The White House on Monday said the drones that have been spotted in the Northeast are not a national security or public safety risk, just after President-elect Trump questioned why officials have not been more forthcoming about the situation.
“Having closely examined the data, having looked at the tips and collating them as best we can from concerned citizens, we assess that the sightings to date include a combination of lawful commercial drones, hobbyist drones and law enforcement drones, as well as fixed wing aircraft, helicopters and even stars that were mistakenly reported as drones” national security communications adviser John Kirby told reporters.
“We have not identified anything anomalous or any national security or public safety risk over the civilian airspace in New Jersey or other states in the Northeast,” he added.
Kirby said that the FBI has received tips of about 5,000 reported drone sightings in the last few weeks and that the agency felt they needed to follow up on about 100. He said that the work continues to identify the drones and that officials "obviously recognize" the concern over them.
In the wake of the flurry of drone sightings in New Jersey, Trump earlier on Monday said the Biden administration knows what is happening but suggested the drones were not the work of a hostile adversary.
“The government knows what is happening. Look, our military knows where they took off from, if it’s a garage they can go right into that garage,” Trump told reporters at Mar-a-Lago.
When asked about Trump's remarks, Kirby responded, "I would say that we are making a very good faith effort to be as open and direct with all of you and with the American people as we can, and that will continue."
“Now, what we’re not going to do is speculate, and we’re not going to hypothesize. We’re not going to … provide content that we can't be sure is accurate,” Kirby said
“So that’s why I’m coming out here on 4:30 on a Monday to let you know what we’ve learned,” he said, calling on reporters to remind Americans that there are more than 1 million legal drones in the country.
Kirby stressed that “there are lots of drones in the sky” and the “vast majority of them are doing good things.”
Trump also told reporters earlier Monday that he won't spend the weekend at his home in New Jersey because the drone sightings have been "very close to Bedminster." Kirby noted that the president-elect's home has already been designated a restricted air space, and it is unlawful to fly in that space.
Last week, Kirby said there was no evidence of a national security or public safety threat after reports of drone sightings, and he noted that the FBI, Department of Homeland Security and the Coast Guard are working with local officials and using numerous detection methods to understand the origins of the sightings.
The Pentagon also doubled down on Monday in a press conference that there is “no evidence at this time that the reported drone sightings pose a national security or public safety threat or have a foreign nexus.”
