(CNSNews.com) - "The bottom line is, until a few months ago, we didn't know of these balloons," Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) told ABC's "This Week" on Sunday. "Our intelligence and our military did not know."
Schumer spoke before the public learned about a fourth "high-altitude airborne object" (as defense officials call them) shot down by the U.S. on Sunday night over Lake Huron.
Schumer agreed with host George Stephanopoulos that "it is wild that we didn't know" about the intrusions into U.S. airspace until recently.
Yet, Schumer said the Chinese, who succeeded in sending a spy balloon across the continental United States last week, are the ones who "look really bad."
"Look, I think the Chinese were humiliated. I think the Chinese were caught lying. And I think it's a real -- it's a real step back for them, yes. I think they're going to have to -- I think they're probably going to have to get rid of it or do something, because they look really bad.
"And they're not just doing the United States. This is a crew of balloons, we saw one in South America, they've probably been all over the world."
Schumer also claimed that the U.S. benefited from the flight of the spy balloon: "We got enormous intelligence information from surveilling the balloon as it went over the United States," he said.
"Didn't get the Chinese get enormous intelligence as well?" Stephanopoulos asked:
"Well, they -- they could have been getting it anyway. But we have to know what they're doing, OK? And we don't know exactly, but we got a lot of that," Schumer said.
"And more importantly, by shooting it down over water, U.S. waters, only a six miles out from South Carolina, we're going to probably be able to piece together this whole, whole surveillance balloon, and know exactly what's going on.
"So that's a huge coup for the United States."
Schumer claimed the Biden administration is "strong and tough on China," which some of his colleagues dispute:
"I do think Senator Tester (D-Mont.) is looking into why it took so long for us, our military, our intelligence to know about these balloons," Schumer said.
"That's something I support. Congress should look at that. That's the question we have to answer. I think our military, our intelligence are doing a great job, present and future. I feel a lot of confidence in what they're doing. But why -- why as far back as the Trump administration did no one know about this?
"Now on China in general, look, China -- I have always been a China hawk, but China is the second biggest power in the -- in the world, economically and geopolitically. We can't just have a cold war with them. We have to have a relationship with them. But China has taken advantage of us over and over and over again. And this administration has been just about tougher than any other.
"The bill I passed, the CHIPS and Science bill, is going to bring all of that semiconductor manufacturing back to the -- back to America. Just the other day I was in East Fishkill, the old IBM plant, a new company, American, Onsemi, is taking plants out of Korea, out of Japan, and putting them here to make semiconductors.
"The administration did another thing on its own. It said, we're not going to send any of the materials used to make semiconductors, that is, the machinery, to China. That's a real blow. The Chinese are feeling that badly. We did a similar thing on a smaller basis just with these balloons. Six Chinese companies that probably make the balloons are sanctioned.
"So I think this administration is strong and tough on China, but mindful of the fact that we just -- you know, we can't stop talking to them. We have to try to have some kind of relationship."
The U.S. Air Force has now, as of early Monday morning, shot down four objects: One, a huge Chinese spy balloon, came down a week ago Saturday off the coast of South Carolina. Then, three much smaller, mysterious "objects" also have been shot down, one over the northern coast of Alaska on Friday; one over northern Canada on Saturday; and one over Lake Huron on Sunday.