A spy balloon that traversed the United States, its capabilities disabled by the Pentagon before being shot down into the ocean this weekend, is causing such alarm among the right that one Florida Republican U.S. Congressman has declared it a “Sputnik moment for America.”
America’s last “Sputnik moment” was in 1957, when the Soviet Union launched a satellite into space, leading Americans to see a technological gap between the two countries, heightening the Cold War and launching the space race.
“I believe that this spy balloon was a Sputnik moment,” U.S. Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL) declared on Fox News Tuesday afternoon.
It was a dire warning, despite the fact that the Pentagon has made clear China’s spy balloon posed no threat to the nation.
Waltz also told Fox News that America is “struggling to catch up” to China’s military technologies.
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As it turns out, Congressman Waltz, who replaced Ron DeSantis in the House of Representatives, is fond of the term “Sputnik moment.”
Here he is in late 2021, declaring China’s hypersonic missile a “Sputnik moment.”
In a Fox News op-ed on Sunday, Waltz declared, “Like Sputnik, the Chinese spy balloon has drastically changed Americans’ sense of security.”
“A silver lining in the Biden administration allowing the Chinese spy balloon to violate our airspace is that the American public has received a similar wake-up call to the brazenness of Chinese spying,” he writes in his Fox News op-ed. “As a member of the House Armed Services Committee and Intelligence Committee, I can tell you the United States has been under an espionage assault from China for years, but much of it has been behind the scenes.”
China has been spying on the U.S. for decades, and the U.S. has been spying on China just as long. All spying is done “behind the scenes.”
Sunday, on Fox Business, Waltz repeated his “Sputnik” claim, calling the balloon a “national embarrassment,” and insisting “we need to get to the bottom of it.” On Monday, back on Fox News, Waltz continued his “Sputnik” remarks as well.