1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:12,860
Hello and welcome to Reality Check. I'm your host Ross Coulthard. Well what a week. I can hardly

2
00:00:12,860 --> 00:00:19,480
believe the pace of developments. We've just had a statement from the White House where they've for

3
00:00:19,480 --> 00:00:25,500
the first time given a definitive statement on the drones, the mystery objects that have been

4
00:00:25,500 --> 00:00:32,360
buzzing the skies of not only New Jersey but pretty much the entire east coast of the USA, the entire

5
00:00:32,360 --> 00:00:39,380
continent and much of the planet. But if you believe the White House it's all explainable and apparently

6
00:00:39,380 --> 00:00:47,320
it was authorized. These were drones that were authorized to be flown by the FAA for research

7
00:00:47,320 --> 00:00:52,820
and various other reasons. Let's take a quick listen to the statement from the White House

8
00:00:52,820 --> 00:00:58,480
earlier today. Before I turn to questions I do have news directly from the President of the United

9
00:00:58,480 --> 00:01:05,060
States that was just shared with me in the Oval Office from President Trump directly an update on

10
00:01:05,060 --> 00:01:11,100
the New Jersey drones. After research and study the drones that were flying over New Jersey in large

11
00:01:11,100 --> 00:01:19,180
numbers were authorized to be flown by the FAA for research and various other reasons. Many of these

12
00:01:19,180 --> 00:01:27,600
drones were also hobbyists, recreational and private individuals that enjoy flying Jones. In time it got

13
00:01:27,600 --> 00:01:34,460
worse due to curiosity. This was not the enemy. A statement from the President of the United States

14
00:01:34,460 --> 00:01:41,200
to start this briefing with some news. Okay you've heard that statement from the White House. I now want

15
00:01:41,200 --> 00:01:49,440
to give you the opportunity to re-hear what was said by the Defense Department back in December. There are two

16
00:01:49,440 --> 00:01:58,940
statements that were made by the Defense Department on both the 11th and the 17th of December. So here we go.

17
00:01:58,940 --> 00:02:09,200
Thanks General Ryder. So back to the drones. Can you unequivocally say that none of the drones that are being spotted

18
00:02:09,200 --> 00:02:16,400
are DOD assets or something that's being tested within the Defense Department? Are all of these

19
00:02:16,400 --> 00:02:21,440
either civilian or otherwise but just not Department of Defense drones? You're talking about the drones

20
00:02:21,440 --> 00:02:27,920
in New Jersey up and down the yes they are not DOD assets. None of them are? To my knowledge none of them

21
00:02:27,920 --> 00:02:33,920
are. Okay and are there any sort of experimental programs going on where maybe they're you know drones

22
00:02:33,920 --> 00:02:40,080
are being tested that? To my knowledge no. Okay. What about the ones that are flying over military bases

23
00:02:40,080 --> 00:02:46,560
at this point? Have there been any possibilities of collecting what sort of information these drones

24
00:02:46,560 --> 00:02:53,680
are doing or anything like that? Yeah again just to kind of put this into context and I know that our

25
00:02:53,680 --> 00:03:01,120
colleagues at the White House, FAA, DHS, FBI have all made this point. So over a million drones registered

26
00:03:01,760 --> 00:03:07,840
in the United States and on any given day approximately 8500 drones are you know in flight.

27
00:03:08,880 --> 00:03:15,280
And so the vast majority of these drones are going to probably be recreational or hobbyist.

28
00:03:15,920 --> 00:03:21,840
They're going to be commercial drones you know used in things like architecture, engineering,

29
00:03:22,720 --> 00:03:29,040
farming or they could be used for law enforcement. Is it possible that some of those drones could be up to

30
00:03:29,040 --> 00:03:37,680
to malign activity? It's entirely possible but the vast majority that is not you know the case. In the

31
00:03:37,680 --> 00:03:45,520
case of drones flying near or over U.S. military installations that in and of itself just given

32
00:03:45,520 --> 00:03:51,520
the volume of drone flights we see on a given day is not something that's new. We take all of those

33
00:03:51,520 --> 00:03:57,760
seriously. We will typically you know when we detect them attempt to classify them and take appropriate

34
00:03:57,760 --> 00:04:03,200
measures. Is it possible that some of those are surveilling? Absolutely. But can you make that

35
00:04:03,200 --> 00:04:09,920
assumption in every case? Not necessarily. So in each case commanders have the authority,

36
00:04:09,920 --> 00:04:14,480
installation commanders and authorities have the authority to respond appropriately and we'll continue

37
00:04:14,480 --> 00:04:20,400
to do that. Can you rule out that these are American drones or U.S. military drones? These are not U.S.

38
00:04:20,400 --> 00:04:26,960
military drones. Again this is being investigated by local law enforcement. What our initial assessment

39
00:04:26,960 --> 00:04:36,240
here is that these are not drones or activities coming from a foreign entity or adversary. Representative Jeff

40
00:04:36,240 --> 00:04:42,720
Van Drew who is a Republican from New Jersey was just on the air saying that Iran launched a mothership

41
00:04:42,720 --> 00:04:48,320
probably about a month ago that contains these drones and that that mothership is off the coast of

42
00:04:48,320 --> 00:04:54,640
the east coast of the United States. Is there any truth to that? There is not any truth to that. There

43
00:04:54,640 --> 00:05:00,480
is no Iranian ship off the coast of the United States and there's no so-called mothership launching drones

44
00:05:00,480 --> 00:05:08,080
towards the United States. Now in my book it's absolutely clear that the statements made by the Pentagon in

45
00:05:08,080 --> 00:05:16,000
December categorically contradict what has been said today by the White House. There's an old saying in my line

46
00:05:16,000 --> 00:05:22,240
of work that the cover-up is often worse than the actual conspiracy and in this case you really have to

47
00:05:22,240 --> 00:05:30,480
question what on earth is going on. I've been talking to people in New Jersey, New York, Long Island for a long time now

48
00:05:30,480 --> 00:05:37,760
and whatever these visitors are they've been around since Thanksgiving and Christmas and they're the

49
00:05:37,760 --> 00:05:45,200
guests that never left. I'd like to now bring in the mayor of Belleville Township in New Jersey,

50
00:05:45,200 --> 00:05:53,840
Mayor Michael Millam. So Mr Mayor you've seen those quotes from the White House and then the Pentagon.

