The Biden administration's actions on the Chinese spy balloon and the other floating aircraft that were subsequently shot down are a "hot mess" that shows the officials "can't get out of their own way," retired U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. Blaine Holt said on Newsmax Saturday.
"All you had to do was shoot this thing down before it entered U.S. land mass and tell everybody that the Chinese were getting rowdy and we settled them down and we're going to sanction them about something," Holt, a Newsmax contributor and former deputy military representative to NATO, said on "Wake Up America." "Instead, we've got five incidents, probably all of them [from] China."
But the administration, with its mixed stories, is creating too much confusion, said the retired general.
"I mean, it's a UFO; it's some hobbyist balloon," he said. "We had to shoot it with a missile and couldn't use bullets. We blew up crime scenes all over the place."
And that, Holt said, "instills a lack of confidence in the American people that our top security officials have no idea what they're doing."
"If you back that up to Kabul [Afghanistan] or if you back it up to they didn't deter the Ukraine war, which was certainly deterrable, or getting our faces punched in every single time we talk to the Chinese, it's a string of consistency of failures of this national security team," he added.
Holt also on Saturday discussed the upcoming anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which started last Feb. 24, and said that while at one point it was believed that the winter months would enable Russia's advanced push, the real issue is the logistics of weapons reaching Ukraine.
"This is why you saw the desperate speech at the Munich Security Conference by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to say, 'Hey, look: If these are the agreements you've made, you need to honor them, not over time. You need to honor them right now.'"
The Ukrainians need to have the materials they were promised, and that doesn't count tanks, jets, or potentially F-16s, but instead, the shells, howitzers, and other weaponry an army needs to defend itself, said Holt.
"It looks like Russia is on the move," said Holt. "Not only that, I think they're about to turn up the burners quite substantially, as this anniversary draws near."
Meanwhile, China remains behind the scenes; and even though there has been some talk about it wanting Russia to wrap up the war, its "actions speak louder than words," said Holt.
"China is absolutely behind the scenes, and I don't see China stepping up to get into [Russian President Vladimir] Putin's face about ending this war," he said. "I think the opposite is happening with them, purchasing more and more Russian energy supplies. And China has its own problems internally. I'm pretty convinced the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] doesn't have time for Russia right now."
About NEWSMAX TV:
NEWSMAX is the fastest-growing cable news channel in America!