Not sure which "they" and "it" we're referring to here... but I think the Biden administration and its allies clearly wanted to bury the balloon story. They couldn't completely bury it, because people were inevitably going to notice a house-sized object up in the sky. But they're doing their best to downplay it and to move the news cycle past it. Think of all the ways they COULD be drawing attention to this and encouraging hysteria about it -- but they aren't.
So your thought is they are trying it and JOE ISN'T just inviting them to go ahead and do it?
Not sure which "they" and "it" we're referring to here... but I think the Biden administration and its allies clearly wanted to bury the balloon story. They couldn't completely bury it, because people were inevitably going to notice a house-sized object up in the sky. But they're doing their best to downplay it and to move the news cycle past it. Think of all the ways they COULD be drawing attention to this and encouraging hysteria about it -- but they aren't.
"They" China and "it" the balloon.