"Absolute pressure" led to the downing of a mysterious, car-sized object over northern Alaska Friday, just a week after a much larger spy balloon from China was allowed to fly over the continental United States before being shot down in the Atlantic Ocean last Saturday, Rep. Greg Murphy said on Newsmax Saturday.
"I think there was a lot of pressure on the president and our military to take something down before it again traversed the United States, gathering information and violating our airspace," the North Carolina Republican said on Newsmax's "Saturday Report."
Murphy added that he and other members of Congress had a classified briefing this past week with the head of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and other officials. He said he couldn't go into details, but that the "overwhelming" question was why the spy balloon wasn't shot down before it got to the Atlantic Ocean.
"You shot it over the ocean, but the wrong ocean," said Murphy. "This should have been taken down a lot sooner. And what was even more troubling is the fact that our military then went back and looked at what happened during the Trump era and then — only then — discovered that we had had balloons traverse the continental United States back in 2019 and 2020."
The origins of the object shot down over Alaska Friday are still not known, but as with the balloon, Murphy said he thinks China is "testing our resolve."
President Joe Biden mentioned China in only three sentences, even though it is "our greatest adversary," the congressman pointed out.
"It just begs the question, 'What does China have over the Biden administration that he is refusing to ignore the problems that are facing this nation because of China's desire to take over the world?'" said Murphy. "History will tell why this administration is running away from confronting China."
Meanwhile, Murphy on Saturday said he disagrees with Biden's insistence that the United States will not fall into a recession this year or next.
"We had a hearing, Ways and Means; we went out to West Virginia and had a hearing with real people facing real-world [problems] because of this administration's tone-deaf approach to government," said Murphy. "Biden's been in D.C. for 50 years. Excuse my French, but what the hell does he know about the average American? He only cares about union workers."
Biden's also lying about the economy by not giving any context to claims he's decreased the deficit, said Murphy, accusing the president of having had a "pathological sense of lying for the last 50 years."
And as a result, the "majority of Democrats don't want him to run again," said Murphy.
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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