A closed-door intel briefing for House lawmakers on the Chinese spy balloon turned tense on Thursday when Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) launched an expletive-laden attack against Biden administration officials for waiting days before shooting down the dirigible, according to a report by The Hill.
During the classified hearing Thursday morning, Biden administration officials briefed House members on this weekend’s downing of a Chinese spy balloon off the Carolina coast, which capped off a days-long saga of following the balloon as it floated over the U.S.
One lawmaker who attended the briefing told The Hill that the exchange between Greene and the officials was filled with profanities.
“When she got to ask questions,” the lawmaker recalled, “she was yelling out saying ‘bullshit,’ and, you know, ‘I don’t believe you.’”
“Just screaming and yelling, irrational in my estimation,” the lawmaker added.
Greene confirmed her outburst, telling The Hill that she “tore ‘em to pieces” regarding the response to the Chinese spy balloon because she believed “they made the wrong move” after listening to the information they provided.
“I had to wait in line the whole time. I was I think the second to last person, and I chewed them out just like the American people would’ve. I tore ‘em to pieces,” Greene said. “I said the president may be a Democrat but he’s still the president of the United States and they made him look like a fool and made him look weak the week before the State of the Union — I’ve said that publicly, too — by not shooting it down, and I said there was nothing I heard there today that gave me any confidence in what they did.”
“They tried to give me some more excuses and I said, ‘I don’t want to hear more of your excuses. He said, ‘Well it’s a matter of opinion.’ I said ‘No, you’re nothing but excuses and it’s wrong and I’m just telling you, this is how the American people see it and it’s a serious problem.’”
In an interview aired on Wednesday, President Joe Biden told PBS’ Judy Woodruff, “I told the military I wanted to shoot it down when it was safe to do it. They said it was unsafe to do it over land. They said they can learn a lot in the meantime by watching it go across the country. As soon as they had a chance to shoot it down over water, they did and they recovered major pieces of it to determine if we can learn anything from what they garnered and what kind of equipment they had.”
