President Joe Biden has broken his silence on the mysterious drone sightings reported in northern New Jersey in recent weeks, saying the flying machines pose no threat to the public.

The federal government has largely remained mum on the phenomenon, as both lawmakers on Capitol Hill and officials in New Jersey demand answers on what is really going on with the reported drones. The president tried to assure the American people there is nothing to worry about, though his answer was light on details.

“Nothing nefarious apparently, but they’re checking it all out,” Biden told reporters at the White House on Tuesday when asked about the origin of the drones. “We’re following this closely, but so far no sense of danger.”

“There’s a lot of drones authorized up there,” he said. “I think one started it and they all — everybody wanted to get in the deal.”

The remark presumably refers to the “copycat” theory that New Jersey police chiefs believe is a possible source of the increase in drone sightings. The theory suggests people are filing copycat reports of drone sightings because they misidentify aerial objects or want to be part of the media coverage.

The president’s first comments on the phenomenon come after President elect Donald Trump said the outgoing administration already knows the origin of the drones.

“The government knows what is happening,” Trump told reporters on Monday when asked to comment on the drone situation. “Look, our military knows where they took off from, if it’s a garage they can go right into that garage. They know where it came from and where it went.”

“And for some reason, they don’t want to comment. I think they’d be better off saying what it is,” he continued. “Our military knows, and our president knows, and for some reason they want to keep people in suspense.”

Addressing concerns about foreign adversaries controlling the drones, Trump argued that is unlikely to be the case.

“If it was the enemy, they’d blast it out. Even if they were late, they’d blast it,” Trump asserted. “Something strange is going on. For some reason, they don’t want to tell the people.”

Later that day, the FBI, FAA, Department of Defense, and Department of Homeland Security said there is little reason for concern as they investigate the 5,000 reported drone sightings. Of those, only 100 have generated leads.

“We assess that the sightings to date include a combination of lawful commercial drones, hobbyist drones, and law enforcement drones, as well as manned fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and stars mistakenly reported as drones,” the federal agencies and departments said in a joint statement late Monday.

“We have not identified anything anomalous and do not assess the activity to date to present a national security or public safety risk over the civilian airspace in New Jersey or other states in the northeast.”

New Jersey residents first saw drones hovering in the state’s airspace as early as November 18, and the number of witness accounts has only increased since then. Reports of drone sightings have also originated in New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Ohio, Virginia, and other states in the region.

Biden joined DHS secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and White House national security communications adviser John Kirby in commenting on the situation. All three gave the same talking points.

Mayorkas in particular offered a possible theory: that the FAA’s decision to allow drones to fly at night, which took effect in September 2023, may be responsible for the recent uptick in drone sightings.

“That may be one of the reasons why now people are seeing more drones than they did before, especially from dawn to dusk. And so that is the reality,” Mayorkas told ABC News on Sunday.

Despite assurances from the Biden administration that the drones aren’t nefarious, several elected officials want an explanation for the mysterious sightings.

Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) called on the DHS to deploy declassified radar technology in order to uncover the mystery. Meanwhile, New Jersey governor Phil Murphy said drone-detecting devices were deployed in the state in an attempt to convince civilians to “calm down.”

“There’s no evidence of anything nefarious here,” Murphy said this week. “We never say never, but . . . take a breath.”