Jeh Johnson on drone sightings: 'Federal government is still struggling to figure this out'
Former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said the federal government is still struggling to figure out the drone sightings but that he was confident law enforcement would ultimately resolve the matter.
“I believe that at the moment, our federal government is still struggling to figure this out,” Johnson, who served during the Obama administration, said on Fox News on Monday.
He added that it wasn't a question of resources, pointing to the recent arrest of suspect Luigi Mangioni in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on Dec. 4.
“Look, we have the law enforcement capability to track down this individual who apparently shot Brian Thompson in a matter of days, finding him in Altoona, Pennsylvania. We have the capability to provide the state of Israel Iron Dome capability to take down incoming missiles from Lebanon and elsewhere,” Johnson continued. “We have the capability to figure this out.”
“Also if our government at the federal and state level is sufficiently focused, provides resources, time and attention, I'm certain that we will figure this out in a matter of time,” he added.
Johnson noted there is no “evidence of anything other than what people like me and others in New Jersey are seeing up in the sky."
“You have a whole lot of people in the northeast looking up at the sky right now focused on things that they don't normally focus on. So, of course, they're going to be sightings in the thousands,” he said.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Sunday there’s “no question” that the drone sightings are real, but that his agency has seen no evidence of foreign involvement.
“There’s no question that people are seeing drones,” Mayorkas said. “And I want to assure the American public that we, in the federal government, have deployed additional resources, personnel, technology, to assist the New Jersey State Police in addressing the drone sightings.”
He also said there are several explanations for the uptick in sightings.
“Let me set the record straight here,” Mayorkas said. “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,” he continued. “And that may be one of the reasons why now people are seeing more drones than they did before, especially from dawn to dusk. And so that is the reality.”