NJ residents in disbelief over White House answer on drones

Residents of New Jersey reacted with disbelief and frustration after the White House said mysterious drones seen in the skies were approved by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for research.

The state has been the epicenter of a wave of drone sightings, some of them extremely large and some spotted near sensitive locations.

There were fears the drones could be connected to foreign adversaries as residents questioned why there were so many sightings — but officials have pushed back on that claim.

President Trump vowed to get to the bottom of the issue, and in the administration's first White House press briefing, it said the drones were approved by the FAA and nothing to be concerned about.

When NewsNation reached out to the FAA with a series of specific questions, they responded on the record with one sentence directing questions to the White House.

New Jersey state Assemblyman Brian Bergen has been outspoken since the beginning. He said the answers from the White House and the FAA make no sense.

"Everything in the sky is authorized to be there by the FAA, or it wouldn't be in the sky," Bergen said. "So I don't understand the response from the White House. The FAA probably had no idea that they were going to be called out like that."

He added that what he wants is definitive answers.

"I just want somebody normal to get up in front of us and give us the truth, the straight truth, no canned response, no carefully chosen words, no dancing around it," he continued. "If it's the FAA doing research, what research? If it's some other entity, whatever other entity it is. We want someone just to be normal for once and give us the truth."

Sheriff Mike Mastronardi of Ocean County, N.J., said not being upfront at the beginning could cause harm.

"I wish they told us the fact sooner," he said. "The FAA, by not being upfront, could have caused harm."

Sheriff Shaun Golden in Monmouth County, N.J., agrees.

"I think in this day and age, particularly in a post-9/11 era, in an era of threats and risk assessments, when we have an agency withholding information like that and not telling their own federal partners that they were involved in this, not telling state and county and local officials what was happening, is really disturbing to me," he said.

Golden noted that he plans to continue to push Congress for reform and accountability.

The FAA could have come out saying the drones were authorized in December when the sightings began but did not.

The agency has also not told law enforcement what the drones are for or explained why there were temporary flight restrictions put in place for security reasons.

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