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Democrats and Republicans spent Sunday questioning the Biden administration over the takedowns of two unidentified aerial objects in recent days, with some criticizing the White House over a lack of transparency about what the objects were and where they came from.
The takedowns came on the heels of President Biden’s order just over a week ago that directed the U.S. military to shoot down a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that had spent days drifting across the continental U.S. That led to revelations by Pentagon officials that similar aircraft had been seen in American airspace at least three times during the previous administration and once earlier in the Biden administration.
It prompted a host of questions about why the information wasn’t shared with the public earlier, which was not helped by the two new shootdowns of objects flying over American and Canadian airspace on Friday and Saturday, about which even some Democrats said they wanted to see the administration be more candid.
Rep. Jim Himes (Conn.) the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said he has “real concerns” about the Biden administration not being “more forthcoming” about the recent incidents.
“I have real concerns about why the administration is being not more forthcoming with everything that it knows,” Himes said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “But part of the problem here is that both of the second and the third objects were shot down in very remote areas. So, my guess is that there’s just not a lot of information out there yet to share.”
While Himes, who said he has not been briefed on the incidents that took place Friday and Saturday, said the administration took proper steps in taking down of the first balloon off the South Carolina coast, he acknowledged that the public was not made aware of it until it reached Montana via Alaska.
“You know, in an absence of information, people will fill that gap with anxiety and other stuff. So, I wish the administration was a little quicker to tell us everything that they do know,” Himes said.
A possible third aerial object was taken down on Sunday over Lake Huron, according to Michigan lawmakers who said they were in contact with the Defense Department.
Rep. Jack Bergman (R-Mich.) said the military had “decommissioned” an “object” over the Great Lakes region.
