Leon Panetta, who served as Defense secretary and CIA director in the Obama administration, offered a rare Democratic critique Sunday of the Biden administration's handling of the suspected Chinese surveillance balloon.
"If it was [a spy balloon], and if we were aware of the balloon, I think we should have taken steps to prevent it from entering our air space, and I'm not sure that we should have allowed it to simply cross over the country, cross over what were obviously sensitive military sites," Panetta told CNN's Jim Acosta. "I don't see the logic of that."
President Joe Biden told reporters Saturday that he gave the order Wednesday to take down the balloon “as soon as possible." That did not happen until Saturday after top military officials advised against shooting down the balloon while over the continental US because of the risk the debris could pose to civilians and property on the ground.
"The Pentagon said there were risks here. I understand that argument, there were debris risks. At the same time, I think we should have acted earlier if our suspicions were valid that this was, in fact, on an intelligence mission. I hope in the future we make clear to ... China that this kind of incident cannot happen again," Panetta said.
Panetta said Biden would have faced less criticism if he had been transparent with Americans when officials first considered the balloon was on an intelligence-gathering mission and when Biden made the decision to have it shot down.
"The American people, I think, are entitled to know just exactly what our adversaries are up to," Panetta said.