UFOs soar from taboo to presidential: 'Time has come to inject UAPs into the ... elections,' institute says
The next president of the United States should be asked if he will release UFO-related documents, the New Paradigm Institute says.
A once-taboo subject that essentially forced whistleblowers like Bob Lazar into exile is the topic of a social media campaign applying heat to debate moderators to question each 2024 candidate about his willingness to declassify the files.
"The next president of the United States will make critical decisions about UAP disclosure and government transparency," New Paradigm Institute Chief Counsel Daniel Sheehan said in a June 12 statement.
"It’s time for all presidential candidates — Joe Biden, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Donald Trump — to commit to UFOs/UAP disclosure and transparency. … Regardless of political affiliation, the time has come to inject UAP into the political discourse of our elections."
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Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., told Fox News Digital in a previous interview that documents relating to UFOs, or UAPs (unidentified anomalous phenomena), are "so compartmentalized that we'll never get to the bottom of it."
It will take a "commander-in-chief who says enough is enough," to declassify everything.
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That's why the New Paradigm Institute, an organization dedicated to securing the public release of UFO-related files, started a social media campaign to convince the next presidential debate moderators to include a question about UFOs.
"Candidates for president should be asked whether they will commit to UAP disclosure and government transparency," said Sheehan, adding the June 27 debate would be the "perfect forum" for the public to learn the candidates' stances.
The UFO topic has been an ongoing subject of interest in Congress, as a bipartisan effort has been pushing for government agencies to release files.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was asked about UFOs during last April's presidential primary debate, which he scoffed at and mocked.
"I get the UFO questions? C'mon, man!" Christie said during the debate before joking with the moderator.
After laughing, he responded with a vague answer.
"The job of the president of the United States is to level with the American people about everything," Christie said. He went on to talk about how threats to children's education were more significant than UFOs.
The answer annoyed many who have been fighting for years for the disclosure, including former Navy pilot Ryan Graves.
"When is laughter ever an acceptable response to a national security question?" Graves told Fox News Digital after Christie's answer.
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The combination of mild mockery, chuckles and the fact it was a question posed to candidates vying for the highest office in the country epitomizes the current state of the topic.
There is still some stigma about the potential existence of UFOs and extraterrestrial life, but it's becoming more mainstream.
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In pop culture, it was a parody Super Bowl ad, which cost about $7 million per 30-second spot.
In government, Sen. Chuck Shumer proposed a bipartisan UFO disclosure bill, which was passed with the new budget, but the legislation still puts the power in the president's hands to classify or keep specific records sealed.
Whistleblowers have come forward to allege the government has run secret alien crashed craft retrieval programs to reverse engineer the technology, which became the topic of a congressional hearing.
It's a stark contrast to people like Lazar, who came forward with similar accusations in the late '80s but was labeled an Area 51 conspiracy theorist.
So far, President Biden has not forced federal agencies to release classified UFO documents, although there is a congressional bill on the table that would force the executive branch's hand.
The bill sponsored by Burchett would essentially merge all the compartmentalized federal agency files on UFOs and dump them into one declassified pool of information.
The Tennessee Republican lawmaker told Fox News Digital in a previous interview, "It's simple. They spend all this time telling us they don't exist, then release the files, dagnabbit. … We just got to put this stuff out. Let's clear the air. And let's move on."