Today's highlights
It has been a big day for North America’s skies. Here are some of the top lines from land and air:
The object that was shot down in Canadian airspace was a “small metallic balloon” the size of a small car and had a payload attached to it – and it was not the same white Chinese surveillance balloon that was shot down earlier this month in South Carolina.
The White House’s office of national intelligence will brief John Bolton, Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, on the UFOs this coming Wednesday.
In the Senate, top Republican Mitch McConnell is criticizing the Biden administration for not being transparent about what US fighter jets encountered in the skies over the United States and Canada:
China says the United States also spies on it with balloons, which Washington forcefully rejected.
House speaker Kevin McCarthy has called for the resignation of architect of the Capitol Brett Blanton, who heads the agency responsible for the building’s maintenance and preservation:
That is all for the Guardian’s live blog today, have a good night. We will be back with more tomorrow.
Updated
The object that was shot down in Canadian airspace was a “small metallic balloon” that was the size of a small car and had a payload attached to it – and it was not the same white Chinese surveillance balloon that was shot down earlier this month in South Carolina, a White House memo obtained by CNN said.
The high-altitude unidentified object, originally described as an “octagonal structure” with strings attached to it, was shot down on Sunday afternoon near Canada’s Manitoulin Island on Lake Huron.
Updated
This is Abené Clayton, taking over the blog from Los Angeles.
The White House’s office of national intelligence will brief John Bolton, Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, on the UFOs this coming Wednesday, CNN reports.
Biden officials proposed briefing some former Trump officials after the US downed a Chinese surveillance balloon and said China had also sent spy balloons into US airspace while they were in office,” Kaitlin Collins, CNN’s chief correspondent tweeted.
Former DNI John Ratcliffe and former national security adviser Robert O'Brien were also offered to be briefed Wednesday, but it remains to be seen if they will, a source says. Former Pentagon chief Mark Esper was also offered but is working on a different date.
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) February 13, 2023
Updated
Republican complains about lack of information on UFOs; Schumer promises more
Republican house intelligence committee chair Mike Turner has used an appearance on Fox News to call the lack of information about the UFOs from the Biden administration “absolutely frustrating”, CNN reports.
Meanwhile, Democratic majority leader Chuck Schumer says there are only “preliminary details” on the UFOs available, but that senators will receive a briefing on the issue tomorrow.
1) Schumer on latest objects: At the moment, we only have preliminary details. I have scheduled for senators to receive a briefing tomorrow on what we know and do not know about where these objects come from and what threats, if any, they pose to the United States
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) February 13, 2023
Updated
Justin Trudeau calls UFO ‘a very serious situation we are taking incredibly seriously’
The Toronto Star has more details from Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau’s public comments on the mysterious UFO shot down over Canada this weekend.
“This is a very serious situation that we are taking incredibly seriously,” Trudeau said, emphasizing “the importance of defending our territorial integrity, our sovereignty”.
The UFO shot down over the Yukon territory this weekend “marked the first time the North American Aerospace Defence Command, Norad for short, fired at an object over the continent”, the Toronto Star reported.
Sat down with Premier @RanjPillai1 in Whitehorse today. We spoke about the work we’re doing to improve health care, advance reconciliation, grow our critical minerals sector, and create good jobs. We also spoke about how we’ll continue to protect our airspace here in Yukon. pic.twitter.com/3mOxDLiLpn
— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) February 13, 2023
Updated
‘So many briefings, so little time’: senators will get classified briefing on UFOs
Are you curious about recent developments on UFOs and Chinese spy balloons? Do repeated statements from White House officials that there is “no indication of aliens” in these UFO encounters leave you with questions?
You’re not the only one. But members of the US Senate may get a few additional answers on these airborne mystery objects, in a classified briefing about UFOs on Tuesday, and a broader briefing about China on Wednesday.
New: There will be a 10am all-senators classified briefed on the unidentified objects, a Schumer spox says.
