A jet flies by a suspected Chinese spy balloon because it floats off the coast in Surfside Beach, South Carolina, U.S. February 4, 2023.
Randall Hill | Reuters
American F-22 fighter jets have shot down three high-altitude objects within the airspace above the U.S. and Canada within the last week, and members of Congress said Sunday that they’ve not been briefed in regards to the two latest incidents.
On Feb. 4, the U.S. military shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon that had been transiting across the country for several days. The White House announced a second object had been shot down on Friday that was flying over Alaska at about 40,000 feet. The next day, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that he worked with President Joe Biden to order a U.S. fighter jet to shoot down an “unidentified object” that was flying over the Yukon.
Officials have yet to release many details in regards to the objects that were downed on Friday and Saturday, but Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told ABC’s “This Week” Sunday that officials now consider each objects were balloons that were much smaller than the initial spy balloon.
Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, said he’s unaware of what the 2 latest objects are, and that members of Congress didn’t receive formal briefings about them from the Biden administration.
“This could possibly be because they have no information,” Turner told CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday. “From the press conference we saw, it does appear to be they took this motion with no real understanding for what they were going after.”
He said there must be more engagement between the Biden administration and Congress, and that the events of the last week suggest the U.S. must do a greater job actively defending American airspace.
Turner was critical of the Biden administration for waiting several days to take down the suspected Chinese spy balloon, so he said he “would favor them to be trigger blissful than to be permissive.”
In a statement Saturday, Pentagon Press Secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said Canadian authorities are conducting recovery operations to assist each countries learn more in regards to the nature of the thing downed in Canada.
Canada’s Defense Minister Anita Anand said during a press conference Saturday that it is just too early to inform whether or not the thing got here from China.
“From all indications, this object is potentially much like the one which was shot down off the coast of North Carolina, though smaller in size and cylindrical in nature,” Anand said.
On Friday, White House spokesman John Kirby hesitated to characterize the aircraft downed over Alaska as a balloon, saying “we’re calling this an object because that is the perfect description now we have immediately.” He also said U.S. officials didn’t yet know which nation or group was accountable for it.
Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., said members of Congress got a top-secret briefing in regards to the Chinese spy balloon, but that lawmakers haven’t been directly briefed in regards to the second or third incidents. He said he suspects that because the objects were downed in distant areas, there just isn’t a number of information to share yet.
“I actually have real concerns about why the administration has not been more forthcoming with every part that it knows,” Himes told NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday.
Himes said there’s “a number of garbage” within the air, and that it just isn’t hard for countries, firms and even individuals with resources to get objects into the sky.
“My speculative guess as to why we’re seeing these items occur in quick succession is that now we’re really attuned to in search of them,” he said.
He urged Americans to withstand assuming that there was an alien invasion or foul play by one other nation until more information might be released. Himes said that within the absence of data, people’s anxiety can lead them into “potentially destructive areas.”
—Associated Press contributed to this report.
