Sen. Rubio: “Clear Message” Embedded in Spy Balloon

TAPPER: Hello, STATE OF THE UNION. I’m Jake Tapper.

Many Republicans reacted with outrage after President Biden waited for the suspected Chinese spy balloon to leave the continental United States before shooting it down, for safety reasons, they said, at the Pentagon’s guidance.

The vice chair of Senate Intelligence Committee, Republican senator Marco Rubio of Florida, will be joining us.

We are so grateful for your presence, Senator.

You have also stated that President Biden should’ve shot the balloon down sooner. The defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, said — quote — “After careful analysis, U.S. military commanders had determined to downing the balloon while over land posed an undue risk to people across a wide area due to the size and altitude of the balloon and its surveillance payload.”

And, as you heard Secretary Buttigieg just a few minutes ago said that the debris field after the balloon was shot down was about seven miles’ long.

Should President Biden have ordered it to be shot down regardless of this risk?

SEN. MARCO RUBIO R-FL: Yes, but not without regard for the risk.

These things can be tracked. It would be great if you could track a slow-moving balloon, which clearly points to this direction as shown by its trajectory. I think that’s one of the things we will learn this week, is how soon, how late into January did they already know that there’s this high-altitude balloon and what its trajectory was and where it was headed, and why didn’t they take action at that time?

That’s number one. The other thing we need to understand and learn about this is why it took so long to reveal it to the American public. I don’t think the trajectory of where this balloon was going was a mystery. I think, pretty early on, they probably — because of the prevailing winds, because of the direction that it was headed, I think it was pretty clear that this thing was going to enter the Northwest in Montana, in Idaho, move its way down the Midwest and exit the Eastern Seaboard just off the Carolinas.

I mean, that’s an unprecedented flight path. And why did it wait until Wednesday to notify — or Thursday to talk about it the American people, knowing people were going to be seeing this thing?

TAPPER: Do you know, as vice-chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee? Have the U.S. retrieved any parts from the Chinese spy ballon? Has the — and did the monitoring of the balloon during its journey, as far as you know, yield any worthwhile information for the U.S.?

RUBIO: Well, we won’t know that until we get to a secure setting this week in Washington. And, probably, most of that is something we won’t be able to disclose in any great detail, other than to say this.

And that is that they’re going to try to recover this. Apparently, it’s in shallow waters. We’ll see how they recover. But I don’t think the technology or the existence of these things is a great mystery. I think what’s embedded here is a clear message. It’s not a coincidence that this happens leading up to the State of the Union address, leading up to Blinken’s visit to China.

This was what the Chinese predicted. They knew we would have to respond. They flew it over military installations and sensitive sites across — right across the middle. This is the flight path. It’s a diagonal shot right through the middle of the continental United States.

And the message embedded in this to the world is, we can fly a balloon over airspace of the United States of America, and you won’t be able to do anything about it to stop us. With a message embedded into it, they carefully calculated this. And I think that’s the part we can’t forget here. It’s not just the balloon.It’s the message to try to send the world that America — we can do whatever we want, and America can’t stop us.

TAPPER: What information did the spy balloon possibly gather as it traveled?

I know, it’s over — the fear is that it was over some U.S. military installations. I’m also wondering if infrastructure was probably part of the surveillance task at hand.

RUBIO: Well, again, it would be speculation, other than to tell you that those things usually at that altitude, and what they’re doing is probably trying to collect on signals, on electronic information that’s transiting that they can pick up on.

They have many other options. And that’s why I go back to the whole point of the message. China might find other ways to get the same balloon. It’s possible that I am wrong. There may be some unique attributes to it that I’m — that I’m not aware of yet, but we will learn more about this week.

But I think, more than anything else, beyond just the ability to collect information, it is the ability to send a clear message, and that is that we have the ability to do this, and America can’t do anything about it. If they’re not going to be able to stop a balloon from flying over U.S. airspace, how is America going to come to your aid if we invade Taiwan or take land from India or take islands from the Philippines and Japan? The fact they would do it is enough to make State of

the Union, leading up to what was then Blinken’s scheduled visit, none of that is a coincidence. This is why we must understand that there was a message behind it.

TAPPER: But you — so you think that — first of all, I guess there are two parts to a question I have following up on that.

One is that the Pentagon states they know of at least four additional instances of this happening by the Chinese, including once during the Biden Administration and three times under the Trump administration. It seems to be you’re saying — oh, you’re saying, no, that’s not true?