— Frank Thorp V (@frankthorp) February 13, 2023
So many briefings, so little time https://t.co/5XAWS2fsS9
— Heather Caygle (@heatherscope) February 13, 2023
Updated
Trump team insults Biden in response to claim they missed Chinese spy balloons
This is Lois Beckett, picking up today’s live politics and UFO coverage from Los Angeles, one of the US cities most vulnerable to alien attacks, at least according to our film industry.
During a briefing this afternoon, John Kirby, a Biden administration national security council spokesperson, said that a Chinese spy balloon program was active during the Trump administration, “but they did not detect it.”
Donald Trump and several of his national security officials, including John Bolton, have previously denied that assertion, with Bolton claiming that he never heard of any such incident and could “say with 100% certainty” they had not taken place, Axios reported. The former Trump national security advisor challenged the Biden administration to present any “specific examples” of Trump-era Chinese spy balloons to congress.
A reporter from the Washington Examiner provided a new response to Kirby’s remarks from a Trump campaign spokesperson today:
NEW: The Trump campaign took issue with John Kirby's claims that the previous administration was unable to detect multiple Chinese spy objects between 2017-2020
— Christian Datoc (@TocRadio) February 13, 2023
Spox Steven Cheung (@CaliforniaPanda): https://t.co/TJNjsiVs60 pic.twitter.com/Tz0H3WOLwa
In the Senate, top Republican Mitch McConnell is criticizing the Biden administration for not being transparent about what American fighter jets encountered in the skies over the United States and Canada:
McConnell from Senate floor on the U.S. shooting down of several unidentified flying objects this month: "President Biden owes the American people some answers. What are we shooting down? Where did they come from?" https://t.co/spP8kYjpar pic.twitter.com/Tkjy19mGer
— Craig Caplan (@CraigCaplan) February 13, 2023
Keep in mind that Republicans also attacked Biden for waiting until the Chinese spy balloon discovered earlier in February was over the Atlantic before shooting it down. Then, the White House argued that if it was blown up over land, it could harm people or property below. It appears the UFOs were shot down as they were discovered.
The Guardian’s Lois Beckett is taking over this blog from here on out, and will keep you updated on the latest UFO news for the remainder of the day.
When it came time to fire architect of the Capitol Brett Blanton after several allegations of misconduct, Joe Biden’s White House didn’t beat around the bush.
Here’s the letter sent to Blanton and obtained by Politico:
New: Letter sent to Architect of the Capitol Blanton informing him of his termination, obtained by POLITICO. pic.twitter.com/iuI47Rnhv9
— Jordain Carney (@jordainc) February 13, 2023
No debris from the three UFOs shot down over the weekend has been recovered, defense secretary Lloyd Austin says, as reported by CNBC:
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin says the US has not yet recovered any debris from the three UFOs American fighters shot down over the weekend. He says the DoD is working with the FAA, the FBI, NASA, and others "to work through what we might be seeing."
— Eamon Javers (@EamonJavers) February 13, 2023
One was shot down over Lake Huron, which separates the United States and Canada, another over Canada’s Yukon territory and a third over the US state of Alaska.
White House fires Architect of Capitol from post
Joe Biden has now fired Brett Blanton, the architect of the Capitol, the federal agency responsible for the maintenance, operation, development, and preservation of the US Capitol complex in Washington, DC.
.@POTUS has removed Mr. Brett Blanton from his position as Architect of the Capitol.
— Committee on House Admn. Democrats (@HouseAdm_Dems) February 13, 2023
Read Ranking Member @RepJoeMorelle 's statement here➡️https://t.co/tA2bsZemhq
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy had earlier led Republican calls Blanton’s resignation as the head of the agency.
New York congressman and Democrat Joe Morelle, ranking member on the Committee on House Administration, just tweeted out this statemement:
“After being given the opportunity to respond to numerous allegations of legal, ethical, and administrative violations, and failing to directly respond, the president has removed Mr Brett Blanton from his position – a decision I firmly stand behind. President Biden did the right thing and heeded my call for action. I look forward to working with my colleagues to begin a search for a new Architect immediately.”
