A Republican congressman from Montana is suggesting there is more to the story of an alleged object over his state than has been officially revealed, and that a response to a potential national security issue was called on account of darkness.

On Saturday evening, part of northern Montana’s airspace was closed to civilian traffic but was reopened later.

The North American Aerospace Defense Command said it “detected a radar anomaly and sent fighter aircraft to investigate,” but it “did not identify any object to correlate to the radar hits,” according to The Washington Post.

Republican Rep. Matt Rosendale of Montana gave a different interpretation of events, both on Twitter and in comments to Fox News Saturday evening.

In comments posted to Twitter, he said that on Saturday the Department of Defense contacted him while he was at an event.

Imagine taking a flight anywhere near Montana tonight knowing there's a UFO somewhere up there but they can't do anything about it because it's dark https://t.co/qRLPtDmLf8

— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) February 12, 2023

“DOD called me as I have been sitting here and started giving me briefings to tell me what was going on,” he said.

"I clarified with them that this is actually the fourth balloon, OK?” he said.

“So the first we shot down over the Atlantic. One was shot down before it entered into Alaska's airspace. A third was shot down, Trudeau ordered over Canada. So now we're talking about a fourth incident,” he said.

Rosendale portrayed his communication with the Defense Department as different from what NORAD said in its public statement.

NEW: Object over Montana has been confirmed, airspace is back open because it can’t effectively be taken out in the dark.

Great! We are showing China and Russia exactly where our weaknesses are.

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) February 12, 2023

“DOD told me that they are going to be tracking the object - they can't even say exactly what it is -- they are going to track the object until it gets light again,” he said.

“They don't have the ability to put any more eyes on it with aircraft until it's light again. And then tomorrow morning we'll be dealing with it,” he said.

It was not clear why action could not be taken to illuminate whatever the object was.

On Sunday, he doubled down that there was something in the sky north of Havre, Montana.

I am in constant communication with NORCOM and they have just advised me that they have confidence there IS an object and it WAS NOT an anomaly. I am waiting now to receive visual confirmation. Our nation’s security is my priority.

— Matt Rosendale (@RepRosendale) February 12, 2023

"I am in constant communication with NORCOM and they have just advised me that they have confidence there IS an object and it WAS NOT an anomaly. I am waiting now to receive visual confirmation. Our nation’s security is my priority," he wrote.

Rosendale's Sunday tweet came shortly before airspace over Lake Michigan was closed to civilian traffic, according to Fox News.

The Post quoted a U.S. official it did not name as saying that officials are now more aware of objects because the filters that decide which data from radar and other sensors will make its way to humans have been re-calibrated to document smaller objects.

The Post report said that officials use a Volkswagen Beetle to approximate the size of the objects shot down in Alaska and Canada while noting that differences remain between them.

This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.