CV NEWS FEED // President Donald Trump confirmed Tuesday that the mysterious drones that hovered mostly over the state of New Jersey during the final months of last year belonged to the federal government and were authorized by Biden administration officials.
“I do have news directly from the president of the United States that was just shared with me in the Oval Office from President Trump directly,” said White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt at the start of the Trump administration’s first press conference. “An update on the New Jersey drones.”
“After research and study, the drones that were flying over New Jersey in large numbers were authorized to be flown by the FAA [Federal Aviation Administration] for research and various other reasons,” Leavitt said, reading what she later called “a statement from the president of the United States.”
“Many of these drones were also hobbyists, recreational and private individuals that enjoy flying drones,” the statement concluded. “In time it got worse due to curiosity.”
The revelation comes after Biden officials denied any knowledge of the drones despite mounting public fears and numerous calls for increased transparency from elected officials.
As Reuters reported Dec. 13, “U.S. senators representing New Jersey and New York sent a letter to the heads of the FBI, DHS and the Federal Aviation Administration, demanding a briefing on how the agencies are working to identify and address the sightings.”
The letter from “senators Kirsten Gillibrand, Chuck Schumer, Cory Booker and Andy Kim expressed ‘urgent concern’ about the reported sightings,” the Reuters report added.
CatholicVote reported the same day that Biden National Security Advisor John Kirby had told an interviewer “the government ‘does not know’ what the flying objects are, adding ‘I wish I could tell you why we don’t know what we don’t know.’”
“Asked why the administration can’t shoot one down to examine it and ascertain its origin, Kirby said ‘We just don’t know enough to take those kinds of actions,’” CatholicVote reported. “President Joe Biden, Kirby said, has ‘tasked’ officials with being ‘energetic’ in investigating the drones.”
Rep. Chris Smith, R-NJ, reported hearing from a commander in the Coast Guard that “at least a dozen” of the drones had “closely trailed” a military ship one evening. Smith said that Coast Guard personnel had described the drones to him as “about the size of a car.”
Then-candidate Trump himself publicly suggested the Biden administration knew the origin of the drones and called on President Joe Biden to tell the American people.
“Our government knows what is happening,” Trump told reporters Dec. 16. “And for some reason they don’t want to comment. And I think they’d be better off saying what it is. Our military knows and our president knows. And for some reason they wanna keep people in suspense. Something strange is going on. For some reason they don’t wanna tell the people, and they should….”