'Nothing nefarious': Biden tries to squelch drone brouhaha

President Joe Biden made his first public comments on Tuesday about the large number of drones or other aerial objects spotted recently in the Northeast, saying there was nothing to be alarmed about the increased reports of unmanned aircraft sightings.

“Nothing nefarious, apparently,” the outgoing president told reporters at the White House. “We’re following it closely, but, so far, no sense of danger.” 

Biden’s remarks were the latest effort from his administration to reassure the public about the apparent drone sighting in the tristate area of New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut. On Monday, John Kirby, the White House national security communications adviser said, too, that the drones were not a national security or public safety risk.

But as lawmakers across the political spectrum press the federal government for more answers, conspiracy theories have run amok. 

On Monday, Pennsylvania state Sen. Doug Mastriano, a longtime Trump ally, shared a post to social media that included a screenshot of a large-looking metal object sitting on a trailer in the back of a car. Above the photo was the caption, “Breaking News: Crashed drone in Orange Beach retrieved from water, and taken to undisclosed location for further investigation.”

“It is inconceivable that the federal government has no answers nor has taken any action to get to the bottom of the unidentified drones,” Mastriano posted. “Such should be viewed as a threat to our nation and citizens and action is long overdue.” 

There was just one problem with his post, though: The object in the photo was not a drone. In reality, it was a prop spaceship from the “Star Wars” film franchise.

Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina, also said on a recent podcast appearance that the mysterious drones may be “a craft from outer space.”

“I think that has to be on the table,” she said. “It has to be an option.”

With these comments, Mace and Mastriano join fellow Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene in promoting so far baseless conspiracy theories about the drones. On Saturday, the onetime 9/11 denier suggested that the federal government summoned the drones to descend upon the states.

“The government is in control of the drones and refuses to tell the American people what is going on,” she wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “It really is that bad.” 

Of course, the panic over the apparent drone sightings isn’t just happening on the far right. Last week, former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan boldly claimed that he “personally witnessed” what he thought were drones flying above his Maryland residence. The former elected official’s post included a nearly two-minute video of the night sky, in which a few small lights are visible. 

“The public is growing increasingly concerned and frustrated with the complete lack of transparency and the dismissive attitude of the federal government,” Hogan said. (A meteorologist replied to Hogan’s tweet with an important fact-check, noting that the lights he saw looked a lot like Orion’s Belt.)

Democrats have expressed concern over the mysterious sightings as well. This past weekend, on Saturday, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced that drone activity forced an upstate airport to shut down for an hour the night prior. She also demanded that the Biden administration “step in” to provide additional information to New York authorities.

“This has gone too far,” Hochul said in a statement where she called on Congress to legislate against unmanned drones and aircraft systems.

While the panic has been bipartisan, President-elect Donald Trump has fed into the unrest. He said at a press conference on Monday that “something strange is going on,” and insisted that government officials “don’t want to tell people” what’s happening. 

“I think they’d be better off saying what it is,” Trump said. “Our military knows and our president knows, and for some reason, they want to keep people in suspense.”

Accounts and videos of apparent drone sightings began to emerge in November when some New Jersey residents claimed that they saw an unidentified aircraft flying through the night. Since then, similar objects have been spotted across New Jersey and some other states along the Northeast coast.

Despite the denial, some experts have postulated that the military could somehow be involved. The Pentagon has rebutted this theory, though, and said that the possible drones are not U.S. military assets. 

But this isn’t the first time a drone-related mystery has captured the public imagination. In late 2019 and early 2020, Colorado, Kansas, and Nebraska residents alleged that they saw unidentified aircrafts overhead. The fears over these sightings slowed down right before the COVID-19 pandemic when Americans suddenly had an actual public emergency to worry about.

Even if this is all false and the drones are just airplanes, the seeming rise of conspiratorial thinking is interesting because it’s a hallmark of Trump’s MAGA movement. With him readying for his second term in the White House, he’ll likely help feed a new class of grifters to prey on Americans’ fears.