You might be thinking that Joe Biden bears responsibility for allowing a Chinese spy balloon to traverse the entire continental United States given it happened on his watch. You’d be wrong, though, at least according to the White House.

In fact, the person at fault isn’t even in office anymore. Yep, you guessed it, the bad orange man has struck again.

KIRBY: "[Chinese balloon program] was operating during the previous administration, but they did not detect it, we detected it. We tracked it." pic.twitter.com/ynZGvGcTyr

— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) February 13, 2023

John Kirby stepped in to relieve the world’s worst press secretary on Monday, and as he tells it, it was Donald Trump’s administration that failed to keep America safe. You see, according to the Pentagon, which is desperately running cover for Biden’s national security failings, Chinese spy balloons were everywhere during the Trump administration but simply weren’t detected. You know, because the last president was so incompetent and stuff. It was only the current president, utilizing a mix of pure moxie and sheer heroics, that exposed the Chicom’s dastardly plan.

Conversely, that claim makes little sense and you’d have to be an absolute idiot to take it at face value. Ask yourself, how could the Pentagon even know for sure that Chinese spy balloons were over the United States under Trump if they weren’t “detected” until years later? The assumption here is that they are looking at old radar pictures and comparing signatures, but it would still be impossible to make a definitive judgment without having a time machine to go back and visually identify the supposed objects.

That’s not to say there couldn’t have been spy balloons over the US during the Trump administration, but the pointed claim of fact by Kirby is questionable at best. Given that, why are Biden administration officials using that line at a press briefing when they know their evidence is likely circumstantial? That’s rhetorical, of course. We all know why.

Besides, isn’t it dishonest to present the current administration as competently detecting China’s spy balloon program in contrast to the prior administration? I seem to remember the first reports of the initial spy balloon, later shot down off the coast of South Carolina, coming from civilians in Montana. It was only then that the US government identified the object and began to actively track it. There has been no evidence shown of a scramble prior to that despite claims of detection over the Aleutian Islands. That revelation has to have come after the fact (again, possibly using old radar images), otherwise, why didn’t they shoot it down over the Bering Sea?

Lastly, just to make the point further, it was reported on Sunday that the DOD didn’t turn up the sensitivity on its radar systems until after the first spy balloon was identified over Montana. That offers more proof that Kirby is simply lying about the administration’s readiness prior.

DOD says after the spy balloon incident, they enhanced their radars, which may explain picking up more things.

“What we’re seeing is very very small objects.” — @NORADCommand Commander Gen. Glen VanHerck

— Kristina Wong 🇺🇸 (@kristina_wong) February 13, 2023

In other words, it sure looks like the Biden administration didn’t realize there was a spy balloon until some rando in Montana looked up, making it a national story. Now, these amateurs want to act as if they had this all figured out from the start. It’s a desperate attempt to shift blame and one that deserves to be soundly mocked.