Senator Thom Tillis, RN.C., speaks to reporters after a Senate classified press conference about three unidentified objects shot down by the US military in Alaska, Canada and Lake Huron, at the Palace Capitol on Tuesday, February 14, 2023.
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Senator Thom Tillis, RN.C., speaks to reporters after a Senate classified press conference about three unidentified objects shot down by the US military in Alaska, Canada and Lake Huron, at the Palace Capitol on Tuesday, February 14, 2023.
Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
After emerging from a classified briefing on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, senators from both sides said A series of unidentified floating objects were shot down by US jets in recent days pose no immediate threat to Americans, but many are calling on the Biden administration to share more information with the public.
Warplanes shot down three slow-motion objects flying over North America over the weekend — one over the coast of Alaska, one over the Canadian territory of Yukon and one over Lake Huron. This comes about a week after the military shot down a Chinese spy balloon over the Atlantic.
US officials are working to determine who launched the three unidentified objects and why, but say they pose no threat to those on the ground. The senators, who were briefed on the matter on Tuesday, said the latest objects have yet to be recovered due to difficult terrain and severe weather on the ground.
Many senators on both sides agree, Biden should make more information public
Since first seeing the balloon, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have called for the Biden administration to be more transparent. After Tuesday’s confidential news conference with intelligence officials, many senators urged the president to speak directly to the country to assuage concerns.
“I understood better, but the American people deserve and need to know more,” said Senator Blumenthal, D-Conn. “I have no fear that we are under threat of attack or physical harm to our homeland. That is how I feel. But the American people need to be reassured by more facts. .”
Senator Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., left, and Senator Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., walk to a safe zone as lawmakers and intelligence advisers arrive for a closed-door meeting about the objects unidentified aerial vehicle that the US military shot down this weekend at the Capitol on Tuesday morning.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
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Senator Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., Left, and Senator Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., go to a safe zone as lawmakers and intelligence advisers arrive for a closed-door meeting about the objects unidentified aerial vehicle that the US military shot down this weekend at the Capitol on Tuesday morning.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
Senator Chris Murphy, D-Conn., told reporters that US officials have not yet confirmed any surveillance capabilities of aerial objects, but added that “certainly they are.” does not pose any kinetic threat to the United States.”
While he says he doesn’t believe there are such audiences in the United States, he admits he doesn’t know it for sure.
Murphy argued that because the objects were active in civil aviation and were not registered with the FAA, that was the only reason they needed to be taken down.
Arkansas Republican Senator Tom Cotton expressed concern that intelligence officials are offering “contradictory” explanations – that while they do not know the origin of the objects, they believe they do not cause pose a threat.
“I appreciate the military coming to report to us, I appreciate the intelligence community reporting to Congress in a top secret setting. But Americans are worried, they are concerned, they care and they have a right to know why President Biden directed those actions.” he did in the past week,” he said.
“President Biden owes the American people an explanation. President Biden should speak face-to-face on camera to the American people today.”
Murphy dismissed calls for Biden to speak to the nation and said that while he understands people want to hear from their commander-in-chief, “sometimes the president of the United States should get some more information.” It’s smart to believe before making a statement.”
GOP Sen. Thom Tillis from North Carolina told reporters that he supported the administration’s response to date and said it was a complex issue to deal with. “They did a great job in bringing our situational awareness to where it is today and we had no situational awareness a month ago,” he said.
Tillis said authorities have not yet classified the objects, but added that they are “not from outer space”.
Senator Marco Rubio, a senior Republican member of the Senate intelligence panel, stressed that unidentified objects in US airspace are not new – but the strategy to shoot them down is there. . He also called on the Biden administration to share more information with the public.
“95% of what was discussed in the room today can be made public without compromising the security of this country,” he said. “The most important question we have to answer now is what are these things? Who sent them here? And what are they doing here?”
The White House said it would take time to recover and inspect the items
Some Democrats defended the administration’s response.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., said officials are learning more about the objects “hour by hour.” He also called the administration’s approach “very careful.” [and] very thoughtful,” due to the sensitive nature of the investigation.
“I think some of our Republican colleagues are at a very early and often very political level,” Schumer said. “There’s a lot of information to evaluate, a lot of information to recover from. And the administration is on top of this and has done a very, very good job.”
John Kirby, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said Monday that the most recent objects do not pose “any direct threat to people on the ground and we are working on it.” focused on confirming their nature and purpose.”
Kirby told reporters Tuesday that it will take time to recover and forensically examine the debris from the objects, but noted that so far, there is no indication that they are part of the Chinese spy balloon program or another foreign surveillance program.
“Based on what we’ve been able to determine so far, the intelligence community is looking at – again, a leading explanation – that these may just be balloons tied to some item. commercial or benign,” says Kirby.
Idaho Senator Jim Risch, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations committee, told reporters “this is a new phenomenon” and described the last three objects that were shot down as “objects”. very, very small” and much smaller than a car. He said at least one of the three objects carried the payload, but declined to provide details.
“I sleep very comfortably at night knowing what I know. The American people should do the same.” But he reiterated the push to share more information faster in the face of strong public interest.
Devin Speak of NPR contributed to this report.
