Retired four-star Army General Jack Keane slammed President Joe Biden on Saturday for not shooting down the Chinese spy balloon that flew over the U.S. over the last several days when it was thousands of miles away from the continental U.S.

Keane, a former Vice Chief of Staff of the United States Army, made the remarks during a segment on Fox News immediately following the U.S. military shooting down the spy balloon over the Atlantic Ocean after it passed South Carolina.

“Remember, this was approaching the United States over water,” Keane said. “It was approaching the Aleutian Islands over water. And we had plenty of opportunity to take it down then. And that’s when it should have happened. We had to be tracking it from mainland China across the Pacific Ocean, and we had plenty of warning to put together an operation that we are conducting now on the east coast that should have been done there.”

WATCH:

TRANSCRIPT:

ARTHEL NEVILLE, FOX NEWS HOST: Yeah, I heard your last point there. And I want to say, as we’re watching this exclusive coverage of this Chinese spy balloon going down there over Surfside Beach, South Carolina, if you could talk to us about what happened in terms of coordinating this to get to this point now, General Keane.

GENERAL JACK KEANE: Well, we’ve had all of our sensors watching this, you know, for some time. And certainly our military capability that was going to be involved got alerted. People have been planning it likely for a couple of days. I’m assuming the president, you know, made a decision within the last 24 hours to take this out. They probably presented him with a number of options of where the best place to do it, certainly heading to the East Coast, which is considerably more populated than Montana was. It was probably ruled out that they would do anything over land. If they weren’t willing to do it over Montana, they’re certainly not going to do it on the East coast of the United States or in transit to the East Coast. And they’re taking advantage of obviously doing this safely in terms of civilians. And it’s not a complicated operation, I don’t believe, for the United States military to take a balloon moving at the speed it’s moving at and bring it down. So the coordination to do that and the intelligence to bring all of that together is not a major problem for us at all. Now, can we recover the sensor package? That’s going to be iffy, given the size of this thing and how much it weighs. But nonetheless, we finally did what we should have done at the beginning. Remember, this was approaching the United States over water. It was approaching the Aleutian Islands over water. And we had plenty of opportunity to take it down then. And that’s when it should have happened. We had to be tracking it from mainland China across the Pacific Ocean, and we had plenty of warning to put together an operation that we are conducting now on the east coast that should have been done there. And by the way, we have alert aircraft in Alaska for the principal reason of a penetration coming largely from Russia, and that’s why that aircraft are there. And they would have been able to respond to this when it approached the United States in name of the Aleutian Islands. Now we’re doing it in the backdoor when it’s leaving the United States — it’s anti-climatic in that sense, but it still sends a message to China that we’re not going to let you get away with this nonsense.

Related: U.S. Military Shoots Down Chinese Spy Balloon After Biden Let It Travel Across Country

President Joe Biden tried to take a victory lap Saturday afternoon after the U.S. military shot down a Chinese spy balloon that Biden allowed to travel across the entire country before destroying.

Biden claimed in remarks to reporters that he “ordered the Pentagon to shoot it down on Wednesday as soon as possible,” but that the decision was made to not shoot it down over land because debris could cause damage when falling to the ground.

U.S. officials were reportedly “well aware” that the balloon had crossed into American airspace on January 28 and that it was over Idaho on Tuesday, but decided not to inform the public to not upend Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s diplomatic trip to China.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said that the spy ballon was sent to the U.S. “in an attempt to surveil strategic sites in the continental United States.”

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), the Vice Chairman of the Appropriations Committee and a member of the Intelligence Committee, said in a statement that Biden should have taken out the balloon much sooner “over remote areas of Alaska or Montana.”

House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Greene (R-NC) said that it was “indefensible that this threat was eliminated only after great public outcry and the damage to U.S. national security and American sovereignty was already done.”

“The fact remains that President Biden, when faced with the opportunity to protect the homeland from our adversaries, chose yet again to demonstrate weakness on the global stage,” Greene added. “From the Southern border to Afghanistan and, now, Chinese surveillance directly above our homes and sensitive military installations, this President shows he is not interested in protecting American interests.”

