State of the Union: Marjorie Taylor Greene pulls 'balloon' stunt, yells 'liar' at Biden

Republican extremist Marjorie Taylor Greene was seen patrolling the halls of Congress with a large white balloon just before President Joe Biden's State of the Union address Tuesday. “Just an innocent white balloon everybody,” the Georgia extremist said, taking an apparent jibe at Biden's tackling of the Chinese surveillance balloon that was seen flying over the country a few days back. It was later shot down over the Carolinas on Saturday.

Notably, the Pentagon has said that three such Chinese balloons had passed over the US during Donald Trump's presidency, but the Trump administration failed to spot them.

Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, had earlier said that surveillance had improved under Biden and that they had “enhanced the capacity to be able to detect things that the Trump administration was unable to detect”.

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Bonnie Watson Coleman, a New Jersey Democrat, slammed Greene's little stunt, saying, “She has to do something with all that hot air.”

US officials have explained that Biden wanted to shoot down the balloon three days before it was eventually burst with a missile. However, he was persuaded not to go ahead with it for fear of injury or destruction on the ground from debris.

China has claimed the balloon was for civilian meteorological research and had veered off track. The entire matter led to an upheaval, with Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, cancelling a trip to Beijing for talks.

Greene also pulled other tiny stunts while Biden was speaking, repeatedly yelling at Biden throughout his speech. She even shouted “liar” at Biden when he suggested that some Republicans wanted cuts to Medicare to Social Security.

When Biden introduced Tyre Nichols' parents, who were First Lady Jill Biden's guests, and the Ukraine ambassador, she stayed seated.

Greene was elected in 2020, and was later removed from committees for threatening behaviour in 2021. However, she was restored to key panels as an ally of Kevin McCarthy, the new Republican speaker, last month.McCarthy had reportedly told Republicans not to pull any stunts during Biden's speech.

(With inputs from agencies)

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