WASHINGTON — US President-elect Donald J. Trump on Monday accused President Biden and the Pentagon of withholding information about large drones seen flying over New Jersey and New York.
“The government knows what’s going on,” Trump said after Biden’s representatives claimed ignorance even though thousands of Garden State and New York City residents saw, and in some cases photographed, the aircraft.
“Look, our military knows where they took off from: if it’s a garage, they can go right into that garage. “They know where it came from and where it went, and for some reason they don’t want to comment,” the future president said during a wide-ranging 70-minute news conference in Palm Beach, Florida.
“And I think it would be better if they said what it is. Our military knows it and our President knows it. And for some reason, they want to keep people in suspense,” according to a New York Post report.
But Trump declined to answer whether he had personally received intelligence about the drones, which has stoked fear and substantial speculation.
“I don’t want to comment on that,” he told a reporter.
“I can’t imagine it’s the enemy,” the future commander-in-chief continued at another point. “Because if it was the enemy, they would destroy it, even if they were late, they would destroy it.” But he added that “something strange is happening.”
He added, in an apparent joke, that he was canceling his weekend plans to travel to his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey.
“They are very close to Bedminster. I think maybe I won’t spend the weekend in Bedminster. “I have decided to cancel my trip,” he said.
Last week, White House spokesman John Kirby said federal officials “have not been able, nor have state and local law enforcement authorities, to corroborate any of the reported visual sightings.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), by contrast, called for transparency and said the public had a right to know.
“New Yorkers have a lot of questions about (drones). “We are going to get the answers,” he said on Sunday.
Biden’s reaction
The White House insisted this Monday that the drones spotted in the northeastern United States that have sparked panic among the population are flying legally, after President-elect Donald Trump suggested that the government is hiding information.
Trump claimed that the government “knows what’s happening” about the wave of sightings over New Jersey and New York.
Senior US officials have ruled out foreign involvement, including wild claims that the drones came from an Iranian or Chinese “mothership” on the high seas.
Videos of mysterious aerial phenomena have recently invaded social media, with sightings also reported in Maryland and Virginia.
On Sunday, US Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas denied there was a security threat.
Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer called on Sunday for measures to make it easier for US authorities to “shoot down” any unmanned craft that poses a threat.
