Jean-Pierre: There is no indication of aliens or extraterrestrial activity with these recent takedowns.

Kirby [White House press conference]: [we are still working] to better understand the issue of high-altitude, low-speed craft.

Kirby: We were able to determine that China has a high-altitude balloon program for intelligence collection that's connected to the People's Liberation Army. It was operating during the previous administration, but they did not detect it. We detected it. We tracked it.

Reporter: Because it's so unprecedented, should the public be hearing from [Biden] on this?

Kirby: We have been as transparent as we can be. I won't speak for [Biden's] speaking schedule. He has been deeply engaged in every one of these decisions.

Kirby: We are not flying surveillance balloons over China.

Kirby: I think we can all get our heads around the fact that there are sometimes things floating at high-altitudes for various purposes; scientific research, weather balloons, all manner of innocuous craft…I don't think that's necessarily unusual here…one of the reason that we think we are seeing more, is because we are looking for more.

Reporter: When it comes to these higher altitudes, are America's borders secure?

Kirby: [Biden] takes our national security extremely seriously…I don't think you need to look any further than the decisions he's made in just the last week to ten days to evidence that.

Reporter: But it feels like he's plugging holes; like these are vulnerabilities that we are discovering in real-time.

Kirby: You're making an assumption there, that I don't know that the analysis will actually bear out.

Kirby: When you at a lower altitude than space, you can perhaps get a better fidelity, of imagery, for instance, of things on the ground.