White House spokesperson: downed objects ‘did not closely resemble’ Chinese balloon

The objects downed over Alaska and Canada in recent days did not resemble the Chinese surveillance balloon shot down off the coast of South Carolina and were much smaller, a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council said on Sunday.

“These objects did not closely resemble and were much smaller than the PRC balloon and we will not definitively characterize them until we can recover the debris, which we are working on,” the spokesperson said.

The statement came in response to queries about Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s comment that U.S. officials believed the unmanned objects were balloons.