House Intelligence Committee Leaders Question Biden Admin Over Objects Shot Down

Rep. Michael Turner (R-Ohio) speaks during a press conference on the 2023 Fiscal Year at the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington on Dec. 14, 2022. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

The top Republican and Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee on Feb. 12 expressed their concerns over how the Biden administration has communicated with Congress over shooting down aerial objects.

Chairman Mike Turner (R-Ohio) said the administration needs to provide timely briefings for lawmakers.

“This is particularly annoying about this administration. The Biden administration needs to stop briefing Congress through our television sets and actually come and sit down and brief us,” Turner told CNN’s “State of the Union.”

“What we’re seeing here is a number of announcements by the administration without any real information being given to Congress,” Turner continued. “This could be because they don’t have any information. From the press conference we saw, it does seem like they took this action without a real understanding for what they were going after.”

Turner suggested that there should be more engagement between the Biden administration and Congress.

“Probably they’re a little hesitant after the Chinese balloon fiasco, where they let it go across the country, to great criticism, bipartisan and bicameral criticism from Congress,” Turner added.

Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) questions witnesses on Capitol Hill in Washington on Nov. 21, 2019. Andrew Harrer-Pool/Getty Images

Separately, Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), the committee’s ranking member, expressed concern about the Biden administration not being “more forthcoming” about the objects shot down over Alaska and Canada’s Yukon territory.

“I have real concerns about why the administration is not being more forthcoming with everything that it knows, but part of the problem here is that both the second and the third objects were shot down in very remote areas,” Himes told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Himes added that the Gang of Eight—the four congressional leaders from the House and Senate and the chairs and ranking members of the House and Senate Select Committees on Intelligence—got a “very extensive briefing” on the Chinese spy balloon.

“Then subsequently, the entire Congress got a top-secret briefing on it. So we’re pretty good on that one,” Himes said. “Since then, of course, there’s been the shoot down over Alaska and the shoot down over the Yukon. Congress has been out of session, and so we have not been directly briefed on that.”

The Epoch Times has reached out to the White House for comment.

Incidents

The Chinese spy balloon, which had flown over the continental United States for days while passing near several U.S. military bases, was shot down by a U.S. fighter jet off the South Carolina coast on Feb. 4.

President Joe Biden has come under GOP criticism over allowing the balloon to transit the nation. However, Biden addressed his critics on Feb. 9 when he said he didn’t consider the incident to be a “major breach,” adding that shooting the balloon over land could pose a risk to people on the ground.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has defended the president, saying Biden and his team “were calm, calculating, and effective” in taking down the balloon.

Less than a week later, on Feb. 10, a “high-altitude object” off the coast of Alaska was shot down by the U.S. military. According to the Pentagon, the object was flying at 40,000 feet before being taken down.

On Feb. 11,  an unidentified cylindrical object was shot down by a U.S. fighter jet in a joint operation with Canada. According to the Canadian government, the object was taken down over Yukon, which borders Alaska to the east.

A day later, the U.S. military shot down an unidentified object over Lake Huron, which borders Michigan and the Canadian province of Ontario. The Pentagon said in a statement on Sunday that the object was flying at about 20,000 feet before being shot down by an F-16 fighter jet.

“Based on its flight path and data, we can reasonably connect this object to the radar signal picked up over Montana, which flew in proximity to sensitive DOD [Department of Defense] sites,” the Pentagon said.

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Several lawmakers from Michigan quickly responded to the shooting over the lake.

“The increasing incidents of unidentified objects, the latest over Lake Huron in Michigan airspace, are disturbing,” Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) said in a statement on Sunday.

“We need the facts about where they are originating from, what their purpose is, and why their frequency is increasing,” Dingell continued. “Our national security is of the utmost importance, and we must work in a bipartisan way with this Administration and all relevant partners for answers and the appropriate reaction.”

Rep. Bill Huizenga (R-Mich.) wrote on Twitter that “transparency is key.”

He added: “We need accurate information to be shared w/Congress & the American people. With this being the 4th incident, President Biden & the Pentagon need to be forthcoming with us all.”

China

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.), in an interview with ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday, said China’s communist regime poses a threat to the United States more than just spy balloons.

“We’ve got a whole lot bigger problem with China than the spy balloons,” Comer said. “Their military continues to grow and expand.”

Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, delivers remarks during a hearing in the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington on Feb. 1, 2023. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

“China continues to steal our intellectual property. They continue to steal our patents. They manipulate their currency,” Comer added. “We believe they have a big footprint in academia with a massive spy ring within our research universities where they continue to steal our hard-earned research and development.”

Comer also criticized the Biden administration for allowing the Chinese spy balloon to transit the United States for days.

“So China is a problem. And this administration thus far hasn’t set a very good example of standing up to China. I think that, you know, shooting the balloon down in the Atlantic once it flew over all the military bases, including my own Fort Campbell, Kentucky, it’s very disturbing.”

Secretary of State Antony Blinken was originally scheduled to arrive in China on Feb. 5 for a two-day visit. He postponed the trip on Feb. 3, a day before the spy balloon was shot down, telling Beijing that its action was “irresponsible” and a “clear violation of U.S. sovereignty.”