Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said Sunday that he has “real concerns” about the Biden administration’s transparency on the unidentified objects that have been shot down in recent days.
In an interview on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” Sunday, Himes, who is part of the “Gang of Eight,” the top leaders of congressional intelligence committees, said those lawmakers received a “very extensive briefing” on the Chinese spy balloon that was shot down over water last week.
Himes expressed concern that the administration has been less forthcoming about the unidentified objects shot down over Alaskan and Canadian airspaces on Friday and Saturday, respectively, though he acknowledged that information may be scarce.
“Part of the problem is that the second and the third objects were shot down in very remote areas. So my guess is that there’s just not a lot of information out there yet to share,” he said.
“The one thing I see troubling … is massive speculation about alien invasions and additional Chinese or Russian action,” Himes said, adding that the “absence of information” will make people anxious.
“So I do hope the administration has a lot more information for all of us on what’s going on,” Himes said.
Feb. 12, 202301:32
Pressed on whether he thinks the administration is not being forthcoming or if it’s a situation where they don’t know enough information, Himes said he’s unsure because he hasn’t been briefed on the matter yet.
“I really can’t answer that question because I haven’t been briefed either,” Himes said. “I got a very detailed briefing on the first Chinese balloon, and I think the decision making process there was very good. We now own something that we’re going to exploit for intelligence. I think the decision making was good.”
Himes noted that people hadn’t heard about the Chinese spy balloon until it was spotted flying over Montana earlier this month. NBC News first broke the news that the U.S. was monitoring the high-altitude surveillance device as it hovered on the U.S. for days.
“There may be reasons for it, in the absence of information, people will fill that gap with anxiety and other stuff,” Himes said. “So I wish the administration was a little quicker to tell us everything they do know.”
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
