The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee on Sunday bemoaned a lack of transparency from the Biden administration on the spate of unidentified objects that the U.S. military has shot down in recent days.
"I have real concerns about why the administration is not being more forthcoming with everything that it knows," said Rep. Jim Himes (D., Conn.), a member of the "Gang of Eight" lawmakers briefed on classified intelligence, during a Sunday appearance on NBC News.
Himes said he was troubled that the shoot-downs of objects over the last week, including over Alaska, Canada, and Lake Huron, has led to "massive speculation about alien invasions and, you know, additional Chinese action or Russian action."
"I do hope that very soon the administration has a lot more information for all of us on what's going on," Himes said.
Himes's request for greater transparency comes as President Joe Biden has not yet publicly addressed the shoot-downs of unidentified objects. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby gave a press conference on Monday in which he said China has a "high-altitude balloon program for intelligence collection" but did not identify the origin of the objects shot down.
Biden's silence on a potential national security threat has spurred calls for the president to reassure the public.
"The president owes the American people an explanation, direct and on camera, of what we know about these 'objects' and what steps he's taking to protect America's sovereign airspace," Sen. Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) said Monday. "No commander in chief should hide behind press secretaries and anonymous sources in a time of crisis."