Republicans and Democrats press Biden for answers on shot-down objects

Lawmakers hope to fight rampant speculation and boost national security after US fighter jet operations

After US fighter jets shot down two unidentified, high-altitude “objects” above Alaskan and Canadian airspace within two days, Republican and Democratic members of Congress are pressing President Joe Biden’s administration for answers to better understand what happened and, critically, offer some clarity to a series of incidents that have drawn widespread speculation.

Democratic US Rep Jim Himes, the ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, told NBC News on 12 February that he has “real concerns” about the administration’s transparency on the latest incidents after Congress received extensive closed-door briefings on the suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that was shot down earlier this month.

The congressman – a part of the so-called “Gang of Eight” leaders on congressional intelligence committees – told Meet the Press that administration officials have not provided the same level of clarity on the two other objects that were shot down in Alaska and Canada, adding that the “absence of information” could feed into US anxiety and fuel baseless speculation.

“Part of the problem is that 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,” he said.

“The one thing I see troubling ... is massive speculation about alien invasions and additional Chinese or Russian action,” he added. “So I do hope the administration has a lot more information for all of us on what’s going on.”

Democratic US Senator Jon Tester of Montana, who led a Senate panel on Thursday probing the Chinese surveillance balloon, said on Sunday that the Biden administration and US military need to “have a policy” about unidentified objects in US airspace to recommend to the president to swiftly handle any future incursions.

“What’s been going on the last … 10 days has been nothing short of craziness,” he told CBS Face the Nation. “The military needs to have a plan to not only determine what’s out there, but determine the dangers that go with it.”

Democratic US Rep Jim Himes (AP)

Two top House Republicans who previously questioned the Biden administration’s response to the surveillance balloon have praised the latest response from the White House.

But the officials said that the administration’s relationship with China generally presents a much larger challenge than balloons, prompting calls to step up defense spending and scrutinise other forms of espionage.

Republican US Rep Mike Turner, chair of the House Intelligence Committee, said one week ago that the administration had effectively allowed China to surveil military sites in the US by waiting until the craft was over water for a fighter jet to shoot it down.

On CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday, he appeared to criticise the president again, this time for being “trigger happy” by relatively swiftly taking down the two latest objects.

“They do appear somewhat trigger happy, although this is certainly preferable to the permissive environment that they showed when the Chinese spy balloon was coming over some of our most sensitive sites,” he said. “Obviously I would prefer them to be trigger happy than to be permissive.”

He said he wants to ensure that the latest action is not the administration’s attempt “in trying to change headlines”.

“But what I think this shows, which is probably more important to our policy discussion, is that we really have to declare that we’re going to defend our airspace and then we need to invest,” he added.

Last week, Republican US Rep James Comer, chair of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, baselessly floated the idea that the balloon contained bioweapons in his criticism of the president’s handling of the balloon. He was later forced to admit there was no such evidence.

On ABC’s This Week on Sunday, he said the administration should be focusing on China’s theft of intellectual property and patents and its footprint in academia, research and development.

Republican US Rep Mike Turner (Getty Images)

“China’s a problem and this administration thus far hasn’t set a very good example of standing up to China,” he said.

“I’m glad this administration is taking it more seriously with respect to the balloons but we got a whole lot bigger problem with China than the spy balloons,” he added.

In March, a new 24-member panel in the House of Representatives will begin studying China in a rare bipartisan attempt to address issues highlighted by both parties.

The House select committee will study human rights abuses, ways to reduce US dependence on China, artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies, and the alliance between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping, according to NBC News.

“If you were looking at a word cloud about this, the biggest one would be ‘serious.’ I hear that from everyone. This is a serious committee, and I believe it,” Democratic US Rep Mikie Sherrill told the network.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has claimed that the latest two objects resembled balloons, following what he said was a briefing from White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan.

The White House, however, has said it’s still too early to determine what they were, exactly.

CBS News national security correspondent David Martin – describing the two unidentified objects shot down over Alaska and Canada as “balloon-like” – told Face the Nation that he would not consider China as a prime suspect for their origin.

“The prevailing wind brings everything that way, from east, west, across northern Alaska and northern Canada. And there is a lot of what officials call sky trash up there,” he said.

That “sky trash” includes “balloons that are put up by governments, that are put up by corporations, put up by research institutes, and probably just by private individuals, and not for nefarious purposes but to just collect scientific data,” he said.

In the past, the US didn’t pay as much attention to such crafts, he said, but the much-larger Chinese surveillance balloon was a “game changer” that put the US military and the Biden administration on alert.