Blanton has faced a number of allegations of wrongdoing, which grew worse last week when he admitted to lawmakers that he avoided going to the Capitol on January 6, 2021, during the insurrection by extremist supporters of Donald Trump, who wanted to try to overturn the-then president’s loss to Biden in the 2020 election.
He’s departing seven years before his job term is up and Politico notes that: “He faced a crescendo of criticism following a heated oversight hearing last week that centered on an internal watchdog report that catalogued his broad misuse of department resources.”
Updated
Kirby says the shot down objects had no propulsion or communications
One of the most interesting things that came out of the briefing was a few hints at what the most recently shot down objects were like. Or more accurately, what they were not doing – which was apparently communicating with anything or moving under their own power.
“These objects were not being maneuvered. They did not appear to have any self propulsion. So the likely hypothesis is, they were being moved by the prevailing winds,” Kirby said.
Its a start…
The White House press briefing has finished, but here’s one moment with John Kirby that’s not to be missed, and which likely will be satirized for days to come:
"I don't think the American people need to worry about aliens" -- John Kirby pic.twitter.com/7WqdxkBlz9
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 13, 2023
China is a talking point as much as ever in Washington these days, but John Kirby said Joe Biden has no plans to talk to Xi Jinping.
“I don’t have a call to talk about today,” the national security council spokesman said.
However, he noted the two men met at the G20 summit in Indonesia in November, and downplayed the impact of the cancelation of secretary of state’s Antony Blinken’s planned trip to Beijing after the spy balloon was discovered over the United States.
“People shouldn’t take away from this that all communication has been severed between the United States and China, that Beijing and Washington aren’t talking,” Kirby said. “We still have an embassy there. We still have an ability through secretary Blinken’s good offices to communicate with senior Chinese leaders. Unfortunately, the Chinese military is not interested in talking to secretary of defense (Lloyd) Austin, but there are still ways to communicate and the president would tell you that now’s exactly the time to at least preserve some of those lines of communication, so that we can avoid miscalculation or set back the relationship.”
Updated
The navy is in the process of recovering the Chinese surveillance balloon downed off South Carolina’s coast, but finding its remains may take a while.
“It could take a long time, given the sea state and weather conditions and the degree to which … we have to protect the safety of the divers,” national security council spokesman John Kirby said.
Divers have already made some progress, he said. “They were able to take things off the surface, like, the next day, actually, that afternoon, some of the balloon fabric. And in the day since they have been able to recover some, not all, of the payload that sank to the bottom of the Atlantic. It’s in about 45 feet of water. Weather conditions are pretty tough off the coast right now. Today, for instance, they have not been able to get into the water and dive on it. But over the course of the weekend, they were able to raise some of the debris, including some of the electronics and some of the structure.”
White House experts to study UFOs
The White House will have its experts sit down to try and understand the unknown objects discovered flying over North America, John Kirby announces.
“The president, through his national security adviser, has today directed an interagency team to study the broader policy implications for detection, analysis, and disposition of unidentified aerial objects that pose either safety or security risks,” the national security council spokesman said.
Updated
Then he gets into the shootdowns this weekend, and why the public still doesn’t know what the fighter jets encountered.
“We have no specific reason to suspect that they were conducting surveillance of any kind, (but) we couldn’t rule that out,” Kirby said. “Efforts are actively under way right now at all sites to find what is left of those objects so that we can better understand and communicate with the American people what they are. I think it’s important to remind you objects in Alaska and Canada are in pretty remote terrain, ice and wilderness, all of that making it difficult to find them in winter weather. The object over Lake Huron now lies in what is probably very deep water.”
Kirby said, “There are no active tracks today, but the professionals at NORAD will continue to do their important work.”
Kirby is now getting into the latest objects shot down from North American skies, but does not reveal what they are.
Instead, he links them to the larger issue of unidentified aircraft that he says the government hadn’t previously taken particularly seriously.
