Barack Obama Walks Back Comments About Believing in Aliens

Barack Obama has clarified comments he made recently supporting the idea that aliens exist.

The former president was asked about his belief in aliens while speaking to political podcast host Brian Taylor Cohen in an episode released this weekend. "They're real, but I haven't seen them," Obama replied.

"And they're not being kept in... what is it? Area 51," a reference to a supposed classified military base in Nevada. "There's no underground facility, unless there's this enormous conspiracy and they hid it from the president of the United States."

Barack Obama Clarified That He Hasn't Seen Evidence of Aliens

Obama's answer hit the internet in a major way, which forced him to clarify a few points. "I was trying to stick with the spirit of the speed round, but since it’s gotten attention let me clarify," Obama explained on social media. "Statistically, the universe is so vast that the odds are good there’s life out there."

He continued, "But the distances between solar systems are so great that the chances we’ve been visited by aliens is low, and I saw no evidence during my presidency that extraterrestrials have made contact with us. Really!"

Funnily enough, the exchange isn't the first time Obama has addressed the possiblity of extra terrestrial life. Back in 2021, he jokingly told James Corden that aliens were among the first topics he asked about after becoming president.

"The truth is, that when I came into office, I asked, 'Is there the lab somewhere where we're keeping the alien specimens and spaceship?' ” he said.

Other American Leaders Have Spoken About Aliens

The existence of alien life — and what the American government does or doesn't know about it — has been a hot topic throughout several presidential campaigns. While running for president in 2016 former secretary of state Hillary Clinton promised to "get to the bottom" of alien conspiracies if she was elected, and in 2024 Donald Trump admitted he's not a big believer.

“Am I a believer? No, I probably, I can’t say I am,” Trump said during a podcast interview. “But I have met with people that are serious people that say there’s some really strange things that they see flying around out there.”

The topic has also been a hot one for lawmakers for decades. The Biden-era Pentagon insisted it was important to get rid of embarrassment surrounding reporting on "unidentified aerial phenomena."

“Our goal is to eliminate this stigma by fully incorporating our operators and mission personnel into a standardized data-gathering process,” explained Ronald Moultrie, the administration's undersecretary of defense for intelligence and security.

A report from November 2024 also revealed more than 750 new unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) sightings were reported between May 2023 and June 2024.

As for Area 51, rumors that the military installation secretly houses proof of aliens persist, despite the fact that military documents declassified in 2013 have since revealed the airstrip was actually used to test government projects.

Related: Bank of England Warned to Prepare for Aliens Due to Imminent US 'Disclosure'