New Jersey Rep. Jeff Van Drew recently claimed that the mysterious drones hovering over New Jersey are being launched from an Iranian “mothership” off the U.S. coast. Is there any truth to this or the Pentagon’s denial that the U.S. military is involved? Glenn speaks with New Jersey Assemblyman Brian Bergen, who recently attended a “mind boggling” meeting with the Department of Homeland Security. DHS, he says, claimed to have no information at all on the drones, except that they’re untrackable. Something doesn’t add up here, Glenn says. So, he runs his own theory by Assemblyman Bergen: what if the military is lying to us?
Transcript
Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors
GLENN: Okay. So yesterday, Republican Representative Jeff Van Drew told Fox news this about the drones in New Jersey.
VOICE: You know, I'm also on the transportation committee, on the aviation subcommittee, and I've gotten to know people.
And from very high sources, very qualified sources, very responsible sources, I'm going to tell you the real deal.
Iran launched a mothership. Probably about a month ago.
That contains these drones. That mothership is off -- I'm going to tell you the deal.
It's off east coast of the United States of America.
They've launched drones. It's everything that we can see or hear. And, again, these are from high sources. I don't say this lightly.
Now, you know, we know there was a probability. It could have been our own government. You know it wasn't our own government, because they would have let us know.
It could have been some really glorified hobbyist that we're doing something unbelievable. They don't have the technology. But let's pretend that's possible.
A third possibility was somebody, an adversarial country doing this.
Know that Iran made a deal with China, to purchase drones, motherships, and technology.
GLENN: Okay. Stop.
Now, the Pentagon came out and said, that's not true.
There's a state senator, you might have seen this, on X. Last night.
Here's what Doug Steinhardt said, on these drones.
Cut 13.
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VOICE: The best information that we have available to us, at this point, suggest that these drones are coming from offshore. That when we try to make contact with them. They become evasive and elusive. You know, from my perspective, if they're American assets. If they're American military. If they're American drones, and I think we owe the American people answers or explanations.
GLENN: Okay. Stop. Now, Brian Bergen is another New Jersey assemblyman. He drove two hours for a private meeting with the FBI, Department of Homeland Security. And everybody else. This was going around last night.
And he left the meeting.
He said, it was the biggest bunch of bullcrap he's ever heard.
He's former military. He said, we don't know what it is. Of course we know what it is. And they gave us no information. He was really angry.
He's joining me here in about four minutes. So stand by.
I think I know what these are. I think -- but I'm not ruling out, the Iran thing.
I mean, that -- that -- I mean, a strike right now, would put the world at war.
I don't think so. The Pentagon said had to. But do you trust the pentagon?
The problem is here. We don't trust anybody.
Because they've all betrayed our trust.
That's why people voted on both sides, for Donald Trump.
Because we have to know the truth.
GLENN: I want to bring in Brian Bergen. I saw Brian on I think it was X yesterday.
He's a New Jersey assemblyman, that drove a couple of hours, for this meeting with, you know, the DHS and the FAA, and everybody that should know, what the heck is going on with these drones. And he walked out early. He was so flaming angry. And I wanted to get him on today. Brian, how are you?
BRIAN: I'm doing great, Glenn. Thanks for having me, man.
GLENN: You bet.
So why did you walk out yesterday? What happened?
BRIAN: Well, so we got called down there. We being all 120 members of the state legislature of New Jersey.
And the assembly and the Senate, got invited to come down to the special legislator-only briefing down in the state police headquarters. And the state police was there, and the Department of Homeland Security was there. And they were supposed to tell us what was going on.
GLENN: Wait. Wait. Wait. Hang on just a second. So they didn't even come to you?
BRIAN: No.
GLENN: They said to all the legislators. Instead of, how many guys were speaking? Ten?
BRIAN: Less.
GLENN: Less than ten. Okay. All right. That's good. All right.
BRIAN: Yeah. Yeah. So we all went there.
And the first thing they say, this is not a classified briefing.
In fact, we could have probably let the press in.
Then they went on and they said, that they know nothing. And they have no understanding what's going on.
