Jenna Calderón and Lisa Robyn Kruse - Asbury Park Press More than a dozen drones followed a 47-foot Coast Guard boat Sunday night, while law enforcement tracked another 50 drones coming onto land from the ocean at Island State Park, Rep. Chris Smith said. Meanwhile, an FBI assistant director admitted that the agency doesn’t know who is behind the unidentified drones that are flying over New Jersey. Authorities did confirm that the drones are not coming from local military bases. The mystery of ...
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Karen Wall,Patch Staff Posted Wed, Dec 11, 2024 at 10:53 am ET|Updated Wed, Dec 11, 2024 at 11:43 am ET — U.S. Rep. Chris Smith is urging the federal Defense Department to take action to identify and address the "potential threat" posed by drone activity over New Jersey after being told a U.S. Coast Guard vessel was followed by drones and that dozens of drones were seen flying onshore from the Atlantic Ocean over the weekend. Smith made the demands in a letter to U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Au...
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Rep. Chris Smith (R-Manchester) tonight is on Island Beach State Park with Ocean County Sheriff Mike Mastronardy, who has led efforts to determine the source and possible risks related to the drone activity that has been reported in Ocean County over the last few days. Rep. Smith issued the following statement: “I have been speaking with Ocean County Sheriff Mike Mastronardy, Monmouth County Sheriff Shaun Golden, and national security officials located in the area to discuss the widespread repo...
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Rep. Chris Smith (R-Manchester) issued the following statement in response to President Biden’s decision to pardon Hunter Biden: "President Biden’s 'full and unconditional' pardon of his son Hunter makes an absolute mockery of our justice system. While other Americans are serving time for committing the very same felonies, Hunter Biden will never be held accountable for his crimes—simply because of his last name. Time and time again President Biden said that he would not pardon his son. He also...
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Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), Chair of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China and senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, issued the following statement on the release of three American prisoners who had been wrongfully detained in China: “We are overjoyed that Mark Swidan, Kai Li and John Leung are finally being released from their wrongful detention in China and that their family members—including those who shared testimony at the congressional hearing I chaired in September...
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In a bicameral letter led by House Pro-Life Caucus Co-Chair Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-AL), and Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY), 112 Members of Congress today asked the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to investigate and report on the amount of federal funding that has been awarded to abortion providers—including the Planned Parenthood Federation of America and the International Planned Parenthood Federation—over the past three years. Among t...
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Legislation (H.Res. 915) authored by Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) in response to a New Jersey couple whose adoption of Ukrainian siblings was abruptly upended when Russia invaded Ukraine in March 2022 passed the House of Representatives today in an overwhelming vote of 372-6. During House debate on his resolution, Smith shared the story of Matt and Deidre Gordon, who were in the final stage of adopting Bogdan and Galena—an orphan brother and sister—when Ukraine suspended intercountry adoptions after...
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U.S. Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ), senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and Chair of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, issued the following statement on Somaliland’s successful presidential election: “Congratulations to the people of Somaliland for once again conducting ‘free, fair and credible’ elections and to President-elect Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi and the Waddani Party on their victory. President Muse Bihi Abdi’s commitment to a peaceful transition of p...
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Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and Co-Chair of the Israel Allies Caucus, issued the following statement in response to the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) issuance of arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant: “The ICC’s outrageous issuance of arrest warrants for Prime Minister Netanyahu and Minister Gallant is a grotesquely bad decision by a court that is corrupted by blatant antise...
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With the strong support and vote of Rep. Chris Smith (R-Manchester), the House of Representatives today overwhelmingly passed (388-21) legislation—H.Res. 1449—condemning the global rise of antisemitism and calling on countries and international bodies to counter antisemitic hate. “The spiritual cancer of antisemitism is metastasizing—not only in our own country but in many others as well—at a rate that is both shocking and sickening,” said Rep. Smith, the Co-Chair of the House Task Force for Co...
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