- After the US Navy confirmed a spate of unusual sightings by its pilots last year, candidates in the 2020 election have been asked what they think of the possibility of extra-terrestrial life.
- Some candidates have dodged the question, others have openly shared their views.
- Sen. Bernie Sanders has suggested that he would declassify information about UFOs if he wins.
- President Donald Trump has expressed skepticism about UFOs but told a reporter last year the US was monitoring the situation.
- See what other leading candidates – including those who ran and then dropped out – think.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
As the 2020 presidential race heated up, the candidates came ever-closer scrutiny for their policies on the key issues facing the US.
But some reporters have made it their mission to find out where they stand on a subject usually relegated to fringes of the internet – the existence of UFOs.
The question is getting increasing attention after the Navy confirmed last September that a spate of videos showing military planes being buzzed by mysterious, fast objects.
In response to an freedom of information request in January, the Navy also said it had top-secret information about UFOs that it could not make public as it could cause “exceptionally grave damage to the National Security of the United States” if released.
Here are some of the candidates who've shared their thoughts on UFOs, and what they said.
Bernie Sanders suggested he would release classified information if elected
Sanders made the suggestion to podcast host Joe Rogan in an interview last August.
Here's the full exchange:
Rogan: If you found out something about aliens. If you found out something about UFOs, would you let us know?
Sanders: Well, I'll tell you, my wife would demand that I tell you.
Rogan: Is your wife a UFO nut?
Sanders: No, she's not a UFO nut. She goes: "Bernie, what is going on do you know? Do you have any access to records?"
Rogan: You don't have any access? You'll let us know though?
Sanders: Alright, we'll announce it on the show. How's that?
President Donald Trump doesn't seem to believe in UFOs, but did say his administration was looking into them
President Donald Trump was quizzed about the rising number of Navy UFO sightings in an interview with ABC News last June.
And though he was sceptical about the reports, he did confirm that the US government was monitoring the situation.
"They do say, and I've seen, and I've read, and I've heard. And I did have one very brief meeting on it. But people are saying they're seeing UFOs. Do I believe it? Not particularly."
Asked if he would be told if extraterrestrial life was found, Trump said: "We're watching, and you'll be the first to know."
Amy Klobuchar said she would declassify information so "earnest journalists" can dig into it
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who dropped out of the race after the South Carolina primary, made her remarks to Daymond Steer, a reporter on local New Hampshire newspaper Conway Daily Sun.
The state's primary in February was the first of the election season.
In his interviews, he typically saves one big question for the last: Do they believe in UFOs and if elected president would they declassify information about them?
"I think we don't know enough ... I don't know what's happened, not just with that sighting, but with others," Klobuchar told Steer in January. "And I think one of the things a president could do is to look into what's there in terms of what does the science say, what does our military say."
"Here's the interesting part of that answer is that some of this stuff is really old," she said. "So, why can't you see if you can let some of that out for the public so earnest journalists like you who are trying to get the bottom of the truth would be able to see it?"
Pete Buttigieg said humans 'should always be looking at what's going on around us'
Former Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, struck a philosophical tone when Steer asked him the same question in January. He dropped out at a similar time to Klobuchar.
The former military intelligence officer remarked that "strange things happen out there" and that though life outside Earth probably existed, he had not seen any evidence that alien life forms had visited this planet.
"As a curious species, [we] should always be looking at what's going on around us," Buttigieg told Steer.
"Unimaginably strange things often happened in the grand sweep of American and world history and we should never fail to be on the lookout for what's happening around us."