Did the Republicans pressure Joe Biden to shoot down the spy balloon?
3:33
(CNN) -
President Joe Biden said Thursday that the United States has no indication that the three aerial objects shot down in North America last week are linked to China's spy balloon program.
In that sense, he added that they are probably from private entities.
"We still don't know exactly what these three objects were, but nothing at this time suggests they were related to China's spy balloon program or surveillance vehicles from any other country," Biden said from the White House.
"The intelligence community's current assessment is that these three objects were likely balloons linked to private companies, recreational or research institutions studying the weather or conducting other scientific research."
These were the first formal comments Biden has made about the objects shot down last weekend over Canada and the United States.
Federal officials have said a first Chinese surveillance balloon, shot down off the coast of South Carolina earlier this month.
it was capable of conducting signals intelligence gathering operations and had a payload the size of three buses.
By comparison, later objects, which have not been attributed to a specific country or entity, are thought to be much smaller.
The United States is now also increasingly confident that the three objects shot down between Friday and Sunday were "benign" balloons.
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New protocols for how the United States will handle similar unidentified objects in the future are anticipated to be released this week.
News in development...
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