Cotton slams VP Harris for 'refusing to acknowledge' scale of China threat

Sen. Tom Cotton slammed Vice President Kamala Harris for saying the recent U.S. downing of a Chinese surveillance balloon shouldn't impact relations between Washington and Beijing.

The senator's tweet came in response to a Politico interview with Harris that was published Wednesday. In the interview, Harris was asked whether the surveillance balloon incident should affect U.S.-China relations and responded: "I don't think so, no." Aaron Kliegman is a politics reporter for Fox News Digital. 

Harris was also asked to describe the Biden administration's approach to China. "We seek competition, but not conflict or confrontation," she said. "Everything that has happened in the last week and a half is, we believe, very consistent with our stated approach."

Harris' comments came more than a week after the U.S. decided to shoot down the Chinese balloon off the South Carolina coast, leading to a war of words between both countries. Members of both political parties decried the intrusion into U.S. airspace and criticized the Biden administration for not shooting it down sooner.