Join Ross Coulthart for a LIVE Q&A at 4p/3c this Wednesday following a House hearing on UAPs. Coulthart will break down testimony from former NASA administrator Michael Gold, Pentagon insider Lue Elizondo, journalist Michael Shellenberger and retired Navy Rear Adm. Tim Gallaudet. NewsNation has talked exclusively with three of the four witnesses.
(NewsNation) — Lawmakers are holding a new public hearing on UFOs on the heels of the election of President-elect Donald Trump, who has said he supports UFO disclosure.
Trump has said he supports transparency on the subject of UFOs but has not necessarily expressed deep interest in the subject.
Wednesday’s hearing on unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs) comes as a bipartisan group of lawmakers has pushed for answers in the wake of whistleblower allegations the Pentagon is operating a secret UFO retrieval program.
What we know about UFOs from whistleblowers to secret programs
UFO whistleblower allegations
Former Air Force intelligence officer David Grusch came forward last year with allegations about such a program and suggested the government may even have the remains of nonhuman entities.
Following Grusch’s revelations, others have come forward with similar allegations, including former Pentagon employee Lue Elizondo and former Navy Rear Admiral Tim Gallaudet.
Recently, independent journalist Michael Shellenberger revealed another whistleblower report, which he claims documents a program called “Immaculate Constellation” that collected intelligence information on UAPs. It is the first time any whistleblower has ever given a specific name to a program.
Pentagon denies secret UAP programs
The Pentagon has responded with denials of any programs and said there is no evidence UAPs are extraterrestrial in nature.
A report from the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), which investigates UAP reports for the Defense Department, said most UAP sightings were misidentifications of drones, natural phenomena or classified technology.
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The agency did admit to plans for the Kona Blue program, which would have reverse-engineered UAP technology. However, the program was never put into practice because no such technology has ever been recovered.
NASA also issued a report saying there was no evidence so far to support extraterrestrial involvement, though the agency also called for the destigmatization of the subject and stronger data collection on UAPs.
Presidential interest in UFOs
Presidential interest in UFOs is not a new concept. In 1948, following a wave of sightings, including the famous 1947 Roswell incident, President Harry Truman pushed for more investigation into UFO sightings, though his concern was likely as motivated by the arms race of the Cold War as interest in alien contact.
At least one president has had an even closer encounter with unexplained objects. President Jimmy Carter observed something unidentifiable in the sky one night in 1969.
Carter documented the incident just before he ran for president. Most dismissed the sightings, and Carter himself did not necessarily believe the object was alien. In 2016, a researcher explained the sighting as a barium cloud from a high-altitude rocket.
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President Ronald Reagan also had an unexplained encounter with an object spotted trailing his plane in 1974.
He would go on to ask the leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, if the country would support the U.S. in the event of an attack from outer space.
Will Trump bring transparency on UAPs?
Of course, a president can only be transparent if they are aware of what is going on.
Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama have all admitted to being briefed on the subject of UFOs.
Clinton and Obama had specifically expressed interest in the topic and requested information on alleged recovered UFOs or aliens that some insist the government possesses. Later, they would say there was no evidence to support the decadeslong rumors.
“Multiple presidents have promised over many, many decades to get to the bottom of the UAP mystery, and all of them have failed miserably,” said NewsNation’s Ross Coulthart.
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There is a chance those presidents were withholding information because of national security concerns. However, some have suggested the presidents themselves were lied to by officials intent on maintaining the secrecy of any information or technology the U.S. has on UAPs.
In one conversation with his son, Donald Trump Jr., Trump suggested that he did have knowledge about UFOs supposedly recovered from Roswell in 1947 but declined to share what he knew.
It’s possible Trump would not be given full information on UFOs, particularly given his history in handling classified information and fears he would breach national security.
“We should take what former President Donald Trump is saying with a grain of salt,” Coulthart said.
