California Democratic Rep. Ted Lieu took to Twitter to educate former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich after he criticized the U.S. military's response to a recently-detected Chinese spy balloon, HuffPost reports.
During a Fox News interview, Gingrich asserted that the U.S. military had "plenty of capacity to scoop that balloon out of the air." He said, “We used to do it all the time.”
Lieu, who "served on active duty" in the Air Force, publicly disagreed with the former speaker by tweeting he "has no idea what he is talking about." The California congressman wrote, "I know for a fact the US does not have a balloons scooper aircraft."
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\u201cHaving served on active duty, I know for a fact the US does not have a balloon scooper aircraft. Newt Gingrich, who never served in the military, has no idea what he is talking about.\n\nAlso, unlike the Trump Administration, the Biden Administration shot down the CCP balloon.\u201d— Ted Lieu (@Ted Lieu) 1675742524
According to NPR, the U.S. Air Force avoided shooting the balloon down right away to avoid "falling debris" that "could harm people." Military officials eventually shot the balloon down "off the coast of South Carolina" when the object "was no longer over U.S. territory."