51
00:05:53,840 --> 00:06:00,960
They do appear to contradict each other. What's your take on what's going on and what's your view

52
00:06:00,960 --> 00:06:08,640
on the drones crisis? I mean it's disappointing. You know here on the ground as mayors there are 500

53
00:06:08,640 --> 00:06:12,880
mayors strong here in New Jersey. We are the closest to the ground. The people are coming to us for

54
00:06:12,880 --> 00:06:18,720
answers and sadly our federal government is failing us. Our state government is failing us. I mean come on

55
00:06:18,720 --> 00:06:23,040
just listen to that most recent statement. We've been waiting now what eight days for disclosure on this

56
00:06:23,040 --> 00:06:28,480
matter and we're told that the drones that were flying past tense were flying. Last night there

57
00:06:28,480 --> 00:06:31,920
were multiple drones over my house so I don't know what they're talking about when they say

58
00:06:31,920 --> 00:06:38,320
we're flying and then they're flying for other various reasons. What could the other various reasons be?

59
00:06:38,320 --> 00:06:44,560
We have miles and acreage in the midwest where you could fly anything you want experimentally and

60
00:06:44,560 --> 00:06:50,000
test and do your research there. Why are they flying over northern New Jersey right dead smack in the

61
00:06:50,000 --> 00:06:56,320
middle of our airspace? We still have more questions than answers and unfortunately this is sad and this

62
00:06:56,320 --> 00:07:01,840
is not the disclosure that myself and many others were looking for. I have to admit it is an amazing

63
00:07:01,840 --> 00:07:08,480
disappointment to see a president who has campaigned so strongly on his willingness to confront what he

64
00:07:08,480 --> 00:07:15,840
calls the deep state and he appears to be so supinely rolling over and willing to accept and acquiesce to

65
00:07:15,840 --> 00:07:23,120
the wishes of the national security state on this issue. Frankly, I'll say it, I don't think the

66
00:07:23,120 --> 00:07:31,440
explanation from the White House washes. It contradicts categorical denials from the Pentagon that

67
00:07:31,440 --> 00:07:38,160
these were any kind of defense department or military drone or indeed any kind of experimental

68
00:07:38,160 --> 00:07:46,080
research. If in fact in December the defense department was telling the truth, the implication

69
00:07:46,080 --> 00:07:52,560
is that the defense department itself was being misled. Can you think of any explanation that fits

70
00:07:52,560 --> 00:08:00,400
into the account given now by the White House that these were authorized drones, authorized to be flown by

71
00:08:00,400 --> 00:08:07,600
the FAA for research and various other reasons? Can you tell us what you were told by the FAA and the FBI

72
00:08:07,600 --> 00:08:14,160
and the Department of Homeland Security? Yeah, I mean, listen, point blank. Homeland Security said

73
00:08:14,160 --> 00:08:20,880
it's not us. The federal government told us point blank. These are not federal operations. Those two things

74
00:08:20,880 --> 00:08:26,000
were told to us point blank in a mayor's only briefing here in New Jersey whereby our state of New Jersey,

75
00:08:26,000 --> 00:08:30,400
our own governor couldn't get answers from the then Biden administration. I mean, come on,

76
00:08:30,400 --> 00:08:35,200
the Biden administration couldn't tell our governor, wink, wink. These are us. We're doing research.

77
00:08:35,200 --> 00:08:39,120
These are our drones. Come on. I mean, we're not accepting this anymore. And then we were on a

78
00:08:39,120 --> 00:08:44,000
mayor's only White House briefing where we were told you're seeing things. There's nothing to see out

79
00:08:44,000 --> 00:08:49,200
there. We don't have not one credible threat of a report in the sky. Then the very next day,

80
00:08:49,200 --> 00:08:53,360
they actually convened a house intelligence committee, had a classified briefing that lasted

81
00:08:53,360 --> 00:08:57,680
three and a half hours. Well, what did they talk about for three and a half hours? If one,

82
00:08:57,680 --> 00:09:03,440
there's nothing to see here or two, if our AA is saying, oh yeah, by the way, what they forgot to

83
00:09:03,440 --> 00:09:07,520
tell us that those were our drones, that they have clearance and they have licenses to fly.

84
00:09:07,520 --> 00:09:13,200
The FAA was telling us here in New Jersey when they issued a ban in 26 different municipalities,

85
00:09:13,200 --> 00:09:17,840
which was then extended, by the way, it's no longer active, but they were telling us if they see a

86
00:09:17,840 --> 00:09:22,240
drone in the sky, they may take lethal action. Come on. Why didn't they just tell us from the

87
00:09:22,240 --> 00:09:27,040
very beginning that it was theirs? I mean, I'm not buying it. I'm still waiting for that disclosure.

88
00:09:27,040 --> 00:09:30,960
I mean, sadly, I've been waiting for about eight days. I didn't expect much from the Biden

89
00:09:30,960 --> 00:09:35,520
administration. I do still hold out faith and hope that we will hear something better from

90
00:09:35,520 --> 00:09:39,600
the Trump administration. He's been all over this topic. He's been quoted multiple times,

91
00:09:40,480 --> 00:09:44,560
even going on the record as to say, oh, the government knows who they are. The president knows who they

92
00:09:44,560 --> 00:09:49,600
are now eight, nine days into his administration were being told. I mean, really, it actually

93
00:09:49,600 --> 00:09:52,640
sounds like a cover story to cover the fact they didn't have a cover story.

