Many are speculating that the recent takedown of unidentified objects flying over American and Canadian airspace is a result of aliens visiting Earth on UFOs, but White House Press Secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, refuted those claims in a recent press briefing on Monday.
“There is no — again, no — indication of aliens or extra-terrestrial activity with these recent takedowns,” Jean-Pierre said, which drew laughter from the press corp.
Later in the day, National Security Council’s Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby doubled down on her remarks emphasizing that “I don’t think the American people need to worry about aliens,” although “[we] have not yet been able to definitively assess what these most recent objects are.”
The speculation arose following recent military operations that shot down high-altitude objects over the span of several days. The Pentagon thinks President Biden ordered that a balloon flying over the Atlantic Ocean in early February was because of a Chinese surveillance balloon.
“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,” Kirby said. “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.”
Last week, a similar incident played out after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau ordered that a U.S. fighter jet shoot down an unidentified object flying over the Yukon on Saturday. It was one day after the U.S. shot down another unknown object flying over Alaska.
“This is a total shocker,” Terry Deshler, an emeritus professor of atmospheric science at the University of Wyoming, told the New York Times about the recent balloon shootings. “For years you didn’t hear anything about balloons,” he said. “Now, we’re on the lookout for any kind of flying object.”
