White House Says New Jersey Drones 'Authorized To Be Flown By FAA' (theguardian.com) 73
During the first press briefing of Donald Trump's second administration, White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said the mysterious drones spotted flying around New Jersey at the end of last year were "authorized to be flown by the FAA."
"After research and study, 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 said, adding that "many of these drones were also hobbyists, recreational and private individuals that enjoy flying drones." Leavitt added: "In time, it got worse due to curiosity. This was not the enemy."
The drone sightings prompted local and federal officials to urge Congress to pass drone-defense legislation. The FAA issued a monthslong ban on drone flights over a large swatch of New Jersey while authorities invested the sightings. The Biden administration insisted that the drones were "nothing nefarious" and that there was "no sense of danger."
"After research and study, 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 said, adding that "many of these drones were also hobbyists, recreational and private individuals that enjoy flying drones." Leavitt added: "In time, it got worse due to curiosity. This was not the enemy."
The drone sightings prompted local and federal officials to urge Congress to pass drone-defense legislation. The FAA issued a monthslong ban on drone flights over a large swatch of New Jersey while authorities invested the sightings. The Biden administration insisted that the drones were "nothing nefarious" and that there was "no sense of danger."
let the gaslighting begin (Score:3, Informative)
Re:let the gaslighting begin (Score:4, Informative)
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All they've proven is that the Republicans are gaslighters who can't be trusted.
They didn't need this to show Republicans can't be trusted unless someone just woke up from a ten year coma.
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All they've proven is that the Republicans are gaslighters who can't be trusted.
They didn't need this to show Republicans can't be trusted unless someone just woke up from a ten year coma.
You are being exceedingly generous with your timeframe.
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Not sure why this is being modded down - where I am, every Republican "representative" was fearmongering this, screaming about how "BIDEN IS HIDING SOMETHING," and worse. All they've proven is that the Republicans are gaslighters who can't be trusted.
Your comment is odd. Wasn't the Biden administration hiding something? Everything could have been cleared up if they said we were testing some drones.
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Thank you for being an example of the typical lying Republican, and showing us how those dishonest sons of klan bitches try to gaslight everyone.
In a Dec. 16 statement, four federal agencies, including the F.A.A. and F.B.I., said that an investigation into the reports had “not identified anything anomalous,” and that the sightings were a mix of legally-flown drones, airplanes, helicopters and stars. - https://www.nytimes.com/2025/0... [nytimes.com]
Re: let the gaslighting begin (Score:3)
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Your comment is odd. Wasn't the Biden administration hiding something? Everything could have been cleared up if they said we were testing some drones.
You mean, like, quoting from TFA:
The Biden administration insisted that the drones were "nothing nefarious" and that there was "no sense of danger."
Of course when they said that it pretty much guaranteed all the Repbublicans thought it was aliens or Iran or George Soros or whatever crazy was trending at the time.
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Don't blame the GOP for Biden's f-k-up.
Re:let the gaslighting begin (Score:4, Informative)
https://yro.slashdot.org/comme... [slashdot.org]
In a Dec. 16 statement, four federal agencies, including the F.A.A. and F.B.I., said that an investigation into the reports had “not identified anything anomalous,” and that the sightings were a mix of legally-flown drones, airplanes, helicopters and stars. -
What more do you need them to say?
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No, because they're republicans, and most commentors on slashdot are bots that are programmed to further subvert the minds of otherwise normal people, so the result is that anything that favors republican politics, will be modded down, and things that promote subversion will be modded up.
Re:let the gaslighting begin (Score:4, Insightful)
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If the FAA knew what the drones were and had approved their flight but wouldn't tell anyone despite demands for answers from Congress, the press, and the People, then yes. They were hiding something. By definition. And who ran that administration? Biden.
So, Biden's FAA was hiding something, but the GOP was the problem?
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Archiebunker, I believe everything your leftist corporate media says, such as Hunter's laptop being Russian disinformation, Hunter not being guilty of anything, Joe won't pardon Hunter, Joe won't pardon his family, Joe only pardoned non violent low level drug offenders, Kamala is smart and ran a great campaign, and 51 former intelligence officials would never lie, and the biggest lie of all that Joe isn't senile - he's sharp as a tack. He easily won the debate, right? And that's just the dumb shit you gul
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We could go all the way back to the Hilary Russian collusion hoax
So much of what you said was absolute nonsense, but I'm going to focus on this one, because this one will prove how much you have been led to believe lies.
Yes or no: Did Donald Trump's son, son-in-law, and campaign chairman accept and attend a secret meeting in Trump's own home with a "Russian government official" in June of 2016 for the expressed intent of the Russian government providing assistance to the Trump campaign?
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And all the gullible Republicans [slashdot.org] who believed them...
The gullible Democratic administration in charge had months to offer up the same “enemy” drone clarification that took Republicans mere days, in order to actually validate your politicized point. They fucking didn’t.
Were they just as gullible, far more stupid, or as corrupt as they’re proving to be? Which is it?
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They fucking didn’t.
Of course, in reality, they actually did. For some reason, the right-wing types only believe it when it comes from Republicans and non only disbelieve it, but forget it or don't ever know that it even happened when Democrats do it. It may have something to do with all the censorship in the right wing info sphere where everything that does not stir outrage at the Democrats is hidden. Fox news was, after all, originally conceived as "Republican TV" during the Nixon administration by Roger Ailes and, even with
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Yep, my republican friends simply stated that the Biden administration was lying because they couldn't stand up to other countries doing what they want in our boarders. When you are only concerned with being right the other side must be lying.
