New York Gov. Kathy Hochul criticized the Biden administration’s clumsy response to the crisis sweeping the East Coast, telling the White House that the bizarre episode “has gone too far.”
The Democrat spoke out after drones forced Stewart Airfield to close its airspace for more than an hour Friday, issuing a statement saying the feds “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, FAA and Homeland Security requesting clarity on the situation.
The letter insisted on an urgent briefing as lawmakers, all Democrats, called on Biden to step up his handling of the situation and reveal the mysterious source of the drones.
They noted that “since late November, communities in the New York City area and northern New Jersey have reported several incidents of unattributable nighttime drone sightings, alarming both residents and local authorities.”
“The potential security risks posed by these drones in civilian areas are especially pertinent considering recent drone incursions into sensitive military sites inside and outside the continental United States over the past year,” the letter said.
The Biden administration has maintained that drones do not pose a public safety risk and do not pose a threat to the nation’s security.
But many officials and members of the public were not satisfied with that response, and it is still unclear where the drones came from or what they are doing in the skies over the East Coast.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul criticized the Biden administration’s clumsy response to the crisis sweeping the East Coast, telling the White House that the bizarre episode “has gone too far.”
The Democrat spoke out after drones forced Stewart Airfield (pictured) to close its airspace for more than an hour on Friday, issuing a statement saying the feds “must intervene.”
More than 3,000 reports of drones have been seen on the East Coast in recent weeks, and officials admit they are unsure of their source. Pictured: Approximately 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 some of the clearest videos yet will be released this week in Somerset County, New Jersey.
The video shows three ‘mysterious drones in the air’ as two move very close as if they were interacting with each other and the third hovered for ‘about 15 minutes’.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said Monday night that drones are “very sophisticated and explained, ‘The minute we see them (the drones), they shut down.'”
“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 US Department of Homeland Security in hopes of getting answers.
This call for urgent responses was echoed in Hochul’s statement following the airport closure, as he said he still knows nothing 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 authorities to address this issue, and those efforts are ongoing,” he said.
‘But to allow state authorities to work on this issue, I now ask Congress to pass the Counter-UAS Authority Safety, Security, and Reauthorization Act.
“This bill would reform legal authorities to counter UAS and strengthen FAA oversight of drones, and expand counter-UAS activities to select state and local law enforcement agencies.”
New Jersey Senator Andy Kim shared his own disturbing account of drones after going out at night with local police to observe the phenomenon.
A wave of images of the drones have emerged since they were first spotted last month.
The latest images from New Jersey have only added more questions to the strange wave of UFOs, showing three ‘mysterious drones in the air’.
Observers have been left baffled by the inexplicable drones, and even Washington heavyweights say they are searching for answers.
New Jersey Senator Andy Kim took to X to share his own account of drones after going out at night with local police to observe UFOs.
‘We drove to Round Valley Reservoir and the officer pointed out the lights moving low above the tree line. “Sometimes they were solid white light, other times they flashed red and green,” Kim wrote in a thread with multiple videos of the drones.
Although some have claimed that the drones are probably just planes and helicopters, Kim dismissed this theory because he said his group used a flight tracker to observe where the tracked planes were.
“We would often see 5-7 lights at a time that were low and not associated with aircraft we could see on the tracking app,” he continued. “Some floated while others moved across the horizon.”
Kim said police told him they had seen the drones every night and that they only seemed to emerge after dark and disappear before dawn.
Fury on Capitol Hill reached a fever pitch after White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby insisted the public had nothing to fear, but admitted officials were still struggling to corroborate some of the reports.
The FBI has received more than 3,000 tips since the first sighting on Nov. 18, and reports of varying levels of credibility have emerged in at least 12 New Jersey counties, as well as eastern Pennsylvania and Orange County, New York. .
Amid the uncertainty, the president-elect asked for answers from the US government while criticizing the Biden administration and urging 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 made by Kirby and suggested that some of the reports could be cases of mistaken identity involving manned aircraft.