📢NEW: Chairman @RepMarkGreen comments on the Chinese spy balloon being removed from U.S. airspace ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/C1GjEiM35f

— House Homeland GOP (@HomelandGOP) February 4, 2023

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX) said that Biden should have “taken care of this before it became a national security threat.”

“I hope we will be able to recover the wreckage to help determine what intelligence the CCP collected while its spy balloon was over our country for days,” McCaul said. “I will be demanding answers and will hold the admin accountable for this embarrassing display of weakness.”

Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) said that while he was glad the U.S. military shot down the spy balloon, “the damage has already been done.”

“We need answers from the Biden Administration on why it took this long to bring the Chinese spy balloon down and we need [to] ensure that this never happens again,” Schmitt continued.

Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) slammed the entire episode as “a tremendous embarrassment for the United States of America.”

Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL) called the ordeal “an abysmal security failure by Biden.”

Some Democrats, including Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), were not happy about the incident, saying that “the Chinese government’s incursion into our airspace is unacceptable & we need to treat it as such.”

“There need to be consequences for the CCP beyond the postponement of @SecBlinken’s trip to Beijing,” she said. “All members of Congress need to be briefed on the situation this week and in the future as we learn more from studying the remains of the balloon’s payload. We also need to take steps now to demonstrate to the Chinese government the seriousness of their actions. Whether through new sanctions or tighter restrictions on U.S. exports to China, the message needs to be loud and clear.”

Other notable responses included:

Almost 48 hours after public discovery, the Chinese spying balloon has been shot down.

It makes you wonder, would Biden’s Department of Defense have shot it down if the American people hadn’t found out?

— Sen. Marsha Blackburn (@MarshaBlackburn) February 4, 2023

The Chinese spy balloon was shot down today off the coast of S.Carolina, but it SHOULD have been removed as soon a it crossed into U.S. territory days ago.

This fiasco was as dangerous to our national security as it was unacceptable. The American people deserve answers. pic.twitter.com/TcfNEadw4d

— Rep. Mike Johnson (@RepMikeJohnson) February 4, 2023

Like everyone, I'm concerned about the Chinese surveillance balloon, but this is not a new thing.

The CCP has been SPYING on the U.S. for years. It's why I fought with @RepStefanik to pass the American Security Drones Act, which would ban any purchase of non-U.S. drones.

— Rick Scott (@SenRickScott) February 4, 2023

There needs to be a full, transparent accounting of what happened and why this spy balloon was allowed to violate U.S. territorial sovereignty for so long in the first place.

— Senator Deb Fischer (@SenatorFischer) February 4, 2023

I’m glad to hear the spy balloon was shot down, but it should have been shot down long ago. President Biden should explain himself immediately.

— Rep. Michelle Steel (@RepSteel) February 4, 2023

Now that this embarrassing episode is over, we need answers from the Biden Administration on the decision-making process. Communist China was allowed to violate American sovereignty unimpeded for days. We must be better prepared for future provocations and incursions by the CCP. https://t.co/ao8gy8LAp3

— Senator Thom Tillis (@SenThomTillis) February 4, 2023

Finally. However, this is something that should’ve occurred day ago **before** it entered U.S. airspace. https://t.co/iv6sZi207D

— Rep. Ken Buck (@RepKenBuck) February 4, 2023

This was a test by the CCP & Biden failed. The American people deserve answers.

— Ashley Hinson (@RepAshleyHinson) February 4, 2023

Allowing China to fly its spy balloon from coast to coast was a test. Biden failed. With Biden as President, our enemies no longer fear us. China must be held accountable.

— Congressman William Timmons (@RepTimmons) February 4, 2023

Biden is busy campaigning while a Chinese spy aircraft is floating freely over US soil. Including flights over sensitive national security assets like Fort Bragg.

— Richard Hudson Press (@RepRichHudson) February 4, 2023