They don't know where they're coming from. Where they're going to.
Or who is responsible for it.
And so I was just -- I was just pissed, that we're there to listen to such a Bush-league amateur hour presentation, that they could have given us via text message.
And what really got me upset, was the primary reason why I left early.
Was two things.
The colonel or the state police said he had a helicopter of his, hovering directly above one of these drones, which is called a six-foot drone.
But he felt unsafe for his pilots. And had them land. Ten minutes later, he says, hey. It would be really nice to know, where these things are going or coming from.
I'm like, why did you follow him? When you had it in your sites.
I mean, I have no idea why --
GLENN: Now, I just -- I want the audience to know, you were -- you were an Apache helicopter pilot in Iraq. You have a bronze star, combat action badge. Several honors.
You graduated at West Point. You're not a nobody on what happens in the sky.
BRIAN: Right. Right. That's exactly right.
First of all, what he said, people were hovering above it. I said, well, that's stupid.
Who hovers above a target? You know, you want to get a standoff distance and follow it. You know, so you can use your assistance to track it.
Yes. I'm speaking from some level of experience here.
But more importantly, it was just common sense.
You have this thing in your sites. That you know is potentially a threat.
Because we don't know where it's coming. Where it's going. And who is controlling it.
And it's 6 feet big in the sky.
And you just let it go.
I mean, it was mind-boggling to me.
The second thing that they said, that really sent me through the moon.
Was the Department of Homeland Security. Has some device. That they will give to the state police, that will help them identify drones in the sky.
And it's supposed to be pretty cool technology.
It filters out birds and stuff like that.
It's supposed to be really good.
Anyway, one of my colleagues said, well, when are you going to get it?
And the colonel of the state police said, it should be here in a couple of days.
And I was like, in my head, should be here in a couple of days? What the hell are you doing?
Somebody go get in a van. Drive it to freaking New Jersey, right now. You know, Glenn. This is the level of stupidity, that we're dealing with here.
And that's why I was so frustrated. And continue to be frustrated.
GLENN: Okay. So let me run a couple of things by you.
First, a Congressman came out yesterday. And said, I have it on good authority, that it's Iran.
And I have to ship off -- if that were true, would we not have followed these things back to the ship?
Why aren't we -- if they're going back over the water, and they're not ours, why wouldn't we be blowing them up, over the water?
BRIAN: Well, so that's a great question, and it was Congressman Van Drew who said that. And I think very highly of Congressman Van Drew. And he's not someone who normally says something outlandish like that. But in this case -- I rag on our state government all the time. And in this case, Homeland Security.
But our US Navy is a force to be reckoned with. Now, I'm a West Point grad.
We beat the hell out of the Navy this weekend.
But I have to give them some respect.
Because they would not allow an Iranian ship of any kind to get close to us.
So I find that to be pretty unusual, that that happened.
GLENN: Correct.
So the next thing is, if we couldn't track these things.
I've been in the new jersey and New York area.
There's a lot of airplanes in the sky.
If you can't track these. And you don't know where they are, you would ground all of the planes. Because you don't know if they're hostile to planes.
You don't know if someone of them just gets into the flight path of another.
There are planes everywhere in the sky.
So, again, that leads me to believe, you can track these. And you know where they're coming from.
BRIAN: Yeah. I don't know all the technology available to them.
What I do know. We're the United States of America. I live in a state. New Jersey, which has a 56 billion-dollar budget.
The fact we don't have the resources to figure this out. Is ludicrous.
You're right. There's a lot of -- the concerns are piling up now.
That you mentioned. What if they go dark, as the governor said. You know, that's a danger to other aircraft that operate in visual flight rules at night.
You know, there's a lot of potential issues here. You know, some lawmakers are calling for a -- a shutdown of drone activity in the sky. But, you know, we don't even know who these people are. What they're doing. They certainly won't live listen if we shut down activity.
GLENN: Right. What if we take all the guns from the good guys?
BRIAN: Right.
But what we do need to do is common sense. It just needs to be an all hands on deck approach.
The state police, the National Guard, which can be mobilized by the governor.
