Republican Senator Marco Rubio is demanding answers about the unidentified objects shot down by the US military in recent weeks. Rubio, the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee and a senior member of the Foreign Relations Committee, has strongly criticized President Joe Biden’s failure to disclose the objects.
“This is the first time in American history, 65 years since NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command) was established, that we’ve shot down anything, let alone three things in three days last weekend,” Rubio said on “CBS Mornings” on Thursday. “I believe that the president should address directly why those three things were shot down and what we know so far.”
“Nothing… about those three should be classified because it’s not the type of thing you classify,” he said.
A Chinese spy balloon traveled across the continental United States before being shot down off the coast of the Carolinas on Feb. 4. The military shot down three unidentified objects in three days the following weekend.
“We don’t know what the other three are,” Rubio said. “They have no idea what they are. They have not informed anyone. They have not informed us. They may not recognize themselves and may never recognize themselves “He stated.
While the objects appear to be frightening, Rubio claims that their appearance in American airspace is “not unprecedented” and that they are not “flying saucers.” They are most likely “small vehicles operating in frequently restricted airspace.” The decision to shoot them down, according to Rubio, is unusual.
While the objects should not be cause for concern, Rubio stated that the United States does not have systems in place to respond to them. In 2021, he and Democratic Sen. Kristen Gillibrand introduced legislation to create an office to coordinate the reporting and response to unidentified objects. According to Rubio, his office has seen “hundreds of cases” of airborne items that have not elicited the same level of response as the objects seen in the sky last week.
“We are not very good at monitoring. We don’t have a systemized response. The difference between these three and hundreds of other cases is that these three were assassinated “Rubio stated. “That is the most significant distinction. Right now, if you’re a small craft moving slowly and possibly maneuvering in ways we’re not used to seeing at 20,000, 25,000, or 30,000 feet, the United States doesn’t have an established protocol for dealing with it.”
Rubio also addressed gun violence in the United States, which has been the subject of several mass shootings this week. In the first month and a half of 2023, there were 71 mass shootings. Rubio has previously expressed willingness to support stricter gun legislation, particularly following the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in his home state of Florida. He did, however, vote against a gun reform bill in 2022, which he criticized Thursday as legislation that “didn’t protect people’s fundamental rights.”
Rubio said he supports “red flag” laws with restrictions on who can challenge a person’s right to bear arms, but that the problem is “really mass murder” and unenforced laws, referring to existing gun charges filed against the gunman in the Michigan State University mass shooting.
“The central issue is mass murder. Why do people decide to kill a large number of people, some of whom are strangers? That is a genuine fundamental challenge “Rubio stated. “The fundamental question is this: Why are young Americans willing to murder people?”
