'No Indication of Aliens': Jean-Pierre Hands the Objects Briefing to Kirby, Answers No Questions Herself (February 13, 2023)

After the U.S. Air Force shot down several objects “over the last few days,” as Kirby put it, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre opened her briefing with an unusual announcement. “I know there have been questions and concerns about this, but there is no — again, no indication of aliens or extraterrestrial activity — (laughter) — with these recent takedowns,” she said [1].

“Are you disappointed by that?” a reporter asked. “Would you tell us if there were, really?” asked another. “I’m just — you know, I loved ‘E.T.,’ the movie. But I’m gon — I’m just going to leave it there,” Jean-Pierre answered [1].

Then she handed the podium to National Security Council spokesman John Kirby for the rest of the briefing [1].

The video above shows how the Feb. 13, 2023, briefing ended. Quotes are from the official transcript published by the American Presidency Project [1].

”I Got to Go Into the Oval”

Jean-Pierre closed the briefing herself. “All right, we have to — sorry, guys, we have to end the briefing. I got to go into the Oval. But I will see you tomorrow. And thank you for the compliment on the smile. I appreciate that,” she said [1].

In between, the official transcript shows her calling on reporters (“Go ahead”; “No, sir. No, sir”; “I have to get through everybody”) while Kirby gave the answers. Apart from the “E.T.” line, she answered none of the questions herself [1].

”Why Shoot Them Down?”

The first question went to the heart of it. “John, if the objects don’t pose a military threat and they don’t pose a threat to anybody on the ground, why shoot them down?” a reporter asked [1].

“I kind of covered that in the opening statement. Two real reasons here. First, there was a very real potential risk to civilian air traffic,” Kirby said, noting that the one downed the day before “was about 20,000 feet” [1].

“So again, out of an abundance of caution, for those two reasons, the President, with the recommendation of his military leaders, directed them to be taken down,” he said [1].

”As Transparent As We Can Be”

Biden had not addressed the nation on the shootdowns. “And because it’s so unprecedented, should the public be hearing from the President directly on this?” a reporter asked [1].

“I have — we have been, I think, as transparent as we can be. I won’t speak for the President’s personal speaking schedule,” Kirby said [1].

”Are America’s Borders Secure?”

Another reporter widened the question. “When it comes to these higher altitudes, are America’s borders secure?” [1]

“The President takes — as I said earlier, he takes our national security extremely seriously,” Kirby said. “And I don’t think you need to look any further, quite frankly, than the decisions he’s made in just the last week to 10 days to evidence that” [1].

“But it feels like he’s plugging holes, like these are vulnerabilities that we are discovering in real time,” the reporter pressed. “You’re making an assumption there that I don’t know that the — I don’t know that the analysis will actually bear out,” Kirby said [1].

”Political Pressure”

A reporter asked whether the shootdowns were a reaction to criticism over the Chinese spy balloon. Was it “political pressure,” including “the pressure that came from, say, Republicans on Capitol Hill”? [1]

“These were decisions based purely and simply on what was in the best interests of the American people,” Kirby said [1].

”The Size of Three School Buses”

“Why are we shooting them down all of a sudden?” another reporter asked. Kirby separated the new objects from the Chinese balloon. “We knew what it was. We knew where it was going. We knew what it was trying to do,” he said of the balloon, adding that it carried “a huge payload — like I said, the size of three school buses” [1].

Asked where Biden was when he ordered the Lake Huron shootdown, Kirby said: “He was here in the White House. He was kept constantly informed by his national security team and certainly by the military” [1].

”They Did Not Detect It”

Kirby also pointed at the last administration, and he closed with a jab at Russia’s Vladimir Putin, who “continues to change generals the way I change socks” [1]. Of China’s balloon program, he said: “It was operating during the previous administration, but they did not detect it. We detected it. We tracked it” [1]. For that dispute, see HYGO News’ page on the balloon briefing.

By the Numbers

3: unidentified objects shot down, over Alaska, Canada and Lake Huron [2].
20,000: feet, the altitude of the object downed the day before, per Kirby [1].
49: minutes the briefing lasted, from 1:17 to 2:06 p.m. [1].
0: substantive questions Jean-Pierre answered herself [1].

What Happened Next

Probably balloons. Three days later, Biden addressed the shootdowns. “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,” he said [2].

“The intelligence community’s current assessment is that these three objects were most likely balloons tied to private companies, recreation, or research institutions studying weather or conducting other scientific research,” Biden said [2].

For what Biden said about China in his State of the Union days earlier, see HYGO News’ page on the 2023 address, and for more of Jean-Pierre’s answers checked against the record, the Karine Jean-Pierre record page.