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What about all the people claiming that they weren't drones and people were just too hysterical and retarded to know what a plane is and isn't?
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Shhh tow the line, make fun of Republicans.
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NJ is a Blue state
Re: let the gaslighting begin (Score:2)
Some of them were definitely not drones, as some of the reports were positively identified as normal air traffic.
That never meant none of them were drones.
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We call those people morons.
Or possibly trying to pander to their moron constituents.
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"Shut up moron."
Re:let the gaslighting begin (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, you see, under weak Biden, the drones were stealth Iranian spies, but Trump's sheer awesomeness just turned them into FAA-authorized innocent civilian drones. Poof!
Re: let the gaslighting begin (Score:1)
No, under "non compos mentis" doddering puppet admitted crime-family leader Biden, there was NO information. Government is busy and you don't need to know.
That's why the stupid theories flourished.
I mean, this same administration basically just shrugged as a Chinese "weather" balloon floated across our airspace until they were unable to deny it, then used a multi-million dollar air to air missile to down it then "shrug!" couldn't manage to recover the bits.
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In a Dec. 16 statement, four federal agencies, including the F.A.A. and F.B.I., said that an investigation into the reports had “not identified anything anomalous,” and that the sightings were a mix of legally-flown drones, airplanes, helicopters and stars. -
No information. Sure...whatever.
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Well, you see, under weak Biden, the drones were stealth Iranian spies, but Trump's sheer awesomeness just turned them into FAA-authorized innocent civilian drones. Poof!
The fuck are Iranian drones not-so-stealthily spying on? The effects of mass narcissism and crippling debt?
Seriously have to question what anyone other than Americans would gain flying formations over the average city in America. Even the FAA would be doing it for budget-pissing reasons to justify next years budget.
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what i do not get (Score:2)
why do aliens only care about new jersey
Re:what i do not get (Score:5, Funny)
Their planet is only ~ 10 light years away, and they got really hooked on Jersey Shore.
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Thanks for clearing that up that make perfect sense.
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Hey, it's what I do.
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Their planet is only ~ 10 light years away, and they got really hooked on Jersey Shore.
That little green dude wandering around the beach asking where Snooki was fit in so well nobody paid any attention to him.
There were no drones (Score:5, Interesting)
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https://www.defense.gov/News/N... [defense.gov]
???
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Some of the earlier videos clearly showed drones. They were way too slow-moving to be fixed wing aircraft (drone or manned). After it was hyped into idiocracy and became a meme then everyone was posting pictures of anything in the sky to be funny.
The fact that the FAA, which is one of the strictest, regulated, and anal government agencies, which also happens to have a a deep-seeded hatred of drones, didn't bat an eye, showed that what ever was going on was authorized, if not simply legal in general..
Nothin
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Re:There were no drones (Score:4, Interesting)
I was skeptical as well until I saw one with my own eyes. It was stationary, silent and had navigation lights, something the FAA would require. The sky was dark but light enough still from sundown that I could make out some strut-like structure to the drone against the night sky. Size was difficult to determine but it looked to be about a square yard.
I was driving in a car and wasn't inclined to stop but I had a clear visual of the drone from about 150 feet away for 15 seconds. Since I was moving, I could judge distance from parallax shift. It was CLOSE.
I have a DJI drone and flew RC planes as a kid. My area is near a GA type small airport so we do get a lot of small aircraft and business jets. I know what those look like. This was a drone.
Half truth (Score:2)
They're just sweeping under the rug that the DoD probably knew who was doing it the entire time and doesn't want to say. It's entirely possible that these drones do have authorization to fly in all the areas where they were spotted, but who exactly is operating them and why is something they obviously don't want to disclose.
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You just can't let go of a conspiracy theory, can you?
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What conspiracy theory? They just came out and said they were authorized by the FAA for research and other purposes. If that's the case, they've always been authorized. The DoD and FAA knew all along what was going on and refused to tell anyone - including several members of Congress - what was going on.
At least now they're admitting that much.
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Members of Congress represent the very constituents complaining about drone sightings, and hold some of the highest security clearances.
The previous administration had months to admit what the current administration took days to do. Remove the politics, and it’s still that plain and simple.
Long time we start judging history accurately.
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Except they did admit it multiple times. Like simple google searches can show multiple articles where they say they found no illegal activity and everything was fine.
But instead of accepting it, the GOP said things like "The government is in control of the drones and refuses to tell the American people what is going on. It really is that bad." - MGT
In the end you were tricked by the media into believing the adminsitration was not telling you nothing illegal was happening when they told you that over and ove
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This really is a slippery slope issue because of the following facts. Drones and the majority of personal civil aviation do not have to file flight plans and that does not mean they are flying illegally. It just means the government has no rights to automatically know when or where you are flying. So with no laws being broken, there is ZERO responsibility of the pilot to notify anyone of their activities or their purpose. The FAA is the only body in the nation with the authority to regulate actual flight. N
"Various reasons" (Score:2)
Karoline Leavitt (Score:2)
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Hopefully, we can all admit that it's nice to have a competent and well-prepared press secretary for a change.
I don't know that the last one was incompetent. I suppose she may have been, but it's hard to tell. Her entire job was to obfuscate the truth and dodge answering any hard questions. She may not have been convincing, but she did achieve the aforementioned goals.