Biden's weak response to Chinese surveillance balloon a 'green light to bad guys': Mike Pompeo

President Biden's failure to take immediate action against a sophisticated Chinese balloon spotted coasting over the U.S. heartland is a signal to "bad guys all over the world" and showed the global stage how he truly would treat an invasion of Taiwan by the CCP, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Friday.

Chinese officials claim the balloon's purpose is meteorological and that prevailing winds blew it off course. However, the U.S. believes it is likely some type of surveillance dirigible.

Pompeo told "The Story" that during President Donald Trump's term, China never risked such a confrontational move against the United States, and that Chinese autocratic President Xi Jinping now knows how weak Biden truly is.

"This is not something we should take for granted. We shouldn't allow this to continue to happen. They are probing us everywhere," he said of the Chinese Communist Party. 

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"They're probing us in the Pacific with their fighter aircraft. We had a close incident not too many weeks ago. They're probing us in our home by putting propaganda on TikTok, poisoning our children. They're working in our schools and universities. This is just another example of the Chinese Communist Party's aggression."

Pompeo said that the balloon should be taken down immediately by American authorities. Federal officials reportedly claimed they have not downed the balloon, in part due to risks of collateral damage on the ground.

"[I]f President Biden won't respond to this seriously, I doubt that his statement that we will defend Taiwan and help the Taiwanese people is something that Xi Jinping will ever take seriously," Pompeo said.

The former secretary of state under Trump, and potential 2024 presidential candidate, added that there are safe ways to take the Chinese balloon out of the sky that won't risk American civilian lives or infrastructure.

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Sen. Steve Daines, the junior U.S. senator from Montana, where the ballon was first spotted, agreed there was more than enough "Big Sky Country" to drop the balloon into.

Daines, a Republican, told "The Story" that Montanans were reaching out to ask what they could do themselves to help, while adding the feds could've safely taken down the Chinese device before it made its way toward Kansas City – where it was more recently spotted – and the more densely populated Midwest and East Coast.

"We're not going to suggest [civilians take a shot], because it is up there between 40 and 60,000 feet," Daines said in part. 

"I wish [the feds would] come out here and check out our state a bit. It's wide open spaces, lots of big open country – Big Sky Country. . . . I guarantee you we've got plenty of space here in Montana to get a safe shot."

He noted the presence of more than 100 intercontinental ballistic missiles at Malmstrom Air Force Base near Great Falls, saying they are the most powerful "weapon of mass destruction" in the arsenal.

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Pompeo said that he had separately heard that the feds have stymied the balloon's ability to transmit data – meteorological or otherwise – but that either way, the fact the CCP has "penetrated our airspace" without any response is a "green light for bad guys all around the world, including Xi."

"There is the military significance, but also the political significance attached to the fact that Xi Jinping is clearly probing to see if the Biden administration is serious about never giving an inch about protecting our country," he said.

Current Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday during remarks that he had told Chinese Foreign Affairs Minister Wang Yi that the act violated American sovereignty.