Howard Baker, the late great Senator from Tennessee, once quipped, "It is almost always the cover-up rather than the event that causes trouble." That about sums up the Biden administration's response to the various drone reports in New Jersey and elsewhere. The White House response is bizarre.

When the Biden White House first responded, it told everyone it didn't know what the drones were. That's not exactly reassuring, especially since the drones were flying in swarm formations near military bases and over people's houses. But after that, it pivoted to this not being an issue at all.

National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby has been the worst at this, changing statements almost every day. In interviews, even the hosts are getting incredulous with him. Pivoting between mocking people for pointing things out and also saying you don't know what some of these drones are is a strange way to treat a news item that concerns everyday Americans.

The concern is understanding. This is the same administration that dismissed American concerns when China floated a balloon over United States airspace. Watching a Chinese spycraft float over the country with no response from the Biden administration is one of the more surreal moments of this White House.

What makes this even more bizarre is that there likely is an explanation for these events that isn't concerning. National Aerospace Research and Technology Park announced a development agreement to open a drone testing corridor that covers the areas where people are seeing drones from New Jersey to Virginia. That was announced in the summer of 2023, approximately 18 months ago.

It's also true that people are seeing things like planes, stars, Starlink satellites, and more and thinking they are drones. Representative Andy Kim of New Jersey came to this conclusion, too, while observing events with police. Former Governor of Maryland Larry Hogan posted videos of stars, which he thought were drones.

In essence, we're getting crazy conspiracy theories, with everyone looking into the skies to identify anything with lights. Some of those lights or objects are drones—there's no question about that. One drone even crashed into a man's house. But other objects aren't drones at all.

The federal government could be the answer here. For all the bellyaching in the press about misinformation and disinformation, the problem in this story isn't people—it's the government. It is incumbent on the White House to answer the questions people have—just telling people not to worry about it isn't an answer.

The worst rumors center around this being a foreign country. The odds Russia, China, Iran, or anyone else could get a ship of any kind to the eastern seaboard to launch drone swarms in a pesky manner are small. While all those countries have drone capacity, they don't have, that we know, the capacity to deploy them at this range.

We track military vessels of any kind from these nations whenever they leave port. We'd know if the Russians, Chinese, or Iranians parked off the eastern seaboard. At a minimum, American boaters and sailors would have seen the boat at sea. It's impossible to hide at the distances necessary to launch a drone.

It's also crazy to assume these are aliens. If they were aliens, they'd pick a better spot than New Jersey, with all due respect to the Garden State. The federal government is allowing the rumors to swirl because it's refusing to answer questions in a straight manner, just as it did during the Chinese balloon fiasco. 

This administration has not earned the country's respect, and no one expects them to tell the truth. The Biden administration hid the balloon and Biden's incapacity to do the job necessary. This is not an honest administration on any single point, and now they're asking people to trust them while drones fly overhead.

Whatever is happening, just be honest and tell the truth. That's the very low bar people are asking this administration is asking Biden to clear. He's refusing to do that, and people are frustrated. We're probably going to get more videos of people shining lasers at the drones or trying to shoot at them with various objects—the same thing happening during the Chinese balloon week.

Between all the various pardons and now this drone mess, the Biden White House is leaving on the same notes that doomed it. They're a cabal of dishonest brokers that look down their noses at the American people. It's no wonder we have so many conspiracy theories surrounding the drone stories - this is the path the federal government chose.