94
00:09:53,920 --> 00:09:58,160
I think that's the thing that's most concerning is the possibility that the government is genuinely

95
00:09:58,160 --> 00:10:03,840
flummoxed, which frankly is what I've been being told by my sources. I've been being told by people in

96
00:10:03,840 --> 00:10:12,080
the FBI, the FAA and the DHS and the Defense Department that nobody has any idea what these objects are.

97
00:10:12,080 --> 00:10:17,600
And indeed, it has been reported in the media. I think last week that the FBI had admitted that

98
00:10:17,600 --> 00:10:23,440
they were not able to trace the source of these drones and nor were they able to find out who was

99
00:10:23,440 --> 00:10:28,800
responsible for them. Now we have this totally contradictory statement from the White House, which

100
00:10:29,360 --> 00:10:36,640
appears to be an effort to shut this whole issue down. Now, sir, we do live in a different era from

101
00:10:36,640 --> 00:10:42,720
the 1940s where governments could explain things away as weather balloons. Do you think the people

102
00:10:42,720 --> 00:10:49,760
of New Jersey will buy this White House explanation? I can tell you that this mayor is not buying it.

103
00:10:49,760 --> 00:10:54,000
And I can tell you there's a bunch of other local elected officials that are not buying it. But you're

104
00:10:54,000 --> 00:10:59,200
on to something. You know, we do live in a sad reality of people's attention spans are only a few

105
00:10:59,200 --> 00:11:04,080
minutes long. I mean, a month ago, people were all over this. A couple of weeks ago, when this got brought

106
00:11:04,080 --> 00:11:09,360
back to the surface by people like me and others going on social media and keep ringing that alarm,

107
00:11:10,080 --> 00:11:15,680
people were still interested. I have to say, it's waning. People are less concerned and less

108
00:11:15,680 --> 00:11:20,320
curious. And potentially, that's part. Potentially, this is a whole experiment to find out how long

109
00:11:20,320 --> 00:11:24,320
of people's attention spans are going to be. And I think they're finding out that, sadly,

110
00:11:24,880 --> 00:11:28,400
people are no longer asking questions. Thankfully, I have a pulpit. And thankfully,

111
00:11:28,400 --> 00:11:33,040
I have a mechanism in a media format to be able to ask those questions and hopefully demand some

112
00:11:33,040 --> 00:11:36,720
answers. But you're right. We are getting competing information. And the federal government initially

113
00:11:36,720 --> 00:11:40,880
was telling us nothing to see here. Then you had one congressperson saying that it was an Iranian

114
00:11:40,880 --> 00:11:45,920
mothership off the coast of our shore. Then you had another, I think it was the chairman of the

115
00:11:45,920 --> 00:11:52,000
Foreign Affairs Committee say it was China. So all this competing information, I mean, all it does is

116
00:11:52,000 --> 00:11:57,760
fuel conspiracy theories. So truth and transparency is going to tell the truth. We're waiting for that.

117
00:11:58,400 --> 00:12:01,360
Hoping, and I'm still crossing my fingers, we're going to get some discussion. We deserve more

118
00:12:01,360 --> 00:12:06,160
answers. Drones were flying over my house last night. That's unacceptable here in northern New Jersey.

119
00:12:06,160 --> 00:12:10,800
Now, just one thing I want to remind the public about is that in mid-December,

120
00:12:10,800 --> 00:12:16,160
when this was all in full blossom, when everybody was getting very wound up about these drones,

121
00:12:16,160 --> 00:12:22,880
there was a statement issued by the FAA, the DHS, the Department of Defense, and the FBI,

122
00:12:22,880 --> 00:12:30,560
where they made a categorical statement that these were simple misidentifications of known aircraft.

123
00:12:30,560 --> 00:12:37,760
And that in fact, there was no suggestion in that statement that there was any kind of authorized

124
00:12:37,760 --> 00:12:45,840
drone flyover authorized by the FAA. Do you agree that that statement appears to directly contradict

125
00:12:45,840 --> 00:12:53,280
what the White House has said today? Absolutely. There's no doubt about that. I mean,

126
00:12:53,280 --> 00:13:00,000
why do a temporary ban over 20 something municipalities here if you know exactly what's going on?

127
00:13:00,000 --> 00:13:05,200
And why not just say it? I mean, the fact they're telling us they were flying and various other reasons.

128
00:13:05,200 --> 00:13:09,360
I mean, I've been saying for a long time, we're no longer questioning who's doing it. I had believed that

129
00:13:09,360 --> 00:13:14,800
these were government assets from the very beginning. Unfortunately, we don't know why. Why are they

130
00:13:14,800 --> 00:13:20,960
flying over urban spaces like here in Northern New Jersey, densely populated areas? We have plenty of

131
00:13:20,960 --> 00:13:25,200
places they could do training exercise, plenty of places they could do research. What is it they're

132
00:13:25,200 --> 00:13:33,840
looking or dare I say, sniffing for? The other concern is that there have been military bases closed down,

133
00:13:33,840 --> 00:13:42,400
not just over New Jersey, but across the continental United States. The Picatinny Arsenal over New Jersey.

134
00:13:42,400 --> 00:13:48,800
There were so many overflights over there that the commander confirmed that there were 11 illegal

135
00:13:48,800 --> 00:13:58,160
incursions that were directly over the base. By any definition, they were gross incursions that posed a

136
00:13:58,160 --> 00:14:06,320
national security threat. Does the assurance now from the White House that these were authorized drones

137
00:14:06,320 --> 00:14:10,560
put your concerns to rest, sir? I know they don't, but I just want to hear it from you.

