Lawmakers are demanding that Biden address the nation about UFO sightings

Frustration is mounting on Capitol Hill after a series of aerial objects have been shot down over US and Canadian airspace in recent days, prompting a long list of questions lawmakers say President Biden should publicly answer.

Three unidentified flying objects (UFOs) have been shot down over North America since Friday, and the Pentagon has given little information about what they were or where they came from.

“The president owes it to the American people to explain, directly and on camera, what we know about these ‘objects’ and what steps he is taking to protect America’s sovereign airspace,” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) it was stated in the statement from Monday.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), the vice chairman of the Intelligence Committee, also joined calls for President Biden to address the nation, highlighting the unprecedented nature of the military’s downing of a plane in American airspace.

“NORAD has been around for almost 65 years,” he said of the command responsible for patrolling US and Canadian airspace. “We never knocked down anything, and in eight days we knocked down four things. That’s a pretty big deal. That doesn’t happen every day.”

Rubio added in a tweet: “Americans need to hear about this directly from their president today.”

The White House did not commit to a public address from Biden during Monday afternoon’s briefing.

“I think we’ve been as transparent as we can be,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters. “I will not speak for the president’s personal speaking schedule. But, I think, he was deeply engaged in every one of these decisions.”

Kirby added that Biden is “directing his team to ensure that we properly consult and inform not only members of Congress, but state leaders as well.”

In a vacuum of information about the facilities, the White House said Monday that there was no evidence of “aliens or extraterrestrial activity” with the incidents.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said people are “scared” and “believing crazy things that are said on the Internet.”

“There is a lack of transparency from the Biden administration and simple explanations are owed to the people,” Greene he wrote on Twitter.

The first UFO was shot down on Friday afternoon over Alaska, the second was recovered on Saturday over the Yukon in northwestern Canada and the third over Lake Huron in Michigan on Sunday.

All three incidents occurred about a week after a Chinese spy balloon capable of gathering communications intelligence was shot down off the coast of South Carolina after passing over much of the country.

While calls for answers come mostly from Republicans, Democrats from states that have experienced UFO incursions are joining in the frustration.

Michigan lawmakers Sen. Gary Peters (D) and Rep. Debbie Dingell (D) echoed demands for more information, as did Sen. Jon Tester of Montana, where the Chinese bubble lingered earlier this month.

Asked whether Biden should talk about the air facilities, Tester said Monday, “That’s up to him.” He added that he still hopes to get more information about “what they know, when they knew it and what the plan is,” through hearings of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, which he chairs.

A number of Democratic senators said they remain unsatisfied with the administration’s responses so far, but hope Monday’s all-senator briefing could shed more light on the situation.

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) said he was “still not satisfied” with the information provided by the administration, while Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) added, “They’ve done a good job so far, but I do have a lot of questions .”

The extraordinary series of UFO downings has baffled Americans, who wonder why the US is suddenly recognizing and shooting down a flurry of these objects.

Melissa Dalton, assistant secretary of defense for homeland and hemisphere defense, told reporters Sunday that the military is “taking a closer look at our airspace at these altitudes” with the improved radar.

That could at least partially explain the increase in objects we’ve detected over the past week, Dalton said.

Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) said in a statement Monday that if it were true that the U.S. had just now opened up its radar technologies to detect UFOs, it would represent a “stunning intelligence failure.”

“How long have these facilities been operating with impunity in our airspace?” Gallagher asked, demanding “answers” ​​from Biden.

“There are times to err on the side of secrecy in national security operations. But when our fighter pilots shoot down presumably hostile air targets across America, it’s long past time for transparency.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) raised similar questions while speaking on the floor Monday.

“What on earth is going on? Has the Biden administration just increased the sensitivity of our radars to the limit? If so, what are the objects that we are just now noticing for the first time?” McConnell asked. “Are they benign science projects and wayward weather balloons, or something nefarious that we’ve somehow been missing this whole time?”

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters on a trip to Belgium that the facilities did not pose a military threat.

“They do, however, pose a risk to civil aviation and a potential threat to intelligence gathering, and we will get to the bottom of that,” he added.

Canadian and American crews are in the midst of recovering the downed UFOs for closer inspection. The Biden administration also announced an interagency UFO investigation task force on Monday.

There are no known UFO connections to China or any other country or entity.

There were some indications that some of the downed objects were balloons, but this has not been confirmed by the Pentagon or the White House.

CNN reported on the Pentagon memo on Monday that the object shot down over Canada on Saturday appeared to be “a small metal balloon with a payload attached underneath it”.

Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (DN.Y.) proposed in Sweekly interview on ABC’s “This Week” the two UFOs shot down on Friday and Saturday were balloons.

However, the Pentagon said the objects were much smaller than the Chinese spy balloon, which weighed about 2,000 pounds. And the Lake Huron facility was octagonal in shape.

Earlier this month, the Pentagon expressed high confidence in the identification of a Chinese spy balloon, which Beijing acknowledged was theirs but called it a weather balloon.

Also, unlike UFOs, the Chinese spy balloon was tracked for days before the US decided to shoot it down.

Unlike China’s spy balloon, which hovered about 60,000 feet in the air, the UFOs flew at about 40,000 feet or lower and posed a threat to civilian airspace, according to the Pentagon, which each time led to a quick decision to remove them. . .

Emily Brooks and Al Weaver contributed.