“These unidentified aerial phenomena had been reported for many years, without explanation or deep examination by the government. President Biden this changed all that. We’re finally trying to understand them better,” Kirby said.
In addition to the Chinese spy balloon, he noted that, “a range of entities including countries, companies, research and academic organizations operate objects at these altitudes for purposes that are not nefarious at all, including scientific research. That said, because we have not yet been able to definitively assess what these most recent objects are. We acted out of an abundance of caution to protect … our security, our interests and flight safety.”
National security council spokesperson John Kirby is now talking about the Chinese spy balloon shot down off the Atlantic coast shortly after it had crossed much of the northern United States.
“We were able to determine that China has a high-altitude balloon program for intelligence collection that’s connected to the People’s Liberation Army. It was operating during the previous administration, but they did not detect it. We detected it. We tracked it. And we have been carefully studying it to learn as much as we can,” Kirby said.
“We know that these PRC surveillance balloons have crossed over dozens of countries on multiple continents around the world, including some of our closest allies and partners. We assessed that at this time, these balloons have provided limited additive capabilities to the PRC … (compared to) other intelligence platforms used over the United States. But in the future, if the PRC continues to advance this technology, it certainly could become more valuable to them.”
Well, it’s not aliens.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has taken to the podium at the White House, and confirmed that the objects shot down over North America did not come from worlds beyond.
“There is no indication of aliens or terrestrial activity with these recent takedowns. I wanted to make sure that the American people knew that,” Jean-Pierre said.
As we wait for the White House press briefing to kick off, CNN has some brief comments from Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau about the UFOs caught flying around North America recently:
Justin Trudeau, visiting the Yukon today and taking questions from reporters on unidentified "objects": "Obviously there is some sort of pattern in there, the fact we are seeing this in a significant degree over the past week is a cause for interest and close attention." pic.twitter.com/uL6pY8EcFq
— Kevin Liptak (@Kevinliptakcnn) February 13, 2023
We may soon get answers on the latest North American UFO mystery.
The White House’s daily briefing is about to start, where press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre is being joined by John Kirby, spokesperson for the national security council. They may shed some light on what American fighter jets blew out of the sky this weekend over various parts of the continent.
Follow this blog for the latest.
Updated
House speaker Kevin McCarthy has called for the resignation of architect of the Capitol Brett Blanton, who heads the agency responsible for the building’s maintenance and preservation:
The Architect of the Capitol, Brett Blanton, no longer has my confidence to continue in his job. He should resign or President Biden should remove him immediately.
— Kevin McCarthy (@SpeakerMcCarthy) February 13, 2023
Blanton has faced a number of allegations of wrongdoing, which grew worse last week when he admitted to lawmakers that he avoided going to the Capitol on January 6. This comment from Democratic congresswoman Norma Torres sums up how that revelations was received:
I’m outraged that you would be in a comfortable place, sir, while the rest of us were thinking about dying that day and how we were going to come out alive that day.
The day so far
We’re awaiting more details from the Biden administration after a busy weekend for American fighter jets, which have downed three unidentified objects in North American skies since Friday. Are they aliens? Probably not. Might they be more surveillance equipment from China? We’d be guessing, but after the spy balloon saga earlier this month, it’s not an unreasonable bet. The White House may reveal more when press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and national security council spokesperson John Kirby brief reporters at 1 pm eastern time.
Here’s what else has happened today thus far:
On Thursday, parts of a special grand jury’s report into Donald Trump’s election meddling campaign in Georgia will be released, though a judge has ordered most of the document withheld from public eyes.
China says the United States also spies on it with balloons, which Washington forcefully rejected.
Many people are tracking a US military jet looking for the wreckage of something shot down over Lake Huron on Sunday.
We’re about 45 minutes away from the White House press briefing, where Biden administration officials may give more details about whatever was shot down over North America this weekend. Richard Luscombe has a recap of the latest on the eventful three days in the continent’s skies:
Pressure was growing on the Joe Biden White House on Monday to reveal more of what it knows about a series of mysterious objects shot down by the US military over an eight-day period in North American airspace.
