Sen. Ted Cruz makes the case that the Biden administration shooting down the balloon was about politics rather than national security.

GALLAGHER: Ted Cruz had some great analysis. Sen. Ted Cruz. Truly one of the smartest guys in the U.S. Senate. I think that is why they hate him so much. He has a decent sense of humor and an ability to analyze something and break it down in such a profound way. Here he was with his analysis of the Chinese spy balloon fiasco. Make no mistake, it is an absolute fiasco. He was a guest with CBS’ Margaret Brennan yesterday on Face the Nation.

CRUZ: I want to start by doing something that I don’t do very often, which is commending Joe Biden for actually having the guts to shoot this down. That was the right thing to do. That is absolutely what president should have done. Unfortunately, he didn’t do that until a week after it entered U.S. air space. He allowed a full week for the Chinese to conduct spying operations over the United States, over sensitive military installations exposing not just photographs but the potential of intercepted communications, and more broadly, I think this entire episode telegraphed weakness to xi and the Chinese government. To illustrate why, I would just ask one hypothetical question, imagine how this would have played out if nobody had taken any pictures of the balloon, nobody in Montana hasn’t looked up and noticed this giant balloon. When know when the Biden Administration knew about the balloon they said nothing, didn’t shoot it down. At the end of the day I think the only reason they shot it down because it made into the news and they felt forced to as a matter of politics, rather than national security. That’s a bad message for the Chinese government to hear.