Four days after shooting down the last of three unidentified flying objects located over American and Canadian airspace, US President Joe Biden briefed the public on the operation on Thursday, admitting there was no indication the objects were spy balloons from China or any other country.
Biden said that while the objects are still being studied, intelligence officials now believe they were most likely from private companies performing legitimate scientific or weather research. Biden says they were shot down because their altitude posed a risk to civilian aircraft and because at the time they were unsure if their purpose was nefarious.
"We don't yet know exactly what these three objects were. But nothing right now suggests they were related to China's spy balloon program or that they were surveillance vehicles from any other country," Biden said. "Intelligence community's current assessment is that these three objects were most likely balloons tied to private companies, recreation or research institutions studying weather or other conducting other scientific research."
Biden stressed there is no evidence of an increase of objects in US airspace, but we are seeing more of them "partially" because of steps the US took to improve its radar capabilities.
Biden also says he has instructed his team to come up with new rules on how unidentified objects will be handled moving forward with an aim to distinguish between legitimate threats and mundane objects.
Biden also said his administration would work on updating and establishing new rules on launching unmanned objects above American airspace and will instruct Secretary of State Antony Blinken to "lead an effort" to establish global norms regarding unmanned flying objects.
Biden also spoke about the Chinese balloon the US insists was a spy balloon, and that which China has repeatedly stated was a scientific research balloon that had blown off course and was launched by a private company.
The president again stressed the military advised him not to shoot down the object while it was over land as doing so would have put people on the ground in danger. Instead, the object was observed and then shot down off the Atlantic coast. Biden said the object's payload has been recovered from the ocean floor and is currently being studied.
"Then we shot it down, sending a clear message: the violation of our sovereignty is unacceptable," Biden asserted.
In response, Biden says that on Friday, they put restrictions on six firms that he says supported the People's Liberation Army Air Force to deny them access to American technology.
Biden stressed that open dialog between the two countries must continue.
"We seek competition, not conflict with China. We are not looking for a new Cold War. I make no apologies and we will compete."
Biden said he will continue to stay in competition with Chinese President Xi Jinping but again stressed he would not apologize.
"I expect to be speaking with President Xi, I hope we are going to get to the bottom of this, but I make no apologies for taking down that balloon."
An Awkward Ending
After his speech, Biden thanked the press core attending the briefing and began walking away without answering questions. The press gaggle screamed questions at him and Biden paused before returning to the podium.
It is difficult to determine what question Biden was replying to but he first said "give me a break man." Then, one reporter manages to be heard over the others, "Mr. President, did you overreact?"
Biden appeared to ignore the question and looked over to the other side of the room, which again erupted with questions from the press. It is again unclear if he responded to the question that could be heard or another, but he continued to look at the other side of the room when he said: "You can come to my office and ask a question when we have more polite people."
Biden then began walking away while reporters continues to yell questions. Biden paused one more time, turned towards the podium, and then walked away. The broadcast then ends.