A lawmaker on the House committee overseeing the US intelligence community on Sunday batted down rumors being leveled about mysterious sightings of drones in New Jersey and possibly elsewhere along the US east coast.
Federal agencies put out a joint statement on Thursday declaring that the spotted drones in New Jersey did not represent a foreign threat or any danger to public safety, but did not provide an explanation for what worried New Jerseyans were seeing from their homes.
DHS secretary Alejandro Mayorkas also addressed the matter on Sunday, becoming the first administration official to do so on camera.
“We know of no foreign involvement with respect to the sightings in the northeast. And we are vigilant in investigating this matter, the Department of Homeland Security, with the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the lead,” he said on ABC’s This Week.
Jim Himes, a member of the House Intelligence Committee appeared on Fox News Sunday to discuss the drone sightings and apparent lack of a vocal, coordinated response from the federal government, which lawmakers have said is allowing misinformation to fill an information vacuum.
“There’s no question that drones are being sighted…There are thousands of drones flown every day in the United States — recreational drones, commercial drones.”
DHS Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas responds to numerous aerial sightings reported across East Coast. https://t.co/VM1aZSe1W6 pic.twitter.com/7v5CSSjzbe
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) December 15, 2024
“There are a lot of us who are pretty frustrated right now,” Himes, a Democrat from Connecticut, told Fox. “The answer ‘we don’t know’ is not a good enough answer when people are anxious, when they are nervous, and this has been true since we’ve been a species on this planet.”
“People will fill a vacuum with their fears and anxieties,” Himes said, quipping: “Oh my god, there’s an Iranian mothership hovering off the coast of Asbury Park!”
“Let me say something I know with confidence: It is not the Iranians, it is not the Chinese. They aren’t Martians.”
He concluded “And so my frustration is the FAA in particular, which is the agency of jurisdiction for our domestic skies, ought to be out Saturday morning” debunking conspiracies and giving clear explanations for the phenomenon.
Himes’s overall points largely mirrored the stance of the federal government, though the congressman was clear in his frustration over the Biden administration’s failure to provide clear leadership as the stories run rampant on social media. The congressman, who has access to classified intelligence briefings, did not give specific reasons for his assertion that the spotted drones (or, in some cases, commercial aircraft) were not Iranian of origin.
Chris Christie, the former governor of New Jersey, trashed Mayorkas on ABC after the latter’s interview. He urged the federal government to discover the real origin of the drones — and report it to the public — with speed.
“I’ve lived in New Jersey my whole life,” said Christie, an ABC News contributor. “This is the first time that I’ve noticed drones over my house.”
The FBI and Department of Homeland Security said last Thursday that federal authorities had no evidence of a “foreign nexus” for the drones allegedly spotted by residents of New Jersey.
“We take seriously the threat that can be posed by unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), which is why law enforcement and other agencies continue to support New Jersey and investigate the reports. To be clear, they have uncovered no such malicious activity or intent at this stage. While there is no known malicious activity occurring in New Jersey, the reported sightings there do, however, highlight the insufficiency of current authorities,” said the agencies.
President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and other top administration officials have not made any public statements about the matter, however, and numerous local officials and elected lawmakers in New Jersey and down the east coast have pushed back against the statement, given the lack of clarity around the drones’ origins.
Some have even shared images of what appear to be commercial aircrat as fears of the drones quickly spread on social media.
It remains to be seen if they will address it at all: the outgoing Biden administration is now approaching the holidays as much of Washington readies for the imminent arrival of Donald Trump and the MAGA GOP in January.