A missile strike Sunday on an unidentified “octagonal” flying object above Lake Huron, Michigan, was the third such instance after the downing of a suspected Chinese spy balloon off the South Carolina coast on 4 February, and it is prompting questions from Republican and Democratic lawmakers.
Pentagon officials have conceded the extraordinary sequence of events has no precedent during peacetime.
Meanwhile, the Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, suggested on Monday the objects were part of a “pattern” of surveillance of the US and its allies by China and Russia, and an American air force commander said the US military had spotted Chinese spy balloons in the Middle East in “the recent past”.
Florida Republican Marco Rubio, vice-chairperson of the US Senate intelligence committee, claimed that unidentified aircraft had operated “routinely” over restricted American airspace for years.
“This is why I pushed to take this seriously & created a permanent [unidentified aerial phenomenon] taskforce two years ago,” he said in a tweet.
A year ago almost exactly, in what can only be described as a coincidence driven by news demands and certainly no foreknowledge of events to come, the Guardian’s Adam Gabbatt took a close look at the issue of UFOs in America’s skies. You could say recent events have given the article new relevance:
Last year was a breakthrough time for UFOs, as a landmark government report prompted the possibility of extraterrestrial visitors to finally be taken seriously by everyone from senators, to a former president, to the Pentagon.
But 2022 could be even more profound, experts say, as the clamor for UFO disclosure and discovery continues to grow, and as new scientific projects bring us closer than ever to – potentially – discovering non-Earth life.
In June, the Pentagon released a highly anticipated report on unexplained aerial phenomena (UAP), the now preferred nomenclature by some in the extraterrestrial community, which found more than 140 instances of UAPs that could not be explained.
The report came after leaked military footage documented seemingly otherworldly happenings in the sky, and after testimony from navy pilots helped to somewhat destigmatize a subject that has long been defined by conspiracy theories and dubious sightings.
All in all, the newly sincere approach to UFOs has longtime sky-watchers excited.
“I’m confident that 2022 is going to be a seismic year for UFOs,” said Nick Pope, who spent the early 1990s investigating UFOs for the British ministry of defence.
Air tracking website Flightradar 24 reports its users are closely following a military plane looking for the wreckage of whatever was shot down yesterday over Lake Huron:
Our most tracked flight right now: a US Coast Guard HC-130J flying low over Lake Huron, likely looking for the object the US military says it shot down over the lake yesterday afternoon. https://t.co/yJ0WPMh7Jm pic.twitter.com/Gv8Rq3XvKt
— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) February 13, 2023
See it for yourself here.
“I told you so”.
That’s more or less what Republican senator Marco Rubio has to say about the three downings of unidentified objects over North American skies over the weekend:
The last 72 hours revealed to the public what has happening for years,unidentified aircraft routinely operating over restricted U.S. airspace
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) February 12, 2023
This is why I pushed to take this seriously & created a permanent UAP task force two years agohttps://t.co/qYm8Cvpdo9
The Florida lawmaker has been among those in Congress calling for more transparency from the defense department about unexplained phenomena encountered by airmen over the years.
One final detail from judge Robert McBurney’s ruling on the partial release of the Georgia special grand jury report.
McBurney has read the document in its entirety, and has this to say about it:
Having reviewed the final report, the undersigned concludes that the special purpose grand jury did not exceed the scope of its prescribed mission. Indeed, it provided the District Attorney with exactly what she requested: roster of who should (or should not) be indicted, and for what, in relation to the conduct (and aftermath) of the 2020 general election in Georgia.
Why not make public the full special grand jury report? Two words: due process.
That’s the legal concept judge Robert McBurney cited in denying the release of the entirety of the panel’s investigation into Donald Trump’s meddling effort in Georgia, which took place after Joe Biden won its electoral votes in 2020. Here’s McBurney’s reasoning, from the decision that you can read here.
