‘Can You Make That Make More Sense?’ Fox News Reporter At Briefing Hammers Biden Spox Over Mystery Drones

Fox News White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich hammered White House National Security spokesman John Kirby over mysterious drones whose sightings have alarmed residents in New Jersey and all over the East Coast.

Kirby joined White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre at Thursday’s White House press briefing, and addressed the drones in his opening remarks.

He dispelled the “Iranian mothership” theory and tried to be reassuring that the government takes the potential threat seriously, but that their investigations thus far “uncovered no malicious activity or intent”:

I just want to add a few comments on the reports of drone activity here on the East Coast, particularly in and around New Jersey.

We have no evidence at this time that the reported drone sightings pose a national security or a public safety threat or have a foreign nexus.

The Department of Homeland Security and the FBI are investigating these sightings, and they’re working closely with state and local law enforcement to provide resources, using numerous detection methods to better understand their origin.

Using very sophisticated electronic detection technologies provided by federal authorities, we have not been able to — and neither have state or local law enforcement authorities — corroborate any of the reported visual sightings.

To the contrary, upon review of available imagery, it appears that many of the reported sightings are actually manned aircraft that are being operated lawfully.

The United States Coast Guard is providing support to the State of New Jersey and has confirmed that there is no evidence of any foreign-based involvement from coastal vessels.

And, importantly, there are no reported or confirmed drone sightings in any restricted airspace.

Now, that said, we certainly take seriously the threat that can be posed by unmanned aircraft systems, which is why law enforcement and other agencies continue to support New Jersey and investigate the reports, even though they have uncovered no malicious activity or intent at this particular stage.

While there is no known malicious activity occurring, the reported sightings there do, however, highlight a gap in authorities. And so, we urge Congress to pass important legislation that will extend and expand existing counter-drone authorities so that we are better prepared to identify and mitigate any potential threats to airports or other critical infrastructure and so that state and local authorities are provided all the tools that they need to respond to such threats as well.

Heinrich sparred with Kirby at length over the drones, asking him to reconcile his statements with the concerns coming from New Jersey authorities, asking him “Can you make that make more sense?”:

MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Go ahead, Jacqui.

JACQUI HEINRICH: Thanks, Karine. John, on the drones, does the U.S. government have any of its own imagery or video of these systems?

MR. KIRBY: I’m not aware that we have U.S.-government-produced imagery ourselves. But as I said in my opening statement, we have certainly done federal analysis of the existing imagery.

JACQUI HEINRICH: Like from people’s cell phones that we’re seeing? Basically, with what you’re looking at, how can you credibly tell people that there is no public safety threat, there’s no national security threat, that there’s no reason to believe that a foreign government is involved?

MR. KIRBY: Because the analysis thus far, in an investigation that is ongoing, has not revealed any national security or malicious intent or criminal activity.

But, Jacqui, I would remind you, we’re at the beginning here, not the end. There’s a lot more work to be done, and we’re working closely with the state and local authorities to gain more information.

JACQUI HEINRICH: It’s taking them a while.

MR. KIRBY: I — I would argue that it’s — we’re — we’re moving pretty well here with a sense of energy to try to figure out what we can do to learn more about this. We’re at — we’re still in the middle of an ongoing investigation, and I’m up here explaining to you and to let you know what we know so far, what we believe so far.

If information comes to light that changes that characterization, then, my goodness, you know, we’ll be the first ones to let you know. But right now, there’s just no indication that this is some sort of foreign malign activity or, in fact, even criminal.

JACQUI HEINRICH: Well, what I don’t understand is — you know, this has been happening since late November. I don’t know that the law enforcement officials or residents in New York and New Jersey, or even the Democratic senators who wrote to Director Wray, Mayorkas, and the FAA administrator today would think that this has been handled with a sense of urgency.

But, you know, that being said, has —

MR. KIRBY: I —

JACQUI HEINRICH: — has the president or the secretary of Defense issued any guidance to NORTHCOM or military installations to act on these systems if they are deemed to be a threat in any way? And what’s the benchmark for that determination?

MR. KIRBY: So, two thoughts. First of all, you — you’re right, late November. It is now — what? — the 12th of December. So, I think it shows that we’re moving on with this and we’re going to stay on it. So, this — don’t — I want to disabuse you of any notion that we’re not taking this seriously, because we are.

I can also tell you that if the president, as commander-in-chief, believed — based on the information that he’d been given — that there was a national security threat at play here or even a public safety threat at play here, he would issue the appropriate directives to — to not only law enforcement but perhaps even the military if that was needed.

I want to go back to something I said at the top: There has been no evidence of any of this activity in or near restricted spaces.

JACQUI HEINRICH: That’s not what the senators said in the letter. They said, in fact, that they’ve been observed maneuvering near critical infrastructure, sensitive locations, including reservoirs and military installations, and cited a concern from law enforcement about public safety threats because a medevac helicopter was prevented from transporting a seriously injured patient for care because of the presence of these drones.

MR. KIRBY: I stand by my opening statement.

JACQUI HEINRICH: Can you make that make more sense? Because I think people in New York and New Jersey see drones the size of an SUV over their house every night and think that that doesn’t make any sense.

MR. KIRBY: Certainly I understand why people would be looking at this and being concerned about it. I — we’re concerned about it too, which is why we have the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI, my goodness, looking at this, and we’re taking it seriously.

And we — we understand that people are concerned. We understand that they got questions. We got questions too, and we’re working hard to get the answers to that.

What I can tell you, as we sit here today, you know, at 2:16 in the afternoon on the 12th is we haven’t seen any indication thus far that there’s a public safety risk, and we haven’t seen —

JACQUI HEINRICH: But does anyone in the government know what they are?

MR. KIRBY: We are still investigating this. I can’t tell —

JACQUI HEINRICH: So, no.

MR. KIRBY: — you definitively — I cannot characterize for you definitively what these sightings are. I can just go back to what I said at the opening: We’ve looked at the imagery. We can’t corroborate some of the reported sightings through our own expert analysis using sophisticated detection techniques. But that doesn’t mean that, you know, we’re putting our pen down here this afternoon and calling it a day. We’re going to keep at this.

JACQUI HEINRICH: What are you doing though?

MR. KIRBY: We — we are continuing to investigate it, as I said in my opening statement. Two federal agencies, as well as United States Coast Guard, and state and local law enforcement officials, which we are staying in close touch with.

Watch above via The White House.