedly disclosed sensitive U.S. intelligence about the incident during a fundraising event in California.