This special purpose grand jury investigation was, appropriately, largely controlled by the District Attorney. She and her team decided who would be subpoenaed, when they would appear, what questions would be asked, and what aspects of the general election would be explored. The grand jurors were, of course, able to question the witnesses as well, but the process was essentially an investigative tool designed to enable the District Attorney to gather more information about what actually happened in the days following the general election in Fulton County (and elsewhere) so that she could make more informed decision on whether Georgia law was violated and whether anyone should be charged for doing so. It was -- again, entirely appropriately -- one-sided exploration. There were no lawyers advocating for any targets of the investigation. Potential future defendants were not able to present evidence outside the scope of what the District Attorney asked them. They could not call their own witnesses who might rebut what other State’s witnesses had said and they had no ability to present mitigating evidence. Put differently, there was very limited due process in this process for those who might now be named as indictment worthy in the final report.
He continues:
The consequence of these due process deficiencies is not that the special purpose grand jury’s final report is forever suppressed or that its recommendations for or against indictment are in any way flawed or suspect. Rather, the consequence is that those recommendations are for the District Attorney’s eyes only -- for now.
Put in a concise two sentences:
For anyone named in the special purpose grand jury’s final report who was not afforded the opportunity to appear before the grand jury, none 0f those due process rights has been satisfied. And for those who did appear -- willingly or not -- only the right to be heard (although without counsel 0r rebuttal) was protected.
Speaking of investigations into Donald Trump, don’t miss Peter Stone’s dive into whether a now-concluded justice department inquiry was actually an attempt to protect the former president’s reputation:
When the Trump justice department tapped a US attorney to examine the origins of the FBI inquiry into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, conservatives and many Republicans hoped it would end the idea Donald Trump’s campaign was boosted by Moscow and back his charges that some FBI officials and others had conspired against him.
But instead, as the multi-year investigation winds down, it is ending with accusations that unethical actions by that special counsel – John Durham – and ex-attorney general William Barr “weaponized” the US Department of Justice (DoJ) to help Trump.
Former DoJ officials and top Democrats are voicing strong criticism that Durham and Barr acted improperly in the almost four-year-old inquiry, citing an in-depth New York Times story that added to other evidence the inquiry looked politically driven to placate Trump’s anger at an investigation he deemed a “witch-hunt”.
The Times report provided disturbing new details, for instance, about how a key prosecutor, Nora Dannehy, quit Durham’s team in 2020 over “ethical” concerns, including his close dealings with Barr, and discussions about releasing an unorthodox interim report before the 2020 election that might have helped Trump, but which didn’t come to fruition.
Critics of the Durham inquiry also noted early on that Barr on several occasions, and contrary to longtime DoJ policies, suggested publicly that Durham’s inquiry would yield significant results, which in effect would help validate Trump’s charges that some officials at the FBI and CIA had led a political witch-hunt.
Further, Barr and Durham, in highly unusual public statements early in their investigation, tried to undermine a chief conclusion of a report by the DoJ inspector general, Michael Horowitz, that the Russia investigation was based on sufficient facts to warrant opening the investigation in 2016.
Ex-DoJ officials say the Durham inquiry seemed aimed from the start at boosting Trump’s political fortunes.
Trump grand jury report will get partial release on 16 February
A judge in Georgia will allow portions of a special grand jury’s report on Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 election win in the state to be released on 16 February, Lawfare reports.
Robert McBurney, a judge in Fulton county, has approved the release of the report’s introduction and conclusion, as well as a chapter on jurors’ concerns that some witnesses may have lied under oath. He is keeping the rest away from the public:
JUST IN: Fulton County Judge Robert McBurney issues order denying full release of Georgia grand jury report on 2020 election interference, citing due process concerns for named individuals. Parts of the report are set to be released on February 16. pic.twitter.com/0nsTWESQlm
— Anna Bower (@AnnaBower) February 13, 2023
Updated
The anxiety of the UFO-plagued weekend may finally be alleviated at the White House press briefing, set for 1 pm eastern time.
