For those who don’t spend their Sunday mornings glued to the television — and their Sunday afternoons attempting to dig through a week’s worth of network and cable news media spin — The Daily Wire has compiled a short summary of what you may have missed.

With less than two weeks to go before Christmas — and just over a month before President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated to serve a second term in the White House — the news cycle is as jumbled as ever. Some of the focus remains overseas, as unrest continues to to rule the day in Syria after the fall of Bashar al-Assad — but things at home are also quite literally “up in the air” as rumors swirl about mysterious drone sightings over states along the east coast.

After multiple reports of the strange aerial phenomena — many of which seem to be concentrated in northern New Jersey — local officials have admitted to being completely baffled and federal authorities have done little to dispel fears that all is not exactly what it seems.

During the week, the FBI released a statement alongside the Department of Homeland Security, claiming that the majority of the sightings had likely been manned aircraft operating in a lawful manner — and while they could not give a definitive answer on what the people were seeing, they were certain that the public was not at any risk.

On ABC’s “This Week,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas admitted that some of the sightings were, in fact, drones — but again said that he did not believe anyone was in danger.

“There’s no question that drones are being sighted…There are thousands of drones flown every day in the United States — recreational drones, commercial drones,” Mayorkas said, apparently suggesting that the things people were seeing were not really anything out of the ordinary.

Mayorkas also responded to claims that the drones were potentially being sent or operated by foreign adversaries, saying that he did not have any information leading him to believe that. Mayorkas told ABC host George Stephanopoulos that he had heard of “no foreign involvement with respect to the sightings in the Northeast.”

But former Governor Chris Christie (R-NJ) also weighed in on the issue, and he pointed out the fact that the longer the American people went without any definitive answers, the more likely it was that conspiracy theories would run wild about what they could be seeing.

“I’ve lived in New Jersey my whole life,” the former governor explained. “This is the first time that I’ve noticed drones over my house.”

Many local officials don’t appear convinced but the explanations offered thus far, either:

Rp. Michael Waltz (R-FL) joined CBS News’ “Face the Nation” to discuss the issue as well, and he argued that the failure to address the situation showed the obvious gaps in the official capacity to handle such things.

“We need to get to the bottom of it,” he said. “And I think the Biden administration is working to do that.”

Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) also joined host Margaret Brennan on Sunday’s broadcast of “Face the Nation,” and she called for “more transparency” on the issue.

“This just can’t be, no one knows why this huge drone is over their house,” she said, promising to work with the incoming administration to get to the bottom of it.

Klobuchar also took some time to discuss a slew of pardons and commutations issued by President Joe Biden as his presidency nears its end.

While Biden’s Thanksgiving weekend pardon for his embattled son Hunter Biden certainly raised the most eyebrows — on both sides of the political aisle — Klobuchar noted that just by sheer volume, Biden was testing the limits of what she found to be acceptable.

Klobuchar first said that she was among those who did not like the fact that Biden had pardoned his son — but then said she also worried about the some 1500 sentence commutations he issued in the past week.

She proposed an “outside board” to aid the president in selecting cases for pardons or sentence commutations “instead of people just doing it in the middle of the night, and people in the White House — this makes no sense to me.”

“This whole process cries out for reform, because otherwise you undermine the justice system,” she added.

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) told NBC anchor Kristen Welker on “Meet the Press” that Biden had set a “dangerous” precedent when he pardoned Hunter — and he urged the president to consider the possibility of preemptive pardons “very seriously.”

But on CNN’s “State of the Union,” retiring Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) said that despite having often been at odds with Trump himself, he was not overly concerned that the president-elect might use the Justice Department to attack those who had opposed him.

“I’m not particularly worried about criminal investigations,” he told anchor Jake Tapper. “I think President Trump is likely to try and focus on the future.”

​[#item_full_content]  

​[[{“value”:”

For those who don’t spend their Sunday mornings glued to the television — and their Sunday afternoons attempting to dig through a week’s worth of network and cable news media spin — The Daily Wire has compiled a short summary of what you may have missed.

With less than two weeks to go before Christmas — and just over a month before President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated to serve a second term in the White House — the news cycle is as jumbled as ever. Some of the focus remains overseas, as unrest continues to to rule the day in Syria after the fall of Bashar al-Assad — but things at home are also quite literally “up in the air” as rumors swirl about mysterious drone sightings over states along the east coast.

After multiple reports of the strange aerial phenomena — many of which seem to be concentrated in northern New Jersey — local officials have admitted to being completely baffled and federal authorities have done little to dispel fears that all is not exactly what it seems.

During the week, the FBI released a statement alongside the Department of Homeland Security, claiming that the majority of the sightings had likely been manned aircraft operating in a lawful manner — and while they could not give a definitive answer on what the people were seeing, they were certain that the public was not at any risk.

On ABC’s “This Week,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas admitted that some of the sightings were, in fact, drones — but again said that he did not believe anyone was in danger.

“There’s no question that drones are being sighted…There are thousands of drones flown every day in the United States — recreational drones, commercial drones,” Mayorkas said, apparently suggesting that the things people were seeing were not really anything out of the ordinary.

Mayorkas also responded to claims that the drones were potentially being sent or operated by foreign adversaries, saying that he did not have any information leading him to believe that. Mayorkas told ABC host George Stephanopoulos that he had heard of “no foreign involvement with respect to the sightings in the Northeast.”

But former Governor Chris Christie (R-NJ) also weighed in on the issue, and he pointed out the fact that the longer the American people went without any definitive answers, the more likely it was that conspiracy theories would run wild about what they could be seeing.

“I’ve lived in New Jersey my whole life,” the former governor explained. “This is the first time that I’ve noticed drones over my house.”

Many local officials don’t appear convinced but the explanations offered thus far, either:

Rp. Michael Waltz (R-FL) joined CBS News’ “Face the Nation” to discuss the issue as well, and he argued that the failure to address the situation showed the obvious gaps in the official capacity to handle such things.

“We need to get to the bottom of it,” he said. “And I think the Biden administration is working to do that.”

Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) also joined host Margaret Brennan on Sunday’s broadcast of “Face the Nation,” and she called for “more transparency” on the issue.

“This just can’t be, no one knows why this huge drone is over their house,” she said, promising to work with the incoming administration to get to the bottom of it.

Klobuchar also took some time to discuss a slew of pardons and commutations issued by President Joe Biden as his presidency nears its end.

While Biden’s Thanksgiving weekend pardon for his embattled son Hunter Biden certainly raised the most eyebrows — on both sides of the political aisle — Klobuchar noted that just by sheer volume, Biden was testing the limits of what she found to be acceptable.

Klobuchar first said that she was among those who did not like the fact that Biden had pardoned his son — but then said she also worried about the some 1500 sentence commutations he issued in the past week.

She proposed an “outside board” to aid the president in selecting cases for pardons or sentence commutations “instead of people just doing it in the middle of the night, and people in the White House — this makes no sense to me.”

“This whole process cries out for reform, because otherwise you undermine the justice system,” she added.

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) told NBC anchor Kristen Welker on “Meet the Press” that Biden had set a “dangerous” precedent when he pardoned Hunter — and he urged the president to consider the possibility of preemptive pardons “very seriously.”

But on CNN’s “State of the Union,” retiring Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) said that despite having often been at odds with Trump himself, he was not overly concerned that the president-elect might use the Justice Department to attack those who had opposed him.

“I’m not particularly worried about criminal investigations,” he told anchor Jake Tapper. “I think President Trump is likely to try and focus on the future.”

“}]] 

 

Sign up to receive our newsletter

We don’t spam! Read our privacy policy for more info.