Biden: 3 objects shot down, not tied to China

WASHINGTON, D.C. (CNN) – President Joe Biden said the U.S. said there’s no indication that objects shot down over the weekend are tied to China’s spy balloon program.

His remarks are the first he’s made formally about the three items in that were North American airspace.

The objects are believed to be much smaller than the Chinese surveillance balloon the U.S. previously downed off the East Coast.

During a Thursday press conference, Biden said, “Our military and the Canadian military are seeking to recover the debris, so we can learn more about these three objects. Our intelligence community is still assessing all three incidences. They’re reporting to me daily and will continue their urgent efforts to do so and I will communicate that to the Congress. We don’t yet know exactly what these three objects were, but nothing, nothing, right now suggests they were related to China’s spy balloon program or that there were surveillance vehicles from other, any other country. The intelligence community’s current assessment is that these three objects were most likely balloons tied to private companies, recreation or research institutions studying whether or conducting other scientific research.”

The U.S. is increasingly confident the three objects downed last weekend were “benign” balloons.

Officials are working on creating new protocols on how to handle similar situations going forward.

Those could come out as soon as this week.