‘SHOOT IT DOWN’: MO senators want spy balloon downed as it floats above center of U.S.

Missouri’s two senators on Friday called for the United States to take down a Chinese spy balloon, as the Pentagon disclosed it was now floating across the center of the country — and the National Weather Service said it had spotted a large balloon visible in the Kansas City metro.

“SHOOT IT DOWN,” Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican who sits on the Senate Homeland Security Committee, tweeted.

Hawley called for the committee to hold public hearings immediately. In a letter to the committee’s chairman, Democratic Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan, Hawley requested hearings and said senior members of the Biden administration should be brought before the committee.

“This is a gross violation of American sovereignty. China’s foray into America’s sovereign airspace is deeply disturbing and calls for an immediate investigation,” Hawley said in the letter.

Sen. Eric Schmitt, a freshman Missouri Republican who took office last month, said the U.S. should “take it down.”

Schmitt said in a tweet that he had just been assigned to the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday, “but I’m going to go out on a limb and say we shouldn’t have a Chinese spy balloon floating over the United States of America.”

The balloon, which U.S. officials say is a surveillance vehicle, has quickly captured public fascination. Shooting down the plane has been ruled out as an option for now, officials have said, because of the potential risks to people on the ground. Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon’s press secretary, wouldn’t say if the military would shoot it down once it goes over a body of water.

Hawley and Schmitt’s call for action come as the senators, and other U.S. officials, strike an increasingly confrontational stance toward China. Secretary of State Antony Blinken postponed a planned weekend visit to China following the disclosure of the balloon’s presence.

Ryder refused to tell reporters the balloon’s exact location but said “it is currently over the center of the continental United States.”

The Kansas City office of the National Weather Service said it had received several reports of a large balloon moving southeast across northwest Missouri. It said the balloon isn’t an NWS weather balloon and was visible from the agency’s office in Pleasant Hill.

Sen. Roger Marshall, a Kansas Republican, also said the balloon was over northeast Kansas and that his staff had been in contact with law enforcement. He said on Twitter that President Joe Biden “must protect the sovereignty of the U.S. whether it’s our airspace or the southern border.”

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson, a Republican, said on Twitter that his office had received “zero communication from the Biden Administration” regarding the balloon.

Both the Biden administration and the China’s government appear to be attempting to avoid a dramatic escalation of tensions. Biden has so far declined to comment and has opted against shooting down the object for now, following a Pentagon recommendation against a strike over concerns about creating a large debris field that could place people at risk.

In a statement that approached an apology, the Chinese foreign ministry said the balloon was a civilian airship used mainly for meteorological research. It said the airship had limited “self-steering” capabilities and had “deviated far from its planned course” because of winds.

“The Chinese side regrets the unintended entry of the airship into U.S. airspace due to force majeure,” the statement said, citing a legal term used to refer to events beyond one’s control.

Still, weather experts have said China’s claim that the balloon had gone off course was not unfeasible.

The balloon is at about 60,000 feet, meaning it’s above civilian air traffic. There are civilian cameras that could spot the balloon, but officials don’t think it poses a physical threat or military threat to people on the ground.

“Did somebody say Chinese spy balloon? Be right back,” Missouri state Rep. Ben Baker, a Neosho Republican, tweeted along with a photo of himself holding an assault-style rifle.

The Star’s Daniel Desrochers and the Associated Press contributed reporting