The corporate media on Monday rushed to the defense of President Biden, after his administration waited a full week to shoot down a Chinese spy balloon that flew over the continental U.S. last week.
As Republicans criticized the President for not acting sooner, his media supporters countered that the balloon could only have been shot down over the Atlantic, or else it might have hit “a church,” or “a hospital,” or “a kindergarten.” See the video below for all the worst spin:
Former Obama CIA and Pentagon Chief of Staff Jeremy Bash — perhaps best known for his role in promoting the idea that Hunter Biden’s laptop had “all the hallmarks” of a Russian disinformation operation — appeared on three separate morning shows on Monday to defend the administration’s sluggish response. In all three cases, he pontificated that shooting the balloon down over land risked accidentally destroying a kindergarten or a hospital:
“… a debris field that could hit a kindergarten, a hospital.” (NBC’s Today, 7:12 a.m. Eastern)
“It could, heaven forbid, fall on a kindergarten or a hospital.” (MSNBC’s Morning Joe, 8:09 a.m. Eastern)
“Three buses worth of metal would be falling down, potentially on hospitals, potentially on kindergartens.” (MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports, 12:15 p.m. Eastern)
On its face, Bash’s assertion is both absurd and emotionally manipulative. But what do the data say? Let’s look at Montana, the state where the balloon was first spotted by civilians.
According to data from the Montana Department of Justice and the Office of Public Instruction, the state contains 60 hospitals and 88 school districts that offer kindergarten education. Considering Montana spans over 147,000 square miles, the odds of falling debris landing on either a hospital or a kindergarten in that state are astronomically low.
Those odds are even lower when one considers that less than two percent of the state’s land is classified as “developed” by the National Resources Inventory. Even by the most conservative estimate, 64 percent of the state’s landmass is utterly devoid of people, livestock, or infrastructure.
Trust the science, Jeremy!
