White House says no signs that shot-down objects were ‘alien or extraterrestrial’

The White House on Monday pushed back on speculation that the high-altitude objects shot down by the U.S. in recent days are from other planets.

“I just wanted to make sure we address this from the White House: I know there have been questions and concerns about this, but there is again no indication of aliens or extraterrestrial activity with these recent takedowns,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters.

Ms. Jean-Pierre said it was “important” for the White House to confirm the objects were not extraterrestrial activity.

White House National Security spokesman John Kirby said the administration is still trying to determine the nature and purpose of the three latest objects that have been shot down. He said there is nothing nefarious about the objects, and it is possible they are connected to a private company or research institution.

Glen D. VanHerck, commander of the Pentagon’s Northern Command, on Sunday made headlines when he declined to rule out the possibility that the objects were connected to extraterrestrials.

“I’ll let the intel community and the counterintelligence community figure that out. I haven’t ruled out anything at this point,” Mr. VanHerck said.

The U.S. military shot down three separate aerial objects over the weekend, roughly one week after shooting down a Chinese surveillance balloon near the South Carolina coast after it had traversed most of the country.

U.S. forces on Sunday shot down a high-altitude object over Lake Huron, the third incident in as many days and the fourth in under two weeks.

Sunday’s shoot-down was the latest in a string of high-profile, bizarre incidents between the U.S. military and the unknown objects. U.S. officials say an object was also shot down Friday over Alaska, and another one was downed Saturday over Canada.

A high-altitude object, suspected to be a Chinese surveillance balloon, was shot down over the coast of South Carolina earlier this month.

A national security spokesperson said the objects over Canada and Alaska “did not closely resemble and were much smaller than” the alleged Chinese spy balloon.