The White House earlier this week said most of the drones that caused alarm and drew nationwide attention last year were in large part authorized by the Federal Aviation Administration, an explanation New Jersey leaders and residents are not satisfied with, The Hill reported Thursday. 

“They should have told the American people,” Monmouth County Sheriff Shaun Golden told NBC New York. “It’s not fair. And certainly, they could have quelled it. Somebody from the FAA certainly had to see all the national reporting that was going on and could have made the phone call. They didn’t.”

The White House on Tuesday said the drones were for research and various other reasons.

“I wish they told us the fact sooner,” Sheriff Mike Mastronardi of Ocean County, New Jersey, said. “The FAA, by not being upfront, could have caused harm.”

New Jersey state Assemblyman Brian Bergen said the answers from the White House make no sense.

“Everything in the sky is authorized to be there by the FAA, or it wouldn’t be in the sky,” Bergen said. “So, I don’t understand the response from the White House. The FAA probably had no idea that they were going to be called out like that.

“I just want somebody normal to get up in front of us and give us the truth, the straight truth, no canned response, no carefully chosen words, no dancing around it,” he added. “If it’s the FAA doing research, what research? If it’s some other entity, whatever other entity it is. We want someone just to be normal for once and give us the truth.”

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