138
00:14:12,560 --> 00:14:16,560
No, they don't. As I said before, it sounds like a cover story to cover for the fact they had no

139
00:14:16,560 --> 00:14:21,120
cover story. I mean, keep in mind, it wasn't widely reported. But a couple of weeks ago, there was a

140
00:14:21,120 --> 00:14:27,680
Chinese national in California who was caught trying to board a plane in route to China with

141
00:14:27,680 --> 00:14:32,800
a drone that had been flown over one of our military bases. So clearly, there are bad actors

142
00:14:32,800 --> 00:14:37,120
at play here. Clearly, in my opinion, there are some good actors at play. Potentially that we put

143
00:14:37,120 --> 00:14:42,320
drones up as a counter-surveillance measure. Potentially we put them up for our own eyes and

144
00:14:42,320 --> 00:14:46,960
ears up there. But just tell us that's what's happening. To tell us first that we're seeing things.

145
00:14:46,960 --> 00:14:50,960
You know how insulting it was to the residents of New Jersey to be told, you guys are seeing things,

146
00:14:50,960 --> 00:14:55,920
it's all misidentification. And now to be told, oh yeah, by the way, the FAA did permit these things.

147
00:14:55,920 --> 00:14:58,960
I mean, come on. We're not buying the story anymore. They have to do better.

148
00:15:00,080 --> 00:15:05,920
Well, Mayor Michael Mellum, I thank you so much for coming on so quickly. And I somehow think,

149
00:15:05,920 --> 00:15:10,960
knowing the people of New Jersey, they're not going to take this sitting down and just cop it. I

150
00:15:10,960 --> 00:15:16,560
suspect that if these drone incursions do continue, and as you say, they haven't actually

151
00:15:16,560 --> 00:15:21,680
abated at all. The other misleading thing I think that was being said was that these drones ever

152
00:15:21,680 --> 00:15:28,160
went away. They never went away. If they continue, it's going to be very interesting to see how the

153
00:15:28,160 --> 00:15:32,160
government wriggles its way out of this one. Mayor Michael Mellum, thank you so much.

154
00:15:33,520 --> 00:15:34,240
Thank you for having me.

155
00:15:36,880 --> 00:15:44,080
I'd like to bring in evidence that suggests that the drone incursions, so-called, are not happening

156
00:15:44,080 --> 00:15:50,960
just over the East Coast of America or the West Coast. They're happening all over the continental USA,

157
00:15:50,960 --> 00:15:58,960
as well as, frankly, the United Kingdom, Western Europe, Japan, Russia, China. And today, I'm bringing

158
00:15:58,960 --> 00:16:08,640
you a local police chief from a little town of 2,112 people called Ord in Nebraska, in Valley County,

159
00:16:08,640 --> 00:16:16,480
Nebraska. Chris Grooms was the police chief in Ord until December, and he's got some very interesting

160
00:16:16,480 --> 00:16:25,440
accounts from local residents of a spate of drone sightings that took place around 2019-2020. Chris,

161
00:16:25,440 --> 00:16:32,960
welcome to Reality Check. Good to have you here. What were and are local residents seeing in the Ord City

162
00:16:32,960 --> 00:16:41,040
area? Well, to this day, they're still popping up here and there. A deputy that still works with the

163
00:16:41,040 --> 00:16:47,200
Valley County Sheriff's Office just as recent as December 2024 had filmed some pretty odd stuff.

164
00:16:47,920 --> 00:16:58,080
Back in 2019-2020 is when they were very active here in the Valley County Ord area. And even to the

165
00:16:58,080 --> 00:17:03,760
west of us, about 100 miles, there were some counties that were also seeing the same stuff on the same

166
00:17:03,760 --> 00:17:09,920
nights at the same time as we were. So clearly, it wasn't just a bunch of hobbyist kids or people out

167
00:17:09,920 --> 00:17:15,600
flying their drones. These were large drones. They were small ones. They were bright lights in the sky.

168
00:17:15,600 --> 00:17:20,400
They were orbs at times. It was madness for about 17 days.

169
00:17:21,360 --> 00:17:26,160
So it was a very specific period of time. It was, what, over 17 days, you say?

170
00:17:26,160 --> 00:17:34,560
Yeah, approximately 17 days, yeah. About December, I think, 24th to about the 21st of January.

171
00:17:36,320 --> 00:17:41,360
So that was from September 2019 through to January 2020?

172
00:17:41,920 --> 00:17:48,960
December 24th of 2019 to about January 2021 of 2020.

173
00:17:49,680 --> 00:17:55,120
Right. And the thing that really strikes me, reading some of those reports that you've got from locals,

174
00:17:55,120 --> 00:18:01,920
that you've very kindly shared with us, in some cases, people were seeing anything between 6 to 25

175
00:18:02,480 --> 00:18:03,840
objects at a time.

176
00:18:04,560 --> 00:18:10,400
Yep. Even here in Valley County, there's a town southwest of Ord that's still in Valley County

177
00:18:10,400 --> 00:18:18,160
called Arcadia. And one of the nights, a couple of the off-duty officers, to include an off-duty state

178
00:18:18,160 --> 00:18:22,880
trooper, and an on-duty deputy with Valley County, including the sheriff.

179
00:18:25,520 --> 00:18:29,840
They witnessed anywhere between 40 and 50, essentially, surrounding the town.

180
00:18:30,720 --> 00:18:36,640
40 and 50? And these are, are they large drones, these? Or is there a different variation in the

181
00:18:36,640 --> 00:18:37,440
different types of drones?

182
00:18:37,440 --> 00:18:45,680
I think mostly that night, they were of a smaller version. But some nights, they were very large.

