Joe Biden Orders Unknown “High-Altitude Object” Shot Down Near Alaska Today, White House Reveals; POTUS Calls Mission A “Success” – Update
deadline.com(Updated with Biden statement) Less than a week after U.S. jets shot down a Chinese spy balloon over the Atlantic, President Joe Biden this morning ordered the military to destroy a self-described “high-altitude object” over Alaska.
Asked about the incident while awaiting the arrival of the President of Brazil to the White House, POTUS opted for rare brevity and called it a “success.” “President Biden ordered the military to down the object.
And they did … within the last hour,” NSC Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby said earlier Friday in the White House press room as he announced the mission. “The President will always act in the best interests of the American people and international security,” Kirby added of the order, that was given at 1:45 PM ET. “I think we are going to try to learn more,” the official added in remarks that were covered live on CNN, Fox News and MSNBC in what was a slightly delayed regularly scheduled briefing. “I can tell you it was an object, it was at 40,000 feet and the predominant concern by the President was the safety of flight issue at that altitude,” Kirby went on to say of the shooting, which overtook all news of Biden’s just revealed trip to Poland later this month near the first year anniversary of Russia’s attack on Ukraine.
The Pentagon is in the process of attempting recovery in the frozen US territorial waters off Alaska, the NSC spokesman stated of the now downed object.
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