CV NEWS FEED // After weeks of mounting alarm over the presence of mysterious drone-like flying objects over the state of New Jersey, Rep. Chris Smith, R-NJ, will hold a press conference Saturday to address the matter.
In a recent interview with Fox News about what he called the potential “threat,” Smith said he had spoken with several local military and law-enforcement leaders, including a commander in the Coast Guard, who told him that “one of their 47-foot vessels, boats, was very closely trailed by at least a dozen of these drones” one evening earlier this month.
“Now that, to me, is very not just suspicious,” Smith said, but “provocative. And this could be a foreign power, whether it be Putin, whether it be Xi Jinping in China, or the Middle East, we can’t rule any of that out.”
Smith added that Coast Guard personnel had told him the drones were “about the size of a car.”
The Department of Defense, under the command of the outgoing Biden administration, has the authority to shoot down one of the drones and ascertain where it comes from, Smith argued, but has so far refused to do so. “How dare they” allow citizens to live in the dark about the phenomenon, Smith exclaimed.
According to Smith, local police recently tracked 50 drones “coming from the ocean onto land.”
“I mean this is really serious stuff,” Smith told Fox. Asked whether it could be a hoax, Smith said there is “absolutely no way” it is a hoax, arguing instead that “foreign powers” are behind it.
“Dozens of drone sightings have been reported over New Jersey since 18 November, according to local authorities,” the BBC reported Friday. “Some of the flights were spotted near Picatinny Arsenal – a sensitive military research facility – as well as near President-elect Donald Trump’s golf course in the town of Bedminster, New Jersey.”
Former Republican Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland posted on X (formerly Twitter) Friday that he had witnessed suspicious drone activity outside of his home not far from Washington, DC.
“Last night, beginning at around 9:45 pm, I personally witnessed (and videoed) what appeared to be dozens of large drones in the sky above my residence in Davidsonville, Maryland (25 miles from our nation’s capital),” Hogan reported.
“Like many who have observed these drones, I do not know if this increasing activity over our skies is a threat to public safety or national security,” he added. “But the public is growing increasingly concerned and frustrated with the complete lack of transparency and the dismissive attitude of the federal government.”
Like Smith, Hogan called on the Biden administration to investigate and report to the public about the drones. “I join with the growing bipartisan chorus of leaders demanding that the federal government immediately address this issue,” he wrote. “The American people deserve answers and action now.”
Smith on Friday issued a statement announcing he will hold a press conference on the matter Saturday.
“The Biden Administration continues to be dismissive of New Jersey residents who have witnessed these drones in swarms, including coming from the ocean, following a Coast Guard lifeboat, and flying over extremely sensitive military bases like Naval Weapons Station Earle in my congressional district,” Smith stated in part:
The Biden Administration has an obligation to the American people to figure out and tell us what is going on immediately. Their lack of decisive action and empty reassurances will only cause increased speculation and continue to escalate the valid concerns that so many people have.
Tomorrow, I will be holding a press conference in Seaside Heights, New Jersey with local law enforcement officers, mayors, and state representatives to share updates with the public and lay out our next steps in Congress to demand answers and further address this issue.”