White House Hasn’t Ruled Out Nearly 100 Drone Sighting Tips
December 17, 2024
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What’s New
The White House said it still hasn’t been able to “rule out” about 100 tips related to a series of drone sightings across the Northeast.
Why It Matters
John Kirby, spokesperson for the U.S. National Security Council, said Monday evening that the government at the moment determined the sightings to “include a combination of lawful commercial drones, hobbyist drones and law enforcement drones, as well as manned fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters and even stars that were mistakenly reported as drones.”
It was the most detailed assessment the government has offered about the mystery drone sightings, which were first reported in New Jersey. But Kirby said later in the day that the FBI needs more time to analyze the sightings.
White House National Security spokesman John Kirby speaks during the daily briefing at the White House in Washington, D.C., on December 12. He said the FBI still has to sift through about 100 tips related… White House National Security spokesman John Kirby speaks during the daily briefing at the White House in Washington, D.C., on December 12. He said the FBI still has to sift through about 100 tips related to drone sightings in the
Susan Walsh/AP
What To Know
Kirby told CNN on Monday evening that the FBI is still working to “triangulate” roughly 100 tips on the sightings.
“So when former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said today that he believes ‘our federal government is still struggling to figure this out,’ at this point you don’t think that’s true any longer?” CNN’s John Berman asked Kirby. “You have, for lack of better words, figured it out?”
“I wouldn’t go so far as to say that,” Kirby responded. “I would say that to date, of all the leads and the analysis we’ve done, we believe that these are commercial lawful drones or law enforcement drones, hobbyist drones.”
“What haven’t you figured out yet?” Berman pressed.
Kirby said that “of the 5,000 or so tips and sightings that the FBI has looked at, they’ve really narrowed it down to about 100 that they still have to kind of check out, that we haven’t been able to rule out.”
After Kirby updated reporters about the government’s assessment on Monday, the FBI and New Jersey State Police released a statement warning the public against pointing lasers at manned aircraft or shooting down suspected unmanned aircraft systems (UAS).
“FBI Newark and New Jersey State Police want to warn the public about an increase in pilots of manned aircraft being hit in the eyes with lasers because people on the ground think they see [a] UAS,” the statement said. “There is also a concern with people possibly firing weapons at what they believe to be a UAS but could be a manned aircraft.”
The statement added that “there could be dangerous and possibly deadly consequences if manned aircraft are targeted mistakenly as UAS.”
President-elect Donald Trump has publicly weighed in on the drone sightings, suggesting that the government knows where they’re coming from and is withholding information from the public.
On Monday, he said he canceled a trip to his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, after a drone sighting was reported in the area.
The FBI and Department of Homeland Security said in a joint statement released last week: “We have no evidence at this time that the reported drone sightings pose a national security or public safety threat or have a foreign nexus.”
But they added, “while there is no known malicious activity occurring in New Jersey, the reported sightings there do … highlight the insufficiency of current authorities.”
What People Are Saying
At Mar-a-Lago, Trump told reporters: “I think they’d be better off saying what it is. Our military knows, and our president knows, and for some reason, they want to keep people in suspense.”
On ABC’s This Week, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said, “There’s no question that people are seeing drones. And I want to assure the 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.”
What Comes Next
The White House will likely continue facing pressure from lawmakers and the public. Reports of the drones surfaced last month when New Jersey residents said they spotted the aircraft overhead.
In the weeks since, drone sightings have been reported in Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania, California and Florida.
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