The White House insisted Monday that mystery drones which have caused a public panic in parts of the United States were flying legally, after President-elect Donald Trump suggested there had been a government cover-up.
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Trump said the US government “knows what is happening” as he weighed on the flurry of sightings over New Jersey and New York that have sparked something increasingly akin to mass panic.
Outgoing President Joe Biden’s administration has faced mounting criticism for not clearly identifying the origins of the objects, but on Monday it rejected any suggestion of a cover-up.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby insisted the government was being “open and transparent”, and said most sightings involved drones operating “legally and lawfully”.
“We assess that the sightings to date include a combination of lawful commercial drones, hobbyist drones and law enforcement drones, as well as manned fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters and even stars that were mistakenly reported as drones,” Kirby told reporters.
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