当美国军方以惊人的速度向天空发射不明物体时，乔·拜登总统基本上保持沉默最近的抓捕行动平衡政治阻力与对公共安全和中美关系的担忧。

美国战斗机击落了飞越阿拉斯加、加拿大和美国的三个物体密歇根附近的水域从周五开始连续三天。即使只有一次击落都被认为是不寻常的，更不用说三次了。

尽管支持率大幅上升，拜登一直远离公众视线——周一没有公开活动。白宫发言人约翰·柯比为总统辩护，并表示政府已经“尽可能地透明”

“我认为，我们已经尽可能地透明了，”柯比周一告诉记者。“我不会为总统的个人演讲时间表说话，但是，我的意思是，他一直深入参与其中的每一个决定。”他一直被告知，包括今天早上，恢复工作的进展情况。"

尽管拜登政府坚称，这是出于充分的谨慎——保护国家安全和民用飞机——但总统也面临着共和党人和一些民主党人的批评，他们质疑为什么一周前花了这么长时间才取下一个中国气球。

众议院情报委员会主席、共和党众议员迈克·特纳(Mike Turner)周日在接受美国有线电视新闻网(CNN)采访时表示，“他们看起来确实有点喜欢开枪。”。“尽管这肯定比他们在中国间谍气球飞越我们一些最敏感地点时表现出的宽松环境要好。”

虽然白宫和五角大楼的官员向记者简要介绍了最近的击落事件，但拜登本人只公开说过一个词。

“成功，”他周五在回答记者关于美国在阿拉斯加附近海域击落的物体的大声提问时说。

到目前为止，负责国家安全事务的白宫发言人柯比一直是政府回应的代言人。他是上周五宣布击落不明“高空物体”的人，也是周一白宫新闻发布会上出现在镜头前的人。

他周一坚称，近日活动的波动并不反映拜登屈从于政治压力，特别是批评美国应该早点阻止中国气球。他也没有表示击落事件反映了更广泛的政策变化。

柯比说:“这些决定纯粹是基于美国人民的最大利益。”。

柯比说，总统周一下令联邦政府“研究对探测、分析和处置构成安全或安保风险的不明飞行物的更广泛的政策影响。”

拜登政府表示，中国气球一直在对美国进行间谍活动，与中国气球被击落形成对比的是，官员们表示，他们不知道过去几天被击落的另外三个小得多的物体的所有者或目的。

相反，美国官员说，总统一直担心民用航空的风险，因为他们都在商业飞机飞行的高度飞行。官员们说，中国气球被发现得更高。

甚至民主党人也要求政府提供更多信息，包括为什么美国之前不知道中国的气球监测项目。

“我们怎么会错过他们是一个很大的问题，”参议院多数党领袖查克·舒默周一在接受“观点”采访时表示，并补充说他支持由蒙大拿州民主党参议员乔恩·特斯领导的两党调查。“这是一个我们需要答案的好问题。”

在上周接受PBS Newshour和Noticias Telemundo采访时，拜登为美国一直等到气球在水上时才将其击落的事实进行了辩护，称他已经下令取出气球，但他的军事顾问说在陆地上采取行动太危险了。

政府官员说，虽然美国军方在中国气球首次进入阿拉斯加上空的美国领空时就发现了它，但拜登只是在它穿越加拿大并进入蒙大拿州上空时才被告知它的存在。白宫说，在那个时候，他下令将其击落。

“我只是认为这是一个玩忽职守的想法，我认为这是一个奇怪的想法，”他告诉PBS新闻小时。“中国很清楚这一点——我们之间的交易是什么。”

拜登不愿表达更多批评的部分原因可能是，中国气球出现在了一个对他来说不合时宜的时间。

拜登把缓和与中国及其领导人习近平主席的紧张关系作为其外交政策的一个标志。

拜登和Xi三个月前首次以总统身份会面，他们承诺共同努力，更好地管理两国之间的竞争关系。

但中国气球事件导致美国国务卿安东尼布林肯(Antony Johnson)取消了即将对中国的访问，美国和中国军方之间的交流也减少了。

拜登上周在国情咨文中说:“我致力于与中国合作，我们可以增进美国的利益，造福世界。”。“但毫无疑问:正如我们上周明确表示的那样，如果中国威胁我们的主权，我们将采取行动保护我们的国家。我们做到了。”

White House 'transparent as we can be' as Biden says little about shootdowns

As the U.S. military shoots unidentified objects out the sky at a surprisingly fast clip, President Joe Biden has remained largely silent aboutthe most recent takedowns, balancing political headwinds with concerns over public safety and America's relationship with China.

