Republicans to Biden: Tell us what you know about UFOs

GOP says it wants the White House to tell everything it knows. Democrats are taking a wait-and-see approach

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On Monday, the White House said that it did not know where three objects that flew over North American airspace originated, after an F-16 shot down an unmanned aircraft above Lake Huron Sunday.

These actions, of course, come after the United States shot down a spy balloon that had entered US airspace two weeks ago. The White House is probably breathing a sigh of relief that the House is out for the next few weeks so that it doesn’t have to hear Jim Jordan, Marjorie Taylor Greene or other conservatives rail against them for supposedly allowing these objects to enter US airspace.

But that doesn’t mean the Biden administration won’t completely escape scrutiny. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced on Monday that the Senate would receive a briefing tomorrow morning, and Republican senators already have questions.

Senator Steve Daines of Montana had the most vociferous criticism when he spoke to reporters, given the fact two of the flying objects came over his state’s airspace and compared it to how Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau got ahead of the concerns.

“We’re asking the president, please tell the American people what you know and what you don’t know, let them know the plan going forward,” he said, adding that his constituents were worried. “We have Montanans who are calling our office like county commissioners called me on Saturday night when it closed down airspace.”

President Joe Biden’s administration has tried to make itself seem more aware of the Chinese spy programme than Mr Biden’s predecessor, with National Security Council Spokesman John Kirby saying the programme was “operating during the previous administration but they did not detect it. We detected it.”

Similarly, Senator Chuck Grassley, the longest-serving current senator, told The Independent he has a series of questions.

“How come we’re just now hearing about all this stuff,” he said, as well as asking whether there was a gap in surveillance. “We don’t know yet whether these are dangerous or not, but we ought to know what’s violating our sovereignty and our potential for hurting our nation’s security.”

But Mark Warner, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, took a more wait-and-see approach when asked if the president should speak to Americans.

“There is a brief tomorrow let’s get through tomorrow and then this will make some judgments,” he told reporters.

Similarly, Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina, a Republican who regularly negotiates with Democrats, told reporters that multiple committees could have jurisdiction about the flying objects.

“I think it definitely swims into to Senate Armed Services because of NORAD, but you can see commerce because there were conflicts with commercial traffic,” he said. “It’s multi-jurisdictional.”

Senator Debbie Stabenow of Michigan said the administration had kept her briefed on the subject when an object flew over Lake Huron.

“I think they they acted very responsibly, was flying at about 20,000 feet, which is well within the range for commercial flights,” she told The Independent.