NEW YORK (1010 WINS) – Former Gov. Chris Christie said he saw drones flying over his house in New Jersey for the first time, and he warned “drone vigilantes” could target the aircraft if the government isn’t more proactive about informing the public on them.
“Two mornings ago, over my house at 6:15 in the morning, saw them, myself—so did my wife—so yeah they’re there,” Christie told George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday.
The former governor said he “can’t tell you the number of people who’ve come up to me concerned about it.”
“I’ve lived in New Jersey my whole life,” he said. “This is the first time I’ve noticed drones over my house. I was in a restaurant in Monmouth County on Friday night, had people at the bar coming up to me and saying, ‘Gov. [Phil] Murphy won’t tell me anything, the president won’t tell me anything, do you know?’”
Christie said government officials are “not answering the questions,” leading to growing public concern and causing conspiracy theories to “get filled in there.”
“You can’t have conspiracy theorists filling the space,” he said, “the Biden administration and state authorities have to be more vocal and let people know what they’re doing.”
Asked if people are just seeing things in a sort of public hysteria, Christie said he thinks that’s the case to an extent, but: “That was a drone over my house, and I’ve never seen anything like that before, and I’ve been living at that house for over 30 years.”
The former governor said state law enforcement needs the authority to “bring those drones down and find out what they’re doing what they’re doing,” while coordinating with the federal government with “shared authority.”
“The states do not have enough authority now to do what they need to do, and what we’re going to find, George, is you’re going to have individuals acting as drone vigilantes, and they’re going to start taking them down,” Christie said. “And that’s not what we want. Because they’re now an important part of commerce and law enforcement.”
National security officials have said the drones don’t appear to be a sign of foreign interference or a public safety threat. But because they can’t say with certainty who is responsible for the sudden swarms of drones over parts of New Jersey, New York and other eastern parts of the U.S. — or how they can be stopped — leaders of both political parties are demanding better technology and powers to deal with the drones.
Sen. Chuck Schumer called Sunday for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to deploy better drone-tracking technology to identify the drones and their operators.
“New Yorkers have tremendous questions about it,” Schumer, the Senate majority leader, told reporters about the drone sightings. “We are going to get the answers for them.”
The federal government did little to answer those questions in its own media briefings Sunday morning. “There’s no question that people are seeing drones,” U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told Stephanopoulos. “But I want to assure the American public that we are on it. We are working in close coordination with state and local authorities.”
Some of the drones reported above parts of New York and New Jersey have turned out to be “manned aircraft that are commonly mistaken for drones,” Mayorkas said. “We know of no foreign involvement with respect to the sightings in the Northeast. And we are vigilant in investigating this matter.”
Schumer wants the federal government to use a recently declassified radio wave technology in New York and New Jersey. The radio wave detector can be attached to a drone or airplane and can determine whether another flying object is a bird or a drone, read its electronic registration, and follow it back to its landing place. Schumer said state and local authorities do not have the authority to track drones.
On Sunday, Gov. Kathy Hochul said federal officials were sending a drone detection system to the state.
“This system will support state and federal law enforcement in their investigations,” Hochul said in a statement. The governor did not immediately provide additional details, including where the system will be deployed.
Dozens of mysterious nighttime flights started last month over parts of New Jersey, raising concerns among residents and officials. Part of the worry stems from the flying objects initially being spotted near the Picatinny Arsenal, a U.S. military research and manufacturing facility, and over President-elect Donald Trump’s golf course in Bedminster. Drones are legal in New Jersey for recreational and commercial use, but they are subject to local and Federal Aviation Administration regulations and flight restrictions. Operators must be FAA certified.
Drones are now being reported all along the northern East Coast, with suspicious sightings in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Virginia, according to news reports.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.