Objects Shot Down by US Fighter Jets Were Carrying Payloads
A new report claims that two of the unidentified objects shot down in the past two days were each balloons carrying what are termed payloads.
The report from Fox News was attributed to a senior U.S. official who was not named.
The official said that the object shot down over Canada on Saturday was a “small metallic balloon with a tethered payload.”
The Washington Post said the object downed over Alaska on Friday was “more cylindrical and described as a type of airship.”
An object was downed Sunday over Lake Huron, according to CNN. Details about it were not available Sunday.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he was briefed by the White House and told that the objects downed Friday and Saturday were both balloons, according to ABC. He said both objects were much smaller than the Chinese spy balloon shot down off the coast of South Carolina.
Lawmakers are hungry for more details, according to The Washington Post.
Democratic Rep. Jim Hines of Connecticut, the top Democrat of the House Intelligence Committee, had harsh words for the Biden administration.
“I have real concerns about why the administration is not being more forthcoming with everything that it knows,” Hines said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
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“I do hope that very soon, the administration has a lot more information for all of us on what’s going on,” Hines said.
The Post said it was given a statement by the White House saying details would be released after the pieces of what have been shot down are recovered.
“We will not definitively characterize them until we can recover the debris, which we are working on,” the statement said.
“I would note we have kept Congress continuously briefed and we will continue to,” the statement said.
Republican Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas noted he was very concerned about the alleged use of American technology on the Chinese spy balloon.
“It will be one of my number one priorities as the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in this Congress, to stop the export of technology to China that then goes into their most advanced weapons systems,” he said.
“In this case, a sophisticated spy balloon that went across three nuclear sites … It did a lot of damage,” he said.
Republican Rep. Michael R. Turner of Ohio also called for more facts during an appearance on CNN.
The White House needs to “stop briefing Congress through our television sets and actually come and sit down and brief us. What we’re seeing here is a number of announcements by the administration without any real information being given to Congress,” he said.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
