Drone scandal explodes as airport is shut and New Jersey senator shares eerie new details: ‘It’s gone too far’
New York Governor Kathy Hochul denounced the Biden administration’s bumbling response to the consummated crisis engulfing the East Coast, telling the White House that the bizarre episode has “gone too far.”
The Democrat spoke out after the drones forced Stewart Airfield to close its airspace for more than an hour on Friday, releasing a statement saying the FBI “must intervene.”
Hochul’s call comes after New York Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Chuck Schumer and New Jersey Senators Cory Booker and Andy Kim sent a letter to the FBI, the FAA and Homeland Security asking for clarity on the situation.
The letter urged an urgent briefing as lawmakers, all Democrats, called on Biden to address the situation and reveal the mysterious source of the drones.
They noted that “communities in the New York City area and northern New Jersey have reported several incidents of unattributable drone sightings at night since late November, alarming both residents and local law enforcement.”
“The potential safety and security risks posed by these drones in civilian areas are especially relevant given recent drone incursions on sensitive military sites in and outside the continental United States over the past year,” the letter said.
The Biden administration has maintained that the drones do not pose a threat to public safety and do not pose a threat to the security of the country.
But many officials and members of the public are unhappy with that response, as it is still unclear where the drones came from or what they are doing in the East Coast skies.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul denounced the Biden administration’s bumbling response to the consummated crisis engulfing the East Coast, telling the White House that the bizarre episode has ‘gone too far’
The Democrat spoke out after the drones forced Stewart Airfield (pictured) to close its airspace for more than an hour on Friday, releasing a statement saying the FBI “must intervene.”
More than 3,000 reports of drones have been spotted on the East Coast in recent weeks, with officials admitting they are unsure of their origins. Pictured: About nine of the drones flying from the Atlantic Ocean on December 5
A wave of footage of the drones has emerged since they were first spotted last month, and this week some of the clearest video footage yet comes in Somerset County, New Jersey.
The video shows three ‘mysterious drones in the sky’, two of which move extremely close as if interacting with each other, while the third hovered for ‘approximately 15 minutes’.
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy said Monday evening that the drones are “very advanced,” explaining: “As soon as we spot them [the drones]they become dark.”
“I don’t blame people for being frustrated,” Governor Murphy continued, adding that he had spent most of Sunday coordinating on the issue with both the White House and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, hoping to get answers to get.
This call for urgent answers was echoed in Hochul’s statement after the airport closure, as she said she was still in the dark despite asking for clarity a month ago.
“In mid-November, I directed the New York State Intelligence Center to actively investigate drone sightings and coordinate with federal law enforcement to address this issue, and those efforts are ongoing,” she said.
“But to enable state law enforcement to work on this issue, I am now calling on Congress to pass the Counter-UAS Authority Security, Safety, and Reauthorization Act.
“This bill would reform legal authorities to counter UAS and strengthen FAA oversight of drones, and would expand counter-UAS activities to select state and local law enforcement agencies.”
Senator Andy Kim of New Jersey shared his own eerie account of the drones after going out at night with local police to observe the phenomenon
A wave of footage of the drones has emerged since they were first spotted last month
The latest footage from New Jersey has only added more questions to the bizarre UFO wave, showing three ‘mysterious drones in the sky’
Observers are scratching their heads over the unexplained drones, with even Washington heavyweights saying they are looking for answers
Senator Andy Kim of New Jersey went to X to share his own story about the drones after going out at night with local police to observe the UFOs.
“We were driving to Round Valley Reservoir and the officer pointed to lights moving low over the tree line. Sometimes they were solid white light, others flashed red and green,” Kim wrote in a thread with multiple videos of the drones.
While some say the drones are likely just planes and helicopters, Kim dismissed this theory, saying his group used a flight tracker to note where the tracked aircraft was.
“We often saw about five to seven lights at a time that were low and not associated with any aircraft that we could see on the tracker app,” he continued. “Some floated while others moved along the horizon.”
Kim said police told him they saw the drones every evening, and that they only seemed to emerge after dark and were gone before dawn.
Anger on Capitol Hill reached a fever pitch after John Kirby, the White House National Security Communications Advisor, insisted the public had nothing to fear but admitted officials were still struggling to confirm some reports.
The FBI has received more than 3,000 tips since the first sighting on November 18, with reports of varying levels of credibility surfacing in at least twelve New Jersey counties, as well as eastern Pennsylvania and Orange County, New York.
Amid the uncertainty, the president-elect called for answers from the US government as he criticized the Biden administration and urged them to shoot down the UFOs.
But this was rejected by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who said the government does not have the authority to neutralize the drones.
Mayorkas echoed previous comments from Kirby, suggesting that some of the reports could be cases of mistaken identity involving manned aircraft.