As befits rampant conspiracy-mongerers, WorldNetDaily pushed baseless claims by its fellow conspiracy-mongerers about the purportedly sinister nature of drones being sighted in various areas of the country — not that it bothered to verify any of those claims, of course. That pattern continued in a Dec. 23 column by Robert Knight:
The most striking thing about the gusher of lies told over the past four years by the Biden administration and other ruling elites is the disdain the liars have shown for the American people.
The whoppers were – and are – easy to spot and impossible to defend.
Just ask people in New Jersey and other states who have seen thousands of mysterious drones. They’ve been told by the government that their eyes are deceiving them, that the drones are really small airplanes, cloud formations, or even stars.
And some of them are. But thousands are not.
How does he know that? He offered no proof. He continued to fearmonger:
On Dec. 13, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas did some more of his gaslighting. The Mr. Magoo of the Biden administration, to whom millions of illegal aliens pouring over the border are invisible, was asked about the drones on CNN.
“We haven’t seen anything unusual,” he said, adding, “People can go into a convenience store and buy a small drone.” A couple of days later, Mr. Magoo turned into Captain Obvious, finally admitting, “There’s no question that people are seeing drones.”
Some of the low-flying UFOs are the size of small trucks and have been flying over sensitive military areas such as Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio and the U.S. Army’s Picatinny Arsenal and Naval Weapons Station Earle in New Jersey.
You’d think that Homeland Security would do something about it. Perhaps they could play Bobby McFerrin’s song, “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” when they put callers on hold.
Again, no proof is offered of UFOs “the size of small trucks,” and Knight offers no reason why his pontifications should be trusted or be taken seriously.
Having built up this huge (and baseless) conspiracy, it was time to start giving Donald Trump equally baseless credit for solving it. An outside article published on Jan. 16 stated that “President-elect Donald Trump says he will soon share more information about the scores of reported drone sightings in the skies above New Jersey and other parts of the Northeast. Trump vowed last week to release a report on the drones shortly after taking office on Monday.” The article did admit that “It is unclear if the FBI or the Department of Homeland Security has produced a report on the drone sightings.”
As Trump prepared to take office, however, WND was eager to give him credit for solving the alleged problem. A Jan. 16 article hyped a weirdly credited report (which WND actually stole from a New Jersey newspaper) stating that Trump “says he will soon share more information about the scores of reported drone sightings in the skies above New Jersey and other parts of the Northeast.”
Indeed, a few days after Trump took office, WND was in full pro-Trump rah-rah mode with a Jan. 28 article by Joe Kovacs headlined “Trump solves mystery of drones flying over New Jersey.” Just one problem: The article offers no evidence whatsoever that Trump personally did anything to “solve” the “mystery.” Instead, Kovacs wrote:
“This was not the enemy.”
That’s the official White House conclusion on the mysterious drone flights reported over New Jersey in the final days of 2024.
At her first press briefing Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Karolin [sic] Leavitt said:
“And before I turn to questions, I do have news directly from the president of the United States that was just shared with me in the Oval Office. From President Trump directly, an update on the New Jersey drones.
“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.
“Many of these drones were also hobbyists, recreational, and private individuals that enjoy flying drones and in time it got worse due to curiosity. This was not the enemy.”
Kovacs then laughably complained that the Biden administration allegedly wouldn’t say that:
Online journalist Nick Sortor reacted on X, saying: “WHY DID BIDEN LIE? WHY NOT JUST TELL US THAT?
Filmmaker Robby Starbuck noted: “This is incredible. The Biden administration let the whole country freak out for weeks about drones and a possible drone threat when they approved the damn drones. Why did they help create panic instead of telling the truth and calming people down? Lunacy.’
Actually, the Biden administration repeatedly said there was nothing nefarious going on with the drones. Kovacs, Sortor and Starbuck simply chose not to believe it because spreading conspiracy theories gets more clicks than telling the truth. Still, Kovacs repeated his previous (and bogus) feaermongering that the drones are “part of a massive counter-terror operation hunting for a dirty bomb or another possible weapon of mass destruction on American soil.” Meanwhile, WND pushed echo-chamber reports to bolster the new pro-Trump narrative:
- White House REVEALS The Truth About New Jersey Drones?
- Trump Team Reveals the TRUTH About the New Jersey Drones
- The Secret Behind the Mysterious Drones Flying in New Jersey
Apparently, giving Trump credit for something he didn’t do gets more clicks at WND than telling the truth.