The Department of Homeland Security. And they need to follow one of these suckers to wherever it goes, and let's figure who is responsible.
GLENN: So here's what baffles me, Brian. You get one guy with a laser pointer in his backyard, and he points it at an airplane and a pilot, and the FAA tackles that guy, they -- they grapple down from helicopters and make sure that never happens again. How do we -- if this is some private citizen or citizens doing it. How would we not know that?
BRIAN: You're 100 percent right. And that's why, in an interview I had yesterday, I said, it's a lack of effort.
It has to be a lack of effort.
You know, the FBI is an amazing organization. That takes down people, all the time, before they do all kinds of crazy stuff.
They have a litany of successes that they can point to, of stopping things before they happen. Because of the counter terrorism effort. And the intelligence efforts. Why the hell they can't find anybody responsible for this. Or pick up any chatter is crazy.
GLENN: Okay. Let me give you my theory.
And please, if you think it's nonsense. Shoot it full of holes.
My uncle used to be in military intelligence, back in the '60s and '70s. And he did all of the nuclear stuff. And when the stealth B1 bomber came out. The wing. He said, old technology. And I said, what?
And had he's -- because remember, it was first spotted. And they were like, what is that?
It's a UFO. And he's like, that's been available for a while.
They'll announce it to the country.
And they'll fly it around. And people will speculate.
Oh, yeah. We have a B1 bomber.
It's new.
I think a good chance is, we are sending someone a message. Or we're doing something with the -- I mean, Russia just launched, you know, a hypersonic missile.
It doesn't make sense that our government doesn't know what this is. And can't stop it. And doesn't see it as a danger.
What makes sense, is they're lying to us.
They know what this is.
And it's not extra terrestrial. And it's not any of that crap.
What do you think?
BRIAN: Well, so I don't disagree with the premise here. One of the things I will say is unique to this area, and where all this is happening.
We have a military inflation called Picatinny Arsenal.
And it's very important, to Picatinny Arsenal, that there's good community relations. Because, you know, we want to maintain that here.
And it's a huge resource for the army where it's at. Any uncertainty about what's going on military-wise around here, is bad. Bad for them. And bad for the future of Picatinny.
So they have an incentive to overcommunicate when things are happening. And they often do that, when they're giving testing. They overcommunicate. So in this area here. It's probably unlikely, that there will be anything that government would want to do, that would cause, you know, public concern.
GLENN: So then what is your -- what are you left with, that makes sense to you, the most?
BRIAN: You know, to be honest. I'm not left with much.
Before this briefing, I would have told you, it's FedEx. Or UPS. Or Amazon testing out delivery capabilities of aircrafts.
You know, and they want to do it at night. So as not to freak people out. But then by this point, it's blown up so much.
You would think somebody would say something.
They would say, oh, yeah. It's us. Chill out.
So I really -- I really don't know.
I am legitimately concerned. And I'm not a conspiracy theorist. I'm not one that jumps to conclusions.
But the -- the fact that nobody knows. And the people that are supposed to know, they give us no confidence.
GLENN: And you believe they don't know. You believe they don't know.
BRIAN: Yeah, I do. Could the CIA know? Maybe I was briefed by them.
But I believe the State Police, and the Department of Homeland Security, and the Pentagon do not know. I really do. And that's scary.
It's equally scary if I'm wrong. And they do know, and they're doing this to us.
GLENN: That's the world we live in today.
You know, it's always like, it could be this. Which would mean that Jesus is coming. But it could mean this. Which means Jesus is copping.
BRIAN: Yeah. That's right Glenn. In this situation, this is the part that frustrates me. They can figure it out.
A couple of Apache helicopters. We'll follow these freaking things.
And we will figure it out for you. Someone can get this done. They're just choosing not to do it.
GLENN: I know somebody with an Apache. A private individual with an Apache helicopter.
BRIAN: Well, let's get it over here.
A little rusty probably. But I think I can probably figure it out.
GLENN: They're probably listening right now. If you want to check in, we'll maybe line that up. Thank you so much, appreciate it.
God bless you, Brian. You bet.
