House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, says President Biden's administration was "sleepwalking" on Russia's nuclear threat before he disclosed it last week.
Turner notified all congressional lawmakers of Russian intentions to send nuclear weapons into space on Wednesday, and called on Biden to declassify information about the threat. He worried that the White House had been "sleepwalking into an international crisis."
"What I have called for is for the administration to declassify this, and my concern is that this is kind of like the Chinese spy balloon and the administration is kind of hiding perhaps, you know, some inaction," Turner told NBC News on Saturday.
"Everyone who’s looked at it uses the same language that I have – that it is a very serious threat," Turner added. "We met with [national security adviser] Jake Sullivan, and he began to lay out a plan that hopefully would begin to address this."
Sullivan had expressed surprise at Turner's decision to sound the alarm last week, saying he had already scheduled a meeting with Turner and other members of the congressional Gang of Eight days ahead of time.
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"That’s been on the books, so I am a bit surprised that Congressman Turner came out publicly today, in advance of a meeting on the books," Sullivan said during a White House press briefing.
Details of the Russian threat soon began to filter through to the press, painting a picture of an adversary capable of disabling U.S. military satellites and other critical space-based infrastructure.
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Sources told Fox News digital last week that the Russian technology has not yet been deployed.
Fox News' Brooke Singman contributed to this report
