A mayor in New Jersey recently slammed White House national security spokesperson John Kirby for seemingly brushing off potential threats from unidentified drones that have been spotted more frequently over the Garden State, calling it “ridiculous.”
“I have to tell you, that’s incredulous. I’m incredulous about that. That is ridiculous,” Sam Morris, the mayor of Mine Hill township — less than an hour outside of Newark — said in an interview with ABC News, referring to Kirby’s comments at Thursday’s White House briefing when he said the sightings do not pose a national security threat.
“I would invite Mr. Kirby to Mine Hill. ‘Come on out, Mr. Kirby, and let’s go on out one night about 9:3-10 o’clock. I’ll go out behind my town hall. And you can count them with me all night,’” he added.
Kirby also told reporters that the drones are “manned aircraft” that are “being operated lawfully.”
“You look up in the sky and you see them, and some of them are just hovering and sitting,” Morris said on Thursday. “Sorry, that’s not a man’s small airplane. It’s not a Cessna.”
The increase in drone sightings over New Jersey and New York has concerned lawmakers on Capitol Hill. On Thursday, a group of senators New Jersey and New York sent a letter to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the FBI, demanding a briefing on the drones hovering over the skies at night.
Morris said that Kirby’s comments indicate the federal government does not have the necessary information about the drone sightings and that his remarks are an insult to people in New Jersey “who are living through this.”
“When he says we don’t have information, that these are credible threats or various things, it’s because we have no information,” Morris said. “So if you have no information, you certainly can say whatever you want about what’s being presented to you that that’s really insulting to all the people here who are living through this.”
The matter is being investigated by the FBI.
The Department of Defense said there’s “no evidence” that the unidentified drones are a result of a foreign entity or “the work of an adversary,” according to Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh.
Despite the federal response, local lawmakers and a county sheriff have expressed frustration, even calling for a state of emergency to be declared.
