For reasons that were never altogether clear to me, there was a dramatic bruhaha in New Jersey and neighboring states last month related to drones. Evidently, for a couple of weeks, local residents saw the drones’ lights, grew concerned, contacted their elected officials, and a controversy soon followed.
On Jan. 9, shortly before his presidential inauguration, Donald Trump did what he usually does: He touted a conspiratorial vision. “I’m going to give you a report on drones about one day into the administration,” the Republican told reporters. “Because I think it’s ridiculous that they’re not telling you about what’s going on with the drones.”
The Biden White House tried to explain to the public that there was no cause for concern, and the fears were unfounded, but Trump was apparently unconvinced.
The Republican predictably failed to keep his promise about delivering a report on the first day of his second term, but as NBC News reported, his administration did look into the matter and eventually got around to sharing its conclusions.
The mysterious drones that caused alarm among many New Jersey residents last year were in large part authorized by the Federal Aviation Administration, the White House said Tuesday. The large number of unexplained nighttime drone sightings in New Jersey and other East Coast states created a panic which at one point shut down an airport.
“This was not the enemy,” Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary told reporters, reading a statement she said came from the president.
“The drones that were flying over New Jersey in large numbers were authorized to be flown by the FAA for research and various other reasons,” she added. “Many of these drones were also hobbyists, recreational and private individuals that enjoy flying drones. In time, it got worse due to curiosity.”
Or put another way, when Trump said that it was “ridiculous” that “they” were hiding the truth, his accusations were baseless.
But before the political world moves on, it’s worth pausing to note that the Republican president was hardly the only irresponsible voice. Media Matters, for example, recently noted that assorted far-right media figures who promoted bizarre ideas related to last month’s drone sightings, including comments about space aliens. And then, of course, there was Republican Rep. Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey, who thought it’d be a good idea to tell the public that the drones might have been “linked to a missing Iranian mothership,” creating “a national security crisis.” When officials at the Department of Defense said that Van Drew was wrong, the GOP congressman accused the Pentagon of hiding the truth. Now that the White House has acknowledged the truth, Trump’s comments look bad, but Van Drew’s comments look vastly worse.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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