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By Thomas Kika
Weekend Staff Writer
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Representative Jim Himes, a Connecticut Democrat, attempted to downplay concerns and talks of an "alien invasion" on Sunday in the wake of recent aerial objects being shot down by the United States.
Himes represents Connecticut's 4th Congressional District and is the ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. On Sunday, he appeared on NBC News's Meet the Press where he was asked to weigh in on the recent reports that two unidentified aerial objects were shot down over American and Canadian airspace. While the nature of these objects has not been officially confirmed, they have nonetheless sparked semi-serious concerns online about possible contact by aliens.
Speaking with host Chuck Todd, Himes downplayed social media worries that the two shootdowns were related to possible alien activity, or other potential issues, stressing the objects were spotted at altitudes that could endanger civilian aviation.
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"There's a logic to what the [Biden] administration has done," the Democratic lawmaker said. "The two shootdowns have occurred around objects that were a threat to civil aviation. Remember, the initial Chinese balloon was at fifty, sixty thousand feet, that's not a threat. If you're at or below 40,000 feet, now you're in the travel zone for civilian aviation."
He continued: "The one thing, Chuck, that is troubling me here, I sort of see a pattern as I looked at social media this morning. All of a sudden, massive speculation about alien invasions and additional Chinese action or Russian action. In the absence of information, people's anxiety leads them into potentially destructive areas. So I do hope very soon the administration has a lot more information."
The two unidentified objects were shot down on Friday and Saturday evenings, the former going down somewhere over remote Alaska and the latter going down over Northern Canada.
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Himes said in his Meet the Press interview that he had not yet been briefed on the two shootdowns.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, meanwhile, did claim to have been briefed on the matter during his own Sunday interview with ABC News' This Week. The New York Democrat stressed that the Biden administration was not aware of foreign surveillance balloons, dating back to the Trump White House, until recently. He also echoed Himes' statements about the two recent shootdowns being done out of concern for commercial aircraft, and said that they are believed by U.S. intelligence sources to have been more balloons, "much smaller" than the initial Chinese craft, though could not confirm this definitively.
Newsweek reached out to the White House for comment.
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