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Republican senators say that administration officials didn't dismiss the possibility that U.S. manufacturing aided in construction of the Chinese surveillance balloon in a classified briefing with senators on Thursday.
Following a classified briefing Thursday with officials from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) the Department of Defense (DOD) and the State Department, Senators Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska., said that the question of whether American companies helped build the Chinese surveillance balloon was raised in the briefing, and the officials didn't answer definitively.
"American companies shouldn't be helping build spy satellites that are used against their own citizens," Sullivan told reporters at the Capitol after the briefing. "Maybe there's nothing to be said about that," he said, "but somebody asked about it, and nobody, nobody in that briefing said, 'oh, it's not a problem.'"