When it comes to videos posted of the U.S. military's use of an F-22 to take down the Chinese spy balloon, it's hard to beat the one posted by South Carolina man Bubba Thompson, of course posted first to Chinese spyware platform TikTok.
Yes, the amateur filmmaker may have drunkenly moved the camera for the actual explosion, but the play-by-play announcing makes up for it.
@bubbathompson0
"He threw a missile at it," the filmmaker, identified as Thompson's "drunk buddy," can be heard exclaiming in disbelief as the F-22 fires on the balloon. "He got it! He got that motherfucker!"
The Biden administration gave the order to shoot down the balloon a week after it first was detected in U.S. airspace, allowing it to cross over the entire country, including sensitive nuclear missile sites in Montana, before being taken down.
Still, the administration's allies are framing the Chinese spy balloon's journey across the United States as an intelligence victory for the White House.
"One of the elements that is being lost in this whole conversation" is "the value in observing an asset like this," said Rep. Jim Himes (Conn.), Democratic ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee. Himes said the United States will "learn a lot" by collecting debris from the downed balloon and called the whole ordeal "just a huge intelligence win."