Kirby Releases New Statement Clarifying What White House Knows About ‘Suspicious’ Drone Activity

WASHINGTON, DC - DECEMBER 12: White House National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby speaks during a news conference in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on December 12, 2024 in Washington, DC. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and Kirby discussed U.S. President Joe Biden's decision to commute the sentences of almost 1,500 offenders and pardon 39 people convicted of nonviolent crimes, mysterious drone sightings in New Jersey and other areas along the East Coast, the status of Travis Timmerman and Austin Tice, and other topics. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, DC – DECEMBER: White House National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby speaks during a news conference in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

OAN Staff Brooke Mallory
3:58 PM – Monday, December 16, 2024

The White House finally released its most comprehensive response to date on Monday regarding the slew of drone sightings that have been reported around New Jersey, New York, and the Northeast in recent weeks.

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Americans had been especially questioning last week why no U.S. federal agency has provided any sort of insight or detailed explanation on the drones. Although drone ownership and operation are fairly common, it has never been this widespread and common as of late, to the point where these frequent sightings are now raising concerns for some.

“Something strange is going on. For some reason, they don’t want to tell the people,” Donald Trump previously said, in relation to the recent drone phenomenon. 

Meanwhile, National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby and White House officials finally gave their own consensus on Monday. 

“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 even stars that were mistakenly reported as drones,” Kirby told reporters on Monday. 

“There are more than 1 million drones that are lawfully registered with the Federal Aviation Administration here in the United States,” Kirby continued. “And there are thousands of commercial, hobbyist and law enforcement drones that are lawfully in the sky on any given day. That is the ecosystem that we are dealing with.”

“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. “The work continues.”

Since roughly a month ago, reports of drone sightings in New Jersey, New York, and other parts of the Northeast have left federal and local officials perplexed.

Although Kirby’s Monday statement seemed to provide the most insight into the matter, even if it’s “not much” information, as social media users are arguing, it also made it apparent that authorities are still investigating the matter and that other information regarding the crafts may become available in the weeks ahead.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the FBI released a joint statement last week claiming that there was no indication “at this time that the reported drone sightings pose a national security or public safety threat or have a foreign nexus.”

“However, while there is no known malicious activity occurring in New Jersey, the reported sightings there do…highlight the insufficiency of current authorities,” they continued.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

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