Fox host Martha MacCallum was shocked at how little National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby could provide when asked about the mounting drone crisis.
In a tense interview, the Fox News host grilled the White House official as she sought answers to the mass amount of drones recently spotted flying over New Jersey.
Yet, Kirby, a 61-year-old retired Navy admiral, struggled to provide clear responses to the bizarre and alarming sightings ravaging the country.
MacCallum boldly opened the interview referencing a shocking claim the 61-year-old official made during an earlier White House briefing that saw him dismiss more than 3,000 reports of ‘car-sized’ drones as ‘misidentifications’.
‘A lot of people were unhappy with that comment you made yesterday and felt like you were telling people they were nuts or that they didn’t know what they were seeing with their own eyes,’ MacCallum said.
Kirby stumbled over his response, seemingly avoiding providing a direct answer as he claimed ‘that’s the farthest thing that I would ever do.’
‘I was simply reiterating what the FBI and what the Department of Homeland Security have relayed to us about what they’ve been able to corroborate. We haven’t been able to corroborate everything. I said many of the corroborated sightings have turned out to be piloted aircrafts. I didn’t say all of them,’ Kirby said.
He then added: ‘There’s certainly ones that we have not been able to, and we don’t know the answer to it.’
Fox host Martha MacCallum was shocked at how little National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby could provide when asked about the mounting drone crisis
MacCallum then pivoted, showing Kirby footage of a drone sighting captured by a New Jersey resident, yet he couldn’t even look at the photographic evidence claiming he turned off the monitor to ‘avoid distractions.’ Pictured: Drone sightings in New Jersey
MacCallum then pivoted, showing Kirby footage of a drone sighting captured by a New Jersey resident, yet he couldn’t even look at the photographic evidence claiming he turned off the monitor to ‘avoid distractions.’
MacCallum called out the absurdity of the situation, asking how a former admiral and current top White House official could dismiss clear visuals of the peculiar flying objects.
Instead, MacCallum described the image to Kirby who continued to claim ignorance.
‘I can describe it to you. It is large. It has a white bar that goes through the middle. The right-hand side is half-lit up white on the top and red on the bottom. The other side is green,’ she said.
‘You’re a former military person yourself. You’re an admiral. You’re the White House National Security Communications Advisor. I’m sure you’ve seen some of these images. What is it that we’re looking at?’ she pointedly asked.
Kirby replied: ‘It’s difficult for me to tell you, Martha. We don’t really know.’
Later in the interview, MacCallum cleverly revisited last year’s Chinese spy balloon sighting, which President Biden allowed to float across the entire country before ultimately shooting it down.
MacCallum stated that Biden’s administration was aware of the balloon’s intrusion into US airspace before the widespread news coverage, yet they ignored the threat.
‘Why don’t we know, John? That’s the point. Why doesn’t the United States government know? It seems silly. It feels a lot like the Chinese spy balloon,’ she asked Kirby.
‘I wish I could tell you exactly why we don’t have an answer for you here in the afternoon on the 13th of December,’ Kirby said.
He continued explaining that the administration is ‘working very hard’ without providing any detail on how they are ‘corroborating’ the content.
‘I can tell you that we are working on it very, very hard to know because we want to answer those questions the same as those folks in New Jersey want answers to them,’ Kirby replied.
The brazen Fox host then criticized Kirby on how Presidential administration could have a whopping $824 billion defense budget yet could not provide simple answers to presumed threats to American airspace.
A New Jersey resident saw what appears to be multiple drones flying over their Bernardsville home
‘We spend $824 billion on defense. We have the greatest intelligent capability in the world. How can you stand there and say to the country right now, “Gosh, darn, we just don’t know what these are,”‘ she asked.
Again claiming ignorance, Kirby replied: ‘I’m not going to lie to you or to the American people, and I’m not going to say we know something when we don’t.’
Kirby continued insisting that National Security does not have all the answers but is trying to corroborate ‘every single sighting.’
‘Why not just take one down and figure out what’s going on?’ MacCallum straightly asked.
Kirby claimed national security did not have enough conclusions to take down any of the reported drones, he also cited fears for public safety.
‘Well, okay, the idea of taking something down, again, you want to worry about public safety,’ Kirby replied.
‘First of all, we don’t have enough conclusions to take that a policy action. But let’s just assume for a minute, Martha, that we did. I mean, you’re not going to want to shoot something down where it could hit somebody’s house or hurt somebody.’
Kirby later assured MacCallum that the President has ‘tasked the team’ to investigate the drones.
In a statement issued on Thursday, Kirby stated that the investigation had not yet turned up any illegal activity.
‘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,’ Kirby said.
The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security have also issued a statement claiming there is no national security or public safety threat posed by the drone sightings, many of which are ‘manned aircraft, operating lawfully.’