U.S. fighter jets took down three objects flying over Alaska, Canada andthe waters off Michiganover three successive days starting Friday. Even just one shootdown would be considered unusual, let alone three.

Despite the sharp uptick, Biden has remained out of the public eye -- with no public events on Monday. White House spokesman John Kirby defended the president and said the administration has been "as transparent as we can be."

"We have been, I think, as transparent as we can be," Kirby told reporters Monday. "I won't speak for the president's personal speaking schedule, but, I mean, he has been deeply engaged in every one of these decisions." He has been kept informed, including as of this morning, on what's going on with recovery efforts."

While the Biden administration insists it is acting out of an abundance of caution -- to protect national security, as well as civilian aircraft – the president is also facing criticism from Republicans and some Democrats about why it took so long to take down a Chinese balloon a week before.

"They do appear somewhat trigger-happy," Rep. Mike Turner, the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said Sunday in an interview with CNN. "Although this is certainly preferable to the permissive environment that they showed when the Chinese spy balloon was coming over some of our most sensitive sites."

While officials from the White House and Pentagon have briefed reporters about the most recent shootdowns, Biden himself has said just one word publicly.

"Success," he said Friday, in response to reporters' shouted questions about the object the U.S. shot down in waters off Alaska.

Kirby, a White House spokesman who handles national security issues, has served as the face of the administration's response so far. He was the one who made the dramatic announcement about Friday's shootdown of an unidentified "high-altitude object" and who appeared before cameras as Monday's White House press briefing.

He insisted Monday that the flutter of activity in recent days did not reflect Biden kowtowing to political pressure, specifically criticism the U.S. should have stopped the Chinese balloon earlier. Nor did he indicate the shootdowns reflected a broader policy change.

"These were decisions based, purely and simply, on what was in the best interests of the American people," Kirby said.

The president, Kirby said, on Monday ordered the federal government "to study the broader policy implications for detection, analysis, and disposition of unidentified aerial objects that pose either safety or security risks."

In contrast with the shootdown of the Chinese balloon, which the Biden administration said had been spying on the United States, officials said they did not know the owner or purpose of the three other, much smaller objects shot down over the last few days.

Instead, U.S. officials said, the president had been concerned about the risk to civil aviation, considering they were all flying at altitudes where commercial planes fly. The Chinese balloon, officials said, had been spotted much higher.

Even Democrats have pushed for more information from the administration, including about why the U.S. had not known about the Chinese's balloon surveillance program earlier.

"How did we miss them is a great question," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Monday during an interview on "The View," adding he was supporting a bipartisan investigation to be led by Sen. Jon Tester, a Montana Democrat. "It's a good question we need an answer to."

President Joe Biden listens during a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House, Feb. 10, 2023, in Washington.

Alex Brandon/AP, FILE

In interviews last week with PBS Newshour and Noticias Telemundo, Biden defended the fact the U.S. had waited until the balloon was over water to shoot it down, saying he had ordered it taken out but that his military advisers said it was too dangerous to act over land.

Administration officials said that while the U.S. military had spotted the Chinese balloon when it first entered U.S. airspace over Alaska, Biden was only informed of its presence once it had traversed Canada and entered airspace over Montana. At that point, the White House said, he ordered it shot down.

"I just think that the idea that there was a dereliction of duty is I think is a - is a bizarre notion," he told PBS Newshour. "China knows exactly that-- what the deal is with us."

Part of Biden's reluctance to express more criticism could be rooted in the fact that the Chinese balloon appeared at an inopportune time for him.

Biden has made lower tensions with China and its leader, President Xi Jinping, a hallmark of his foreign policy.

Biden and Xi met in person for the first time as presidents three months ago, and they pledged to work together to better manage the competitive relationship between their two nations.

But the Chinese balloon saga led Secretary of State Antony Blinken to cancel an upcoming visit to China, and communication between the U.S. and Chinese militaries has dropped off, too.

"I'm committed to work with China where we can advance American interests and benefit the world," Biden said last week during his State of the Union address. "But make no mistake about it: As we made clear last week, if China threatens our sovereignty, we will act to protect our country. And we did."