John Kirby, the national security council’s communications chief who typically speaks on foreign affairs, is slated to appear alongside the briefing’s usual host, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.
US denies China claim that American balloons violated its airspace
The US has denied an allegation made by China’s foreign ministry that high-altitude balloons sent by Washington have violated its airspace 10 times over the past year.
“Since last year, US high-altitude balloons have illegally flown over China’s airspace more than 10 times without the approval of Chinese authorities,” foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said, according to the Associated Press, adding, “It is also common for US balloons to illegally enter the airspace of other countries.”
He didn’t offer details about the balloons, but the comments drew a response from national security council spokesperson Adrienne Watson:
Any claim that the US government operates surveillance balloons over the PRC is false. It is China that has a high-altitude surveillance balloon program for intelligence collection, that it has used to violate the sovereignty of the US and over 40 countries across 5 continents. https://t.co/VzPceB6JUh
— Adrienne Watson (@NSC_Spox) February 13, 2023
This is the latest example of China scrambling to do damage control. It has repeatedly and wrongly claimed the surveillance balloon it sent over the US was a weather balloon and has failed to offer any credible explanations for its intrusion into our airspace, airspace of others.
— Adrienne Watson (@NSC_Spox) February 13, 2023
The US air force earlier in February shot down a Chinese surveillance balloon that had traversed its airspace and heightened tensions with Beijing. That has led many to suspect that China has something to do with the three unidentified flying objects US jets downed over North America since Friday, though Washington hasn’t yet said where those may have come from.
Updated
The military still hasn’t said publicly where the flying objects came from, but in Washington, Republicans know who to blame for them: Joe Biden.
Here’s the attack line from congressman John James:
Asked on Fox & Friends what he knows about the UFO that was shot down over Lake Huron, Rep. John James (R-MI) immediately starts trashing Biden. These guys only have one setting. pic.twitter.com/NjJo54vLIj
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 13, 2023
Punchbowl News reports that senators will receive a classified briefing on Wednesday about the shootdowns. In a Sunday appearance on ABC News, the chamber’s Democratic leader Chuck Schumer agreed that lawmakers needed to know more about the objects, but also pointed the finger at the Trump administration for not doing more about them:
That’s something I support, Congress should look at that. That’s the question we have to answer. I think our military, our intelligence is doing a great job, present and future. I feel a lot of confidence in what they are doing. But why as far back as the Trump administration did no one know about this?
The third flying object in as many days was shot down by US jets not far from military sites in Michigan, and was “octagonal” in shape, the Guardian’s Ed Pilkington reports. Here’s a recap of the very busy weekend had by American military aviators:
The US military has shot down a third flying object over North American airspace in three days, as the air force general overseeing the airspace said he would not rule out any explanation for the objects yet.
The high-altitude unidentified object, described as an “octagonal structure” with strings attached to it, was shot down over Lake Huron in Michigan on Sunday.
It is understood to have been the same item that was picked up by radar over Montana on Saturday. At the point it was struck by an air-to-air missile launched by F-16 fighter jets, it had been flying across the Great Lakes region at 20,000ft, a height that could have posed a risk to civilian aircraft.
Balloons or aliens? America rattled by weekend of mysterious shootdowns
Good morning, US politics blog readers. It was a busy weekend for the air force, and a bad one for unknown bodies in North American skies. Since Friday, American jets have shot down three objects flying over the US and Canada, but the Pentagon hasn’t yet said what they are (though the New York Times reports that there’s no reason to believe they are extraterrestrial in nature). The shootdowns came days after a US plane downed a Chinese spy balloon that had drifted across American airspace, enraging Washington at Beijing’s audacity. Are these latest objects more of those, or something else? Perhaps we’ll find out today.
Here’s what else we can expect:
The White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, briefs reporters at 1pm eastern time.
The Senate will convene at 3pm to consider more judicial nominees from Joe Biden.
Top Biden administration officials including transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg and White House adviser Susan Rice speak at the National Association of Counties Legislative Conference starting from 9.30am.
Updated
