Barack Obama addressed the attention surrounding remarks he made about extraterrestrial life during a recent podcast appearance. The former president later offered clarification after a brief exchange from a rapid-fire segment circulated online. He explained what he meant and said he saw no evidence during his time in office.
Barack Obama clarifies his ‘alien’ comment
Former US President Barack Obama clarified that the chances Earth has been visited by aliens are “low” after comments he made on a podcast drew attention online. During a lightning round on an interview with Brian Tyler Cohen, he was asked, “Are aliens real?” Obama replied, “They’re real, but I haven’t seen them.” He added, “They’re not being kept in Area 51. There’s no underground facility unless there’s this enormous conspiracy and they hid it from the president of the United States.”
After his remarks circulated in media outlets and on social media, Obama issued a clarification on Instagram. “I was trying to stick with the spirit of the speed round, but since it’s gotten attention let me clarify,” he wrote. “Statistically, the universe is so vast that the odds are good there’s life out there. 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!”
Obama served as president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. In 2021, he told James Corden that upon taking office, he asked whether there was a lab “where we’re keeping the alien specimens and space ship.” He said, “They did a little bit of research and the answer was no,” while also noting there were “footage and records of objects in the skies, that we don’t know exactly what they are.”
Conspiracy theories have long surrounded Area 51, a classified United States Air Force site in Nevada. A 2019 YouGov poll examined public views on UFOs. It found that 54% of US adults believe the government likely knows more than it has disclosed.