183
00:18:45,680 --> 00:18:51,920
Some of the larger ones seem to hang out by themselves. But then in a different location,

184
00:18:51,920 --> 00:18:57,280
maybe 20 miles away, 15 miles away, there'd be some smaller ones. But that night, there was 40

185
00:18:57,280 --> 00:19:02,320
to 50 that were counted by the sheriff, the deputy, an off-duty deputy, and the state trooper.

186
00:19:02,320 --> 00:19:08,960
Now, as I recall it, Chris, way back in around about 2014, 2015, there was a huge

187
00:19:08,960 --> 00:19:17,120
spate of sightings of alleged drones over the Midwest, over Nebraska, Dakota, North and South

188
00:19:17,120 --> 00:19:24,240
Dakota. And it was never explained. It went right across to Colorado. And there was a series of

189
00:19:24,240 --> 00:19:32,160
sightings by police, the FBI were involved, local TV got video of it, and there were never any answers.

190
00:19:32,400 --> 00:19:36,960
Is it possible? I'm just devil's advocating here and searching for an answer. Is it possible that

191
00:19:36,960 --> 00:19:42,960
because locals knew about those earlier sightings, these people are misguided, that they're

192
00:19:42,960 --> 00:19:49,280
misdirecting themselves, that they're looking at prosaic objects like aircraft or objects like stars

193
00:19:49,280 --> 00:19:54,400
or satellites and misidentifying them? You know, sometimes we're very suggestible as humans.

194
00:19:54,400 --> 00:19:55,600
Could it be that, do you think?

195
00:19:55,600 --> 00:20:03,200
Well, obviously, some of those calls did happen, but we would do our due diligence and investigate

196
00:20:03,200 --> 00:20:09,120
into it. And a lot of that did happen in other counties. But there was times where you had

197
00:20:09,760 --> 00:20:16,400
multiple witnesses. You had deputies, sheriffs, police officers, witnessing things with their own

198
00:20:16,400 --> 00:20:21,920
eyes. And these things weren't 30,000 feet up. They weren't in space. They were at 60 feet,

199
00:20:21,920 --> 00:20:26,640
100 feet. They were right there. And I'll go ahead, Ross.

200
00:20:26,640 --> 00:20:30,720
Now, I was going to ask, and what exactly were people saying that they were seeing,

201
00:20:30,720 --> 00:20:32,640
including some of your deputies?

202
00:20:32,640 --> 00:20:42,400
It varied. My personal experience on a call, I saw a large, bright orange, red light in the sky at

203
00:20:42,400 --> 00:20:53,280
about 100 to 150 feet. And it had moved roughly three quarters of a mile away. It was away from me

204
00:20:53,280 --> 00:20:59,600
and had moved directly in front of me three quarters of a mile in about two to four seconds. And it was at

205
00:20:59,600 --> 00:21:07,680
about 100 feet. It made no noise whatsoever. And I tried to pursue it as it continued to head south

206
00:21:07,680 --> 00:21:13,760
out of our county. And I couldn't catch it. I never really got a good look at it. I couldn't tell if

207
00:21:13,760 --> 00:21:18,720
there was wings or a tail or anything because it was just so bright. It was just a big, bright light.

208
00:21:20,000 --> 00:21:26,640
If an object moves in two or three seconds, three quarters of a mile, that's an extraordinary rate of

209
00:21:26,640 --> 00:21:32,000
acceleration, isn't it? Yeah. So I talked to some pretty intelligent people with the UAP disclosure

210
00:21:32,000 --> 00:21:40,800
fund, some super, super awesome, intelligent guys. And they've pretty much estimated that this thing

211
00:21:40,800 --> 00:21:46,000
could have been moving anywhere between 350 to 750 miles an hour, if not even faster.

212
00:21:46,960 --> 00:21:55,520
Now, unless you've got a jet turbine powered drone with the kind of jets that sit on a 737 or a 747,

213
00:21:56,080 --> 00:22:00,880
there is absolutely no way a conventional drone can move that fast, is there?

214
00:22:00,880 --> 00:22:07,760
Not in my experience. And I spent 11 years almost active duty in the military around jets,

215
00:22:07,760 --> 00:22:16,000
helicopters, C-130s, C-17s, predator drones. And even when those things are at 20,000 feet flying above

216
00:22:16,000 --> 00:22:23,920
you, you can still hear them. And this thing made no noise. The one thing I will add that I found to be a

217
00:22:23,920 --> 00:22:30,800
little odd was that it had contrails behind it as it whizzed by me. And I could never figure out what

218
00:22:30,800 --> 00:22:35,120
that was. I've talked to a few people that kind of gave me an idea of maybe what that reasoning was.

219
00:22:35,120 --> 00:22:43,520
But the other thing that was concerning was, as I tried to pursue it and it continued out of my county,

220
00:22:43,520 --> 00:22:49,680
I came to a bridge that goes over the North Loop River and it kind of opens up into a big area that gives me a

221
00:22:49,680 --> 00:22:55,360
better line of sight. And I got out of my truck to try and climb onto my hood to see if I could see

222
00:22:55,360 --> 00:23:01,680
it. And it was gone. It either shut the light off or it just flew over the horizon so fast that I

223
00:23:01,680 --> 00:23:04,240
couldn't make out what it was or get a better eye view of it.

224
00:23:04,240 --> 00:23:10,480
I had a couple of people that witnessed it. There was actually some locals that are on the

225
00:23:10,480 --> 00:23:15,040
volunteer fire fire department that come and met me on the bridge. And I pretty much said,

226
00:23:15,040 --> 00:23:23,040
please tell me you saw that. And they giggled and said, oh, yeah, we saw it. So it was pretty intense.

