On Thursday, President Joe Biden downplayed last week's incident with the Chinese spy balloon, refusing to call it a dangerous breach of national security.
In an interview with Noticias Telemundo, a Spanish-language network, the U.S. president said the Chinese balloon incident was "not a major breach." Also, Biden said other countries around the world perform similar intelligence-gathering missions.
"It's not a major breach. Look, the total amount of intelligence-gathering that's going on by every country around the world is overwhelming," said Biden.
The president, however, did characterize the balloon incident as a "violation of international law," committed by China.
"It's our airspace; and once [the balloon] comes into our space, we can do what we want with it," said Biden.
Covering five days last week, the Chinese balloon flew over Alaska, western Canada, and a large swath of the continental United States before the U.S. military shot down the unmanned aircraft somewhere over the Carolina coast.
On Newsmax this week, one lawmaker speculated the balloon had flown directly over more than a dozen sensitive military sites in America.
Biden has said he wanted the Chinese balloon taken out prior to reaching the Atlantic Ocean, but Pentagon officials urged him to wait a few days before taking action.
Some critics have said that argument rings somewhat hollow, considering the state of Montana has a low population and plenty of open space.
Also on Thursday, the House approved a resolution condemning the Chinese Communist Party's use of a spy balloon over the continental U.S., unanimously labeling the incident "a brazen violation of United States sovereignty."
In the same Noticias Telemundo interview, Biden was asked about his prospects for seeking reelection next year, along with a possible general-election battle against either Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis or former President Donald Trump.
DeSantis and Trump "have a similar modus operandi, a similar way in which they work," said Biden, who didn't officially confirm his reelection pursuit — an announcement that's expected in the coming weeks.
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