White House: Three Objects the US Shot Down Could Have Been ‘Totally Benign’

After days of hype, the White House acknowledged on Tuesday that the three unidentified objects shot down by the US military could have been “totally benign” balloons.

“One thing we have to consider, and we believe the intelligence community is considering as an explanation, is that these could be balloons tied to commercial or research entities and therefore totally benign,” White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said.

Kirby said that “a range of entities — including countries, companies, research and academic organizations — operate objects at these altitudes for purposes that are not nefarious at all, including scientific research.”

The fact that harmless weather balloons and similar devices operate over the US is common knowledge, yet the US still decided to engage these objects with fighter jets. On Friday, an object was shot down over waters near Alaska, one was shot down the following day over Canada, and on Sunday, one was shot down over Lake Huron, Michigan.