227
00:23:23,040 --> 00:23:29,520
And the other thing about that was the reason I went to that call was there was 11 to 15 smaller

228
00:23:29,520 --> 00:23:34,800
drones flying over a smaller town outside of my county. They don't have a very good law enforcement

229
00:23:34,800 --> 00:23:40,880
presence there. So I was asked to go help. And people were calling in that these 11 to 15 things

230
00:23:40,880 --> 00:23:47,600
in the sky were surrounding the town. So when I went to go that way, that's when this other big giant

231
00:23:47,600 --> 00:23:55,280
thing flew just right by me and continued south. And as I continued to go into this small little town,

232
00:23:55,280 --> 00:23:59,440
whatever those little ones were, they disappeared when the big one left.

233
00:23:59,440 --> 00:24:05,760
What was the shape of the big one? Did it look like a craft or did it look more like an orb?

234
00:24:05,760 --> 00:24:12,960
Yeah, it looked essentially like an orb, a big bright light in the sky. And it was moving.

235
00:24:12,960 --> 00:24:16,080
It was moving so fast. It still blows my mind to this day.

236
00:24:16,080 --> 00:24:22,160
So when you say fast, you'd be familiar with the term the five observables, the things that are used to

237
00:24:22,160 --> 00:24:31,200
describe anomalous objects, instantaneous velocity, hypersonic velocity, extreme speeds, transmedium,

238
00:24:31,200 --> 00:24:38,960
going from sea to water, water to air, atmosphere into space, stealth, and of course, positive lift

239
00:24:38,960 --> 00:24:45,520
with no visible means of propulsion. Do any of the objects that you've seen or that your deputy's seen

240
00:24:45,520 --> 00:24:55,040
conform to those five observables, do you believe? I'd say a lot of the time that instantaneous

241
00:24:55,040 --> 00:25:03,360
acceleration was going on, just they'd be hovering for, I mean, these things were around every night

242
00:25:03,360 --> 00:25:09,440
for three, four or five hours, just moving around, doing weird stuff around little towns. And yeah,

243
00:25:09,440 --> 00:25:15,440
they'd zip away and a ton of the witnesses that we interviewed or we talked to all said the same

244
00:25:15,440 --> 00:25:19,760
thing, that when these things would fly off at extreme rates of speed, they never made,

245
00:25:20,320 --> 00:25:25,280
they never made sounds. They never made sounds that a quadcopter drone would make. They just,

246
00:25:25,280 --> 00:25:30,960
they would take off. There you've got instantaneous acceleration or hypersonic,

247
00:25:30,960 --> 00:25:38,560
high speeds at least. And you've also got, um, uh, no visible means of propulsion. You're not hearing a

248
00:25:38,560 --> 00:25:44,720
jet turbine. You're not seeing or hearing a propeller. Yep. And just like that night that I saw that large

249
00:25:44,720 --> 00:25:52,880
one fly by me, um, you know, talking to those, um, UAP disclosure fund guys, they, they had mentioned

250
00:25:52,880 --> 00:25:57,360
there could have been possibly a sonic boom if boom, if it hadn't reached the speed that they

251
00:25:57,360 --> 00:26:02,240
threw in there and estimated in it, there was no sonic boom. There was the contrails, but there

252
00:26:02,240 --> 00:26:08,640
was no sonic boom. It was just complete silence. So what's motivated you to speak out publicly on

253
00:26:08,640 --> 00:26:14,000
this Chris, as I understand it is you've looked at the videos and the photographs of what's being

254
00:26:14,000 --> 00:26:20,400
recorded in both New Jersey and in other parts of the United States and what you saw and your

255
00:26:20,400 --> 00:26:28,480
colleagues saw back in 2019, 2020, is it identical or similar to what they're now seeing and now

256
00:26:28,480 --> 00:26:36,480
recording? Yeah, it's, it's very similar. Um, it's around, I mean, this could be all anecdotal,

257
00:26:36,480 --> 00:26:45,360
but it's around the same timeframe that December, January, um, the, the, the possible sightings of SUV

258
00:26:45,360 --> 00:26:53,760
sized drones, the orbs, the, the lights in the sky doing things that make no sense. Um, it's all,

259
00:26:53,760 --> 00:27:00,320
it's all very similar to what we were seeing back in 2019, 2020. What do you think it is?

260
00:27:02,160 --> 00:27:11,760
Oh, I, uh, when I first saw that stuff, uh, I questioned a lot of, you know, what was I seeing?

261
00:27:12,560 --> 00:27:17,040
Could it have been us? Could it have been a foreign adversary? But then immediately I threw

262
00:27:17,040 --> 00:27:22,880
out the foreign adversary thing. It just, this middle of nowhere, Nebraska, if you're a foreign

263
00:27:22,880 --> 00:27:27,680
adversary coming out of a submarine out in the ocean and you're flying back to a submarine every

264
00:27:27,680 --> 00:27:35,120
night to the east or west coast, uh, how are you refueling? Where are you re-energizing? You know,

265
00:27:35,120 --> 00:27:38,400
whatever you want to talk about when it comes to the battery operated or whatever,

266
00:27:39,040 --> 00:27:42,000
it just, it wasn't for an adversary. It just wasn't.

267
00:27:42,000 --> 00:27:45,600
The other thing, the other thing I thought was really well done by you and your deputies

268
00:27:45,600 --> 00:27:49,680
was a couple of them when they were making the reports, they made the note that they'd

269
00:27:49,680 --> 00:27:55,200
looked on flight tracker to see if there were any registered aircraft transmitting on a transponder

270
00:27:55,200 --> 00:28:00,320
in the area. And they were able to exclude the possibility that these were known aircraft.

271
00:28:00,320 --> 00:28:06,880
Uh, was that a common feature that, that your officers were basically trying to rule out

272
00:28:06,880 --> 00:28:14,160
prosaic explanations? Yeah. And another thing is, is, you know, we do have flyover jets going from big

273
00:28:14,160 --> 00:28:20,400
cities. That's obvious. And that happens from sunup to sundown, but those things are at 30,000,

274
00:28:20,400 --> 00:28:27,440
40,000, 25,000. So you, you know, that that's a jet flying over you. These things were at 60 feet.

