The truth is still out there.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas tried to calm the national panic over drones on Sunday’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos.”
According to the Secretary, the government is on top of the situation, yet he offered little beyond assurances that the feds and local authorities are engaged in watchfulness.
But on “Face the Nation,” Rep. Michael Waltz, Trump’s pick for his new national security advisor, sounded a more skeptical note.
“I think law enforcement seems to be- the Department of Homeland Security and the Defense Department are kind of all doing this and pointing at each other. So when we come in, you know, how do we enforce these low-level, long-loitering, could-be-dangerous drones?” He added, “And we need to take a hard look at our homeland defenses.”
Several East Coast states, particularly New Jersey, have lately been seeing swarms of drones. Many are described as being the size of an SUV, and their numerous appearances are spawning a host of conspiracy theories, ranging from aliens to foreign probes to a secret government search for weapons of mass destruction.
So far, little has been determined about the rash of sitings.
Mayorkas didn’t deny that jurisdictional issues are hampering current government drones efforts, but said there is no cause for alarm, claiming unspecified “additional resources” have been deployed to aid the New Jersey State Police, the state where a large portion of recent drones sightings have occurred.
There are more than 1 million drones registered with the government, Mayorkas said with approximately 8,000 in the air on any given day. He said some are manned aircraft.
“There are thousands of drones flown every day in the United States, recreational drones, commercial drones. That is the reality, and in September of 2023, the Federal Aviation Administration, the FAA, changed the rules so that drones could fly at night. And that may be one of the reasons why now people are seeing more drones than they did before, especially from dawn to dusk.”
Mayorkas said his authority to act is “limited,” and asked that state and local officials be enlisted to counter drone activity under federal supervision. He said later that the government was limited in what it could do to counter the drones, save for unspecified “certain agencies” within Homeland Security, and asked that they their reach be expanded as well.
“We know of no foreign involvement with respect to the sightings in the northeast,” Mayorkas said. “And we are vigilant in investigating this matter, the Department of Homeland Security, with the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the lead.”
Mayorkas danced around questions about when the government was prepared to act beyond assurances, but said, ” if we identify any foreign involvement or criminal activity, we will communicate with the American public accordingly. Right now, we are not aware of any. If we become aware of any, we will communicate accordingly and take appropriate action.”
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