The Chinese spy balloon, and what to do about it, became a major story earlier this week. A number of online Republicans were especially worried about it. Some of them believed that individual citizens should personally take care of the balloon rather than waiting for the government to act. Here’s Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene:

Literally every regular person I know is talking about how to shoot down the Chinese Spy Balloon.

It would be great if an average Joe shot it down because China Joe won’t.

Regular Americans can do everything better than the government and actually care about our country.

— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) February 3, 2023

And here is Ohio’s senator, J.D. Vance, waiting for it to fly over Ohio:

JD Vance thought he could shoot down the Chinese balloon, which was at an altitude of 60,000+ feet.

Most commercial airliners typically travel at 33,000 to 42,000 feet.

The Republican Party are just a bunch of performative idiots lol. pic.twitter.com/rBU0vMFRp4

— Gabe Sanchez  (@iamgabesanchez) February 5, 2023

(Republicans with their guns: this picture reminded me of how proud WV's Treasurer, Riley Moore was that he got a similar weapon for Christmas.)

Of course, Biden waited until the balloon's debris would not harm Americans before taking it down. That, however, was not good enough for Republicans:

GOP this morning: How dare Biden not shoot the Chinese Spy Ballon down.

GOP at 2PM: How dare Biden wait so long to shoot balloon down.

Pentagon: We tracked the balloon, jammed it's signal & gathered data on it, before shooting it down over the Atlantic.

GOP Now: Silence

— Brian Krassenstein (@krassenstein) February 4, 2023

Of course, Representative Marjorie was not done:

I just spoke with our GREAT America First President Trump.

He would have never allowed China to fly a spy balloon over our country and our military bases and assets.

Pres Trump would have shot it down before it entered the US.

And so would I.

— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) February 5, 2023

Once again, she and a number of other Republicans were wrong:

Wow. The US military just confirmed in an official statement that there were at least THREE Chinese spy balloons that flew over the US when Trump was president. Trump kept it a secret and did not shoot them down.

The Republican narrative just imploded. https://t.co/omCLkiTZ4Q pic.twitter.com/F9j4AMvrpL

— No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen (@NoLieWithBTC) February 5, 2023

Of course, as Republican Senator Tom Cotton (in search of another Democratic scapegoat) explained earlier today, it may have happened under Trump’s presidency, but it was really Obama’s fault:

Tom Cotton tries to blame reports that Chinese balloons also flew over the US during the Trump years on Obama pic.twitter.com/fsSenOo2nM

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 5, 2023

I think the Republicans really need to find a scapegoat that has some traction. Here are some ideas: the price of eggs, Hunter Biden, critical race theory, or that old stand-by, Hillary Clinton’s emails.