WASHINGTON — White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday that the drones that spooked New Jersey residents last month were “not the enemy” — reading aloud President Trump’s assessment that many were doing “research,” generating new questions.
“After research and study, the drones that were flying over New Jersey in large numbers were authorized to be flown by the FAA for research and various other reasons,” Leavitt said, reading Trump’s dictation at her first briefing.
“Many of these drones were also hobbyists, recreational and private individuals that enjoy flying drones. In time, it got worse due to curiosity. This was not the enemy.”
The explanation did not clarify what research was being performed — in many cases near military bases — or detail what “other reasons” were at play.
Some leading politicians have been skeptical of the official explanation that the drones were innocent.
Then-House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Mike McCaul (R-Texas) said last month that he believed many of the aircraft were “spy drones” from China.
“My judgment based on my experience is that those that are over our military sites are adversarial and most likely are coming from the People’s Republic of China,” McCaul said at the time.
“We’re not getting answers and I think it’s because our government does not know who is behind them and that is very disturbing to me.”
The drones, which also were spotted over New York City and in other parts of the country, stoked near-hysteria, but federal agencies insisted there was no cause for concern.
The FBI, FAA, Pentagon and Department of Homeland Security said in a joint statement that “we assess that the sightings to date include a combination of lawful commercial drones, hobbyist drones, and law enforcement drones, as well as manned fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and stars mistakenly reported as drones.”
Trump accused outgoing President Biden and his aides of a coverup, saying last month that “our military knows where they took off from — if it’s a garage, they can go right into that garage. They know where it came from and where it went, and for some reason they don’t want to comment.”
At the time, the then-president-elect also said: “I can’t imagine it’s the enemy, because if it was the enemy, they’d blast it.”