But, in any case, is the — what’s the difference?

RUBIO: No. No, what I’m saying — OK.

This is the difference. Were we aware that these balloons were used by the Chinese in the past? Yes. I think there’s even been Twitter pictures of it flying at one point off the coast of the U.S. down south somewhere. People in the field know that there are balloons.

Unprecedented, something we have not seen before, and whoever the source at Department of Defense would have had to acknowledge it, is a balloon-flight that entered Idaho and flew across Montana, over all of these sensitive military installations and air force bases, ICBM field, and other areas of the country.

It has never been done before. This is unprecedented. That it flew briefly over some part of the U.S. or continental U.S., that’s one thing. But what we saw this week, it’s unprecedented. And that’s why everyone’s reacting the way they’re reacting. This has never happened before.

This is not a comparison to any other events that have taken place up until this point.

TAPPER: Your colleague and friend Republican Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina accused President Biden of — quote — “dereliction of duty” By allowing the Chinese spy ball to fly over the U.S.

That’s a pretty strong accusation. Are you in agreement?

RUBIO: I believe the dereliction begins with this.

Why not, on Tuesday or Wednesday — you know people are going to see this. At some point, you’re going to have to disclose it. And they probably didn’t want to, because they didn’t want to have their hand forced on canceling this Blinken visit. And so they didn’t — so they didn’t want to have to talk about it.

But why didn’t the president go on television? He has the ability to convene the country in cameras, and basically explain what we’re dealing with here and why he’s made the decisions he’s making and what they intend to do. I don’t understand, once they went public with it, knowing the amount of interest this was going to generate, presidents have the ability to go before camera, go before the nation and basically explain these things early on.

And his failure to do so is — I don’t understand that. I don’t understand why he wouldn’t do that. This is the beginning dereliction. We must also act quickly to address these issues. I think that’s part of the — one of the things the Chinese are trying to message.

And that is, the U.S. had to see this coming and decided they couldn’t or wouldn’t do anything about it early on, and now had to wait until this thing went across the middle of the country. What are we going do next time it happens? Is it possible to let it fly through again and then shoot it down when it reaches the East Coast?

These are questions that need to be answered by the White House. And I don’t think these are partisan claims I’m making. There would be broad agreement on the need for us to agree upon a policy in this area.

TAPPER

What other consequences could there be now for the Chinese government?

RUBIO: Well, I think the first consequence has to be — we have to decide, what are we going to do the next time one of these things heads this way? Because I don’t think it’ll be the last time. You will probably see it again.

Beyond consequences, I’m not sure there should be a direct individual consequence. To anyone who is unsure, I believe the U.S.-China relationship is the most important. And that is, we are now — China has been for some time and will be the primary strategic adversary of the United States.

And we should be focused on it, because what they’re trying to do is create a world in which they are the most powerful nation, and the United States is a great power in decline. That is — that is what they believe to be the case. They are working on it.

And we have to determine whether we’re going to allow the world to head in that direction or not. And then there’s all sorts of things we need to do, from how we’re postured militarily in the Indo-Pacific, all the way to what kind of companies do we allow to operate in the United States and spy on us, because we have invited them in?

Because they’re in our infrastructure, in our telecommunications infrastructure, because they’re buying land, because they’re buying farmland, because — because they’re wiping out key industrial capabilities of this country. There’s all kinds of things that need to be discussed when it comes to China, because this is the issue of the 21st century. TAPPER – The Chinese government stated that, now that the U.S. balloon has been shut down, they are free to employ any means necessary to address similar situations.

There’s even talk in “The Global Times,” This is basically a Chinese mouthpiece. They might shoot down U.S. civilian apparatuses if they set a dangerous precedent.

What do you think of all this? Are you — are you fearful at all of this escalating?

RUBIO: Listen, if we were to fly anything over China, they’re going to shoot it down. They’re going to shoot it down, and they’re going to hold up — and they’re going to take pictures of it, and they’re going to go bonkers about it.

So I don’t know what statement they’re making. You can’t — you can’t fly anything over China now anyway. I mean, if we were to do that, if we were to fly a balloon over China — if the Goodyear Blimp flew over China, they’d shoot it down. So, it’s a — it’s a — it’s what they do over there. It’s silly talk.

Bottom line is, I think that’s — that’s what — that’s what we should expect anyways.

TAPPER : All right, Senator Marco Rubio from Florida, vice-chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Thank you for joining us today.

I really appreciate it, sir.

RUBIO – Thank you.