The Biden administration should have ordered the Chinese balloon to be struck down when it was allegedly first identified “off the Aleutian Islands,” Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., told Newsmax.

Hoeven argued Pentagon officials must have identified the balloon in U.S. airspace when it was flying near Alaska’s westernmost Island chain.

“We should have heard about it before when it was off the Aleutian Islands,” Hoeven told Monday’s “The Record with Greta Van Susteren.” “It should have been taken down right there and then. They had to have known about it with our ability to detect any kind of interdiction into our airspace.

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