U.S. Shoots Down Fourth ‘Object’ Over Great Lakes

A fourth unidentified object was apparently shot out of North American airspace Sunday, the third in three days.

“I’ve been in contact with DOD regarding operations across the Great Lakes region today. The US military has decommissioned another “object” over Lake Huron,” Michigan Rep. Jack Bergman, said via Twitter Sunday.

Sunday’s incident, also confirmed by Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer via Twitter, comes after the military downed objects above Canada and Alaska on Friday and Saturday, and eight days after the downing of an alleged Chinese spy balloon over the Atlantic.

Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on Sunday that an object brought down over northern Alaska on Friday and an object downed over Canada’s Yukon territory this Saturday were of a similar nature to the 200-foot Chinese spy balloon shot down off the coast of South Carolina last week.

“They believe they were, yes, but much smaller than the one — the first one,” the New York Democrat said when asked if the objects were balloons, citing a briefing by White House National Security Advisory Jake Sullivan.

Schumer said the most recently discovered objects were brought down out of concern for the safety of civilian aircraft.

“Both of those, one over Canada, one over Alaska, were at 40,000 feet. Immediately it was determined that that’s a danger to commercial aircraft,” he said.

The senator from New York was clear about who he thinks is responsible.

“The Chinese were humiliated – I think the Chinese were caught lying,” he said. “It’s a real setback for them.”

Whether the objects are balloons or something else entirely is a question the White House and DoD aren’t ready to provide an answer to, they said after Schumer spoke. Officials also did not immediately say what the fourth object shot down over Lake Huron Sunday was.

“These objects did not closely resemble and were much smaller than the (People’s Republic of China) balloon and we will not definitively characterize them until we can recover the debris, which we are working on,” a National Security Council spokesperson said.

“These objects shot down on Friday and Saturday were objects and did not closely resemble the PRC balloon. When we can recover the debris, we will have more for you,” Deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh said Sunday.

Both President Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau jointly authorized Saturday’s engagement, according to the White House and Canadian officials.

“President Biden authorized US fighter aircraft assigned to NORAD to conduct the operation and a US F-22 shot down the object in Canadian territory in close coordination with Canadian authorities,” the White House said in a statement. “The leaders discussed the importance of recovering the object in order to determine more details on its purpose or origin.”

U.S. and Canadian military recovery teams and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, in conjunction with forensics teams from the FBI, were working to find and gather the wreckage of the objects Sunday.

Biden had been at the center of much criticism last week, after Republicans accused the commander-in-chief of not acting swiftly enough to shoot down the first balloon as it slowly made its way across the nation over the course of a week.

Despite the earlier criticism, Rep. Mike Turner, an Ohio Republican who chairs the House Intelligence Committee, told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday he felt Biden had grown “trigger happy.”

“Although this is certainly preferable to the permissive environment that they showed when the Chinese spy balloon was coming over some of our most sensitive sites,” he said.

Rep. Jake Auchincloss, a Marine who recently joined the House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, said on WCVB’s On the Record that Biden had responded to the first balloon “appropriately.”

“As a statesman should,” Auchincloss said. “This was a strong show by the commander-in-chief.”

Herald wire services contributed.

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