National Security Council spokesman John Kirby slighted the Trump administration Monday for failing to detect China's spy balloon surveillance operation.
The United States has shot down four suspected Chinese spying devices in just over a week. The first balloon was shot down off the coast of South Carolina in early February, and the other three were downed over Alaska, Canada, and Lake Huron over the weekend.
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"We were able to determine that China has a high altitude balloon program for intelligence collection that's connected to the People's Liberation Army," Kirby told reporters at Monday's White House press briefing. "It was operating during the previous administration, but they did not detect it. We detected it. We tracked it, and we have been carefully studying it to learn as much as we can."
"We know that these PRC surveillance balloons have crossed over dozens of countries on multiple continents around the world, including some of our closest allies and partners," he continued. "We assessed that at this time, these balloons have provided limited additive capabilities to the PRC's other intelligence platforms used over the United States."
Throughout the briefing, Kirby stated that the U.S. North American Aerospace Defense Command had expanded its radar monitoring processes following the discovery of the first balloon, which could account for the rapid increase in detection of the subsequent unidentified aerial objects.
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You can watch Monday's briefing in full below.