The White House is defending the decision to shoot three unidentified objects in as many days. Officials acknowledged Monday that they had no indication the objects were intended for surveillance like the high-altitude Chinese balloon that flew over North America earlier this month.
The three objects, including one shot down Sunday over Lake Huron, were traveling at such a low altitude to pose a risk to civilian air traffic, said White House national security spokesman John Kirby.
While the Biden administration does not yet have evidence they were equipped for spying purposes — or even belonged to China — officials have not ruled that out.
“These were decisions based purely and simply on what was in the best interests of the American people,” Kirby said.
“The entire reason the Chinese are flying balloons is that their satellites suck and this is bad,” said Bryan Suits, host of The Bryan Suits Show on KTTH. “I would have said we don’t need to fly balloons because our satellites don’t suck.”
The weeks-long succession of objects, starting with a giant white orb first detected over U.S. skies in late January, has puzzled American officials and stirred curiosity around the world.
“So this still doesn’t answer what they could be,” Suits said. “They could be aliens. What if we are shooting aliens out of the sky?”
“We have not been able to definitively assess what these most recent objects are,” Kirby said. “We acted out of an abundance of caution.”
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“Kirby was asked about the Chinese and apparently said the Chinese are saying they detected 10 American balloons over China with absolutely no proof,” Suits said.
“There’s no guy sitting there in Wuhan looking up. It’s not like the Snoopy from the Macy’s Parade or somebody spying on China with nothing to back it up. The Chinese said, ‘Yeah, well, what about your 10 balloons?’”
Suits said it was interesting that reports of UFOs come on the heels of the Pentagon shooting down on a Chinese surveillance balloon.
“I will say what was simultaneously refreshing and also discouraging about these unidentified objects that are being shot down across the U.S. and Canada is that that was the singular topic that was focused on a lot of Super Bowl parties as far as a cultural or political issue is, ‘Hey, is anybody know what’s going on with these balloons?’ And it’s kind of a unifying issue for a lot of Americans because it’s not a left or right thing necessarily,” Suits said.
Listen to the Bryan Suits Show weekday mornings from 6 – 9 a.m. on KTTH 770 AM (H.D. Radio 97.3 FM HD-Channel 3). Subscribe to the podcast here.
