President Joe Biden claimed during his “State of the Union” speech Tuesday night that he protected U.S. sovereignty from communist China last week despite allowing their spy balloon to fly over the entire country before taking action.
Biden’s remarks come after the U.S. military used an F-22 Raptor on Saturday to shoot down the spy balloon over the Atlantic Ocean using a single air-to-air A9X sidewinder missile that was fired at an altitude of approximately 58,000 feet.
“Before I came to office, the story was about how the People’s Republic of China was increasing its power and America was falling in the world,” Biden said. “Not anymore. I’ve made clear with President Xi that we seek competition, not conflict.”
“I will make no apologies that we are investing to make America strong,” he continued. “Investing in American innovation, in industries that will define the future, and that China’s government is intent on dominating.”
“Today, we’re in the strongest position in decades to compete with China or anyone else in the world,” he claimed. “But make no mistake: as we made clear last week, if China threatens our sovereignty, we will act to protect our country. And we did.”
“And let’s be clear: winning the competition with China should unite all of us,” he added.
WATCH:
It took 58 minutes and three seconds for Joe Biden to talk about China, the country the poses the single biggest threat to the U.S. and just spent a week spying without consequences on our most sensitive military installations.
Instead, Biden says this is a "competition" #SOTU pic.twitter.com/arZY7ZCxvU
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) February 8, 2023