{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=413469", "Kirby intentionally misleading? Smith: Biden White House needs to stop changing their story and instead be honest and frank on the drone activity in New Jersey", "2024-12-18", "2024", "2024-12", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) today issued the following statement in response to recent comments made by White House National Security spokesman John Kirby regarding the Coast Guard\u2019s reported encounter with drones off the coast of New Jersey:\n\n\u201cJohn Kirby is either profoundly uninformed or intentionally misleading when he asserts that highly trained Coast Guard personnel mistook drones following one of their 47-foot lifeboats for airplanes flying into JFK.\n\nThe Biden White House needs to stop changing their story and instead be honest and frank with the American people\u2014who deserve the truth and absolute transparency. We tolerate no coverups here.\n\nOn Sunday, December 8th, I was briefed by a Coast Guard Commanding Officer in Sheriff Mastronardy\u2019s mobile command center for monitoring drone activity on Island Beach State Park. One of my senior aides who was with me took contemporaneous notes during my meeting with the Coast Guard Commanding Officer,\u201d Smith said.\n\nAccording to the officer who briefed me, several drones\u2014between 13 and 30 of them\u2014followed the Coast Guard boat as it travelled along the coast. He told me that the drones were an estimated 100 feet from the vessel and were keeping up with the boat at an estimated cruising speed of 20 knots (or approximately 23 mph),\u201d Smith said.\n\nThe officer reported that the boat turned to return, and the drones followed. At one point, the drones were flashing their headlights at the boat. He told me that the drones were between four and eight feet in wingspan and appeared between 9-11pm.\u201d\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:07:19Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=413469"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7242350839078426, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}