275
00:28:27,440 --> 00:28:33,920
They were at 50 feet, a hundred feet. They were right. They were right there. They weren't high up

276
00:28:33,920 --> 00:28:42,320
in the air. Um, but yeah, we, we use some of the flight tracker data to see if it was potentially a,

277
00:28:42,880 --> 00:28:48,560
you know, a jet, which obviously it never was. We do have your typical national guard,

278
00:28:48,560 --> 00:28:53,360
CH 47 Chinooks and your black Hawks that fly around here and train. But even then you,

279
00:28:54,400 --> 00:28:58,480
I can tell when a Chinook is three miles out. You know, I can just tell by,

280
00:28:59,120 --> 00:29:05,600
I've been around them so much and, uh, I can just tell, but they don't even really fly around towns

281
00:29:05,600 --> 00:29:08,880
like these things we're doing. They, they stick out to the rivers and.

282
00:29:08,880 --> 00:29:13,680
I mean, I'm just trying to think of possible explanations. Does the, is it Offutt Air Force

283
00:29:13,680 --> 00:29:20,480
Base is about what, 190 miles to the west of where you were or where you are? Uh, could it be that these

284
00:29:20,480 --> 00:29:26,800
are military operations out of the Offutt Air Force Base? So Offutt, yep. Offutt's about three,

285
00:29:26,800 --> 00:29:33,200
three and a half hours, um, east of us. They're to the east of. Oh, sorry, east, yep. Nope, you're fine, yep.

286
00:29:33,680 --> 00:29:41,840
East, um, they do fly up here once in a while with, you know, the F-22s and stuff like that,

287
00:29:41,840 --> 00:29:49,200
but you just, people know, people just know that it's, it's a jet doing, doing flybys. You're gonna,

288
00:29:49,200 --> 00:29:53,600
and obviously the noise, you can hear them while they're out doing what they're doing.

289
00:29:53,600 --> 00:29:58,720
You know, it's an amazing mystery this Chris, because of course there's been the previous

290
00:29:58,720 --> 00:30:03,280
sightings over the midwest that had everybody baffled, that did make national television at

291
00:30:03,280 --> 00:30:08,320
the time and the FBI wasn't able to provide an explanation. And even the government formally

292
00:30:08,320 --> 00:30:13,120
denied that it was anything of theirs. We've got the same situation again, where the defence

293
00:30:13,120 --> 00:30:18,080
department's denying that the drones on the east and west coast have anything at all to do with the

294
00:30:18,080 --> 00:30:24,160
defence department. Somebody's not telling the truth, are they? I mean, there must be somebody

295
00:30:24,160 --> 00:30:31,600
who knows what these objects are. Yeah, I, uh, when all this was going on, my sheriff, other law

296
00:30:31,600 --> 00:30:40,240
enforcement agencies, we reached out to, I mean, everybody, the FBI off it, um, you know, the local

297
00:30:41,200 --> 00:30:48,880
state police, FAA, uh, we, we reached out to everybody, they were kind, they were polite,

298
00:30:48,880 --> 00:30:54,480
they answered our questions as best they could. But none of the answers came from anybody that,

299
00:30:54,480 --> 00:31:00,000
oh yeah, that's this, or oh yeah, that's, that's China or Russia, you know, it just, we never had answers.

300
00:31:01,440 --> 00:31:06,320
Which is intriguing. I mean, I, have you had anybody say to you that you're not seeing what,

301
00:31:06,320 --> 00:31:10,320
I mean, one of the things that's been happening in New Jersey that infuriates the people of New

302
00:31:10,320 --> 00:31:15,280
Jersey is they're being told that they're not seeing what they're absolutely adamant they are

303
00:31:15,280 --> 00:31:20,560
seeing, and they're sick of being gaslit by government and the relevant agencies. Um, have

304
00:31:20,560 --> 00:31:28,080
you been told that you're not seeing what you're seeing? Me personally? No, uh, I've never had any,

305
00:31:28,080 --> 00:31:34,560
uh, government agency or anything like that tell me, oh, you're just seeing, you know, planes and

306
00:31:34,560 --> 00:31:40,800
helicopters and obvious drones. Nobody's ever said anything like that to me, but we have got the,

307
00:31:40,800 --> 00:31:46,480
we've got the cold shoulder, that's for sure. Now, the thing that really puzzles me about this is

308
00:31:46,480 --> 00:31:54,320
you've got a major air base, which has previously been the subject of UFO sightings very relatively

309
00:31:54,320 --> 00:32:00,480
close to you within a few hours drive. Um, you're, you're a person with extensive military experience.

310
00:32:00,480 --> 00:32:06,000
You've worked in the US Army as an infantry squad leader, as in the airborne infantry as a team

311
00:32:06,000 --> 00:32:13,680
leader and a squad leader. Whatever you say about this, the fact that there are anomalous objects

312
00:32:13,680 --> 00:32:19,680
moving at extraordinary speeds, nobody's accepting responsibility from them. And they're within a few

313
00:32:19,680 --> 00:32:27,040
hours of one of the major, I suspect, nuclear armed military bases in the United States. By any

314
00:32:27,040 --> 00:32:34,320
definition, Chris, that's a national security concern, isn't it? Absolutely. Yep. I, I've been

315
00:32:34,320 --> 00:32:40,640
concerned with this ever since that stuff was happening back in 2019, 2020. Um, you know, whether,

316
00:32:40,640 --> 00:32:47,440
whether it is some type of non-human intelligence or it's a foreign adversary and they're using some

