Democrat senators from New York and New Jersey sent a letter to three federal agencies this week demanding answers and a hearing regarding the mystery drone activity over the East Coast.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., joined Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., expressing "urgent concern" over the unexplained sightings that the White House spent Thursday downplaying.
"We write with urgent concern regarding the unmanned aerial system (UAS) activity that has affected communities across New York and New Jersey in recent days," the Democrats said in a letter dated Wednesday to the FBI, the Federal Aviation Administration, and the Department of Homeland Security.
The lawmakers asked for a briefing "as soon as possible on how your agencies are working with federal and local law enforcement to identify and address the source of these incursions."
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said he would be receiving a classified briefing Thursday about the 180 sightings per night that have not been attributed to hobbyists or ones related to DHS, ABC News reported.
"I'm anxious to find out," Johnson said about the briefing without going into further details.
Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-N.J., told Newsmax on Thursday that he was "trying to light a fire" under federal authorities for answers when he went public with his claims that the drones flying over New Jersey were coming from an Iranian ship off the coast of the United States.
"Qualified, credible individuals with high security clearance basically were whistleblowers — they didn't want their names used, they didn't want to be ratted out, so they wanted it just to be secure — but came to me — because I am on the subcommittee for aviation, I'm vice chair of transportation … and said that they had real concerns that there was a possibility that there could be a ship," Van Drew said.
Meanwhile, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters that neither state and local law enforcement nor the FBI have "been able to corroborate any of the reported visual sightings."
"We haven't seen any indication thus far that there is a public safety risk," he told reporters at a White House briefing.
"We have no evidence at this time that these reported sightings pose a national security or public safety threat or have a foreign nexus," a White House National Security Council official told NBC News.
For its part, the FBI said it is "doing all we can [to] figure out what's going on," a spokesperson told ABC News.
Meanwhile, the Democrat senators asked for a reply no later than Dec. 23 in their letter.
"Protecting civilian infrastructure, safety, and privacy as well as military assets and personnel will require a comprehensive response from Congress and the executive branch," they wrote.
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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