Rep. Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, decried that President Joe Biden's management and/or leadership has left the United States in a place where it can no longer address its domestic problems and flounders in foreign affairs.
During an appearance on Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures With Maria Bartiromo," Arrington said of Biden, "We have a saying [in Texas]: all hat, no cattle."
"This guy is all talk. [Secretary of State Antony] Blinken, Biden; they're projecting weakness. We are not respected by our adversaries. We are not trusted by our friends. This is the new sort of world order because of the Biden projection of weakness.
"Our adversaries are emboldened," the chairman of the House Budget Committee continued. "It's trade-related. It's border-related. And it's spy balloons; it's [China] collecting data; it's [China] buying up land around strategic assets. The list goes on. The bottom line is they don't respect our president and commander in chief."
Arrington's comments follow after the New York Post reported Friday that a $400,000 missile was used in the downing of what might have been a cheap hobby balloon over Canada's Yukon Territory on Feb. 11.
Then on Wednesday, the Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade told Aviation Week that around the time Biden gave the orders to shoot down the silverish cylindrically shaped object, one of its balloons vanished.
The White House has not confirmed that the object that was shot down was the club's missing balloon, but speculation of the matter prompted jeers from Republicans on social media.
"Biden let an actual Chinese spy balloon cross 2,000 miles of American airspace untouched. Now he fakes being tough by shooting down a $12 science project from the (I kid you not) 'Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade,'" Turning Point USA's Charlie Kirk tweeted.
"RIP to the Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade's ~$80 ham radio transmitter balloon, likely the victim of friendly fire by a $143,000,000 USAF F-22 firing a $485,000 AIM-9X Sidewinder missile during the Great Balloon Panic of 2023," former Michigan Republican Rep. Peter Meijer tweeted.
Even left-leaning journalist Max Blumenthal suggested that Biden's shooting of the balloon was a retroactive attempt to present a facade of competence.
"An F-22, which costs $85,000 an hour to fly, used a $450,000 missile to take down a $12 hobby balloon belonging to the Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade, all so Biden could prove his manhood to Marjorie Taylor Greene," Blumenthal tweeted while pointing to a Politico article that reported that lawmakers and lobbyists are using the balloon news to justify the Department of Defense's budget.
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