317
00:32:47,440 --> 00:32:53,600
high-tech drones. It, I mean, you, you just look into Ukraine and even back when I was in the military in

318
00:32:53,600 --> 00:33:01,280
06 through 08 in Afghanistan and Iraq, we were using drones, you know, just little squad drones that our,

319
00:33:01,280 --> 00:33:06,400
our squad would fly up in the air and could fly around and do reconnaissance for us. But you just

320
00:33:06,400 --> 00:33:12,000
think about out here in Nebraska, we, we don't have any where I'm at. We don't have nuclear facilities

321
00:33:12,560 --> 00:33:16,720
right around my local area, but we do have ethanol plants and there are hundreds and hundreds and

322
00:33:16,720 --> 00:33:24,400
thousands of pounds of chemicals feed. You have, you know, daily trains coming through with coal

323
00:33:24,400 --> 00:33:31,520
and picking up feed and stuff like that. If you just took one of these so-called drones and put 15

324
00:33:31,520 --> 00:33:37,600
pounds of C4 on it and flew it into our ethanol plant, you'd have a major disaster. And I'm not

325
00:33:37,600 --> 00:33:41,920
trying to scare people or anything like that, but it's, it's, it's obviously something that we in law

326
00:33:41,920 --> 00:33:47,760
enforcement think about. That's what I find bewildering. I mean, we're obviously the focus

327
00:33:47,760 --> 00:33:53,520
very much of this episode is to look at regions other than the ones that have featured prominently

328
00:33:53,520 --> 00:33:58,720
in the media, mainly on the East coast in New Jersey and over New York city, where it's clear

329
00:33:58,720 --> 00:34:04,160
these drones have been seen, not just in the last few months, but over many years, going back in some

330
00:34:04,160 --> 00:34:10,640
cases over a decade. And it's an ongoing mystery and we never get answers. Government never really

331
00:34:10,640 --> 00:34:17,200
provides an answer. Do you think there is, I mean, I'm always intrigued by how governments work and

332
00:34:17,200 --> 00:34:22,800
one of the great lessons I've been taught is always assume a screw up before a conspiracy.

333
00:34:23,600 --> 00:34:28,080
Is it possible you think that government just doesn't know what these objects are and doesn't

334
00:34:28,080 --> 00:34:35,840
want to admit it? I mean, I can, I can speculate and say maybe that, maybe that is the reason that

335
00:34:35,840 --> 00:34:42,880
they can't say nothing is they don't know. Um, I I'm open to any possibilities at this point,

336
00:34:42,880 --> 00:34:48,960
just because of the lackadaisical approach from some of the government agencies. I'm not saying

337
00:34:48,960 --> 00:34:55,200
that they're doing it on purpose because maybe they just don't know. In this case, it looks to me

338
00:34:55,200 --> 00:35:00,080
like there's a national security concern. And I'm hearing this from good people like yourself and the

339
00:35:00,080 --> 00:35:06,880
police, the FBI, from local government and indeed from the highest levels of government.

340
00:35:06,880 --> 00:35:12,720
And yet nobody seems willing to take control or take charge of it. It's a very curious situation.

341
00:35:13,360 --> 00:35:18,640
Chris, thank you so much for joining Reality Check and I sincerely hope we can get some answers for you.

342
00:35:18,640 --> 00:35:20,560
Yeah, I appreciate it, Ross. Thank you.

343
00:35:20,560 --> 00:35:29,680
So we recorded that interview with Chris Groom before, of course, today's White House announcement,

344
00:35:29,680 --> 00:35:33,920
which basically suggests that we can all go away and stop worrying about the drones,

345
00:35:33,920 --> 00:35:39,200
because it was all authorized by the FAA. And I asked Chris in the wake of that announcement,

346
00:35:39,200 --> 00:35:44,800
what was his response to that? And he's authorized me to use this statement, quote,

347
00:35:45,520 --> 00:35:53,360
it's an absolute lie, especially if you date back to Nebraska in 2019, 2020, which of course is four

348
00:35:53,360 --> 00:36:02,960
or five years ago. Valley County is roughly 568 square miles. It has less of a population than 4,500

349
00:36:02,960 --> 00:36:10,240
people. The FAA was not doing research at that time, especially what these so-called drones were doing.

350
00:36:10,240 --> 00:36:15,920
They were not hobbyists, not to mention how many counties at one time were reporting the same thing

351
00:36:15,920 --> 00:36:22,240
at the same time with 100 miles between my county, which was Valley County, and Lincoln County.

352
00:36:22,800 --> 00:36:28,480
We've been lied to again. I'm not a political guy. I did vote for Trump. At the end of the day,

353
00:36:28,480 --> 00:36:34,960
I'm not loyal to a person or a party, especially when they lie to the American people and the world

354
00:36:34,960 --> 00:36:42,560
constantly. I'm loyal to the citizens of my country and the Constitution. What an absolute joke,

355
00:36:42,560 --> 00:36:49,040
says Chris Grooms. He's obviously very strongly of the view that the current White House statement

356
00:36:49,040 --> 00:36:55,600
doesn't explain what he's been seeing and what many people have been seeing, not just in New Jersey or

357
00:36:55,600 --> 00:37:04,480
New York, but across the US and indeed around the world for weeks. The mystery continues. Thank you so

358
00:37:04,480 --> 00:37:10,000
much for joining this intriguing episode of Reality Check. We'll be digging for answers and we'll be

359
00:37:10,000 --> 00:37:18,480
back with more soon. Thank you for watching.

360
00:37:18,480 --> 00:37:27,200
Thanks for watching. Go to joinnn.com to find NewsNation on your television provider. And please don't

361
00:37:27,200 --> 00:37:35,440
forget to click that red subscribe button to ensure you get more of NewsNation's unbiased and fact-driven

362
00:37:35,440 --> 00:37:40,880
news coverage.