iStockphoto / Jasper Colt-USA TODAY
The American government has not offered any proof concerning the existence of extraterrestrial life, and it seems like there’s a chance the President of the United States could gain access to it if it did exist. Barack Obama subsequently caused a bit of a stir when he avowed aliens are real during an interview, but he had to clear things up after that claim understandably attracted a ton of attention.
It seems hard to imagine Earth is the only planet in the universe that’s home to intelligent life, and calling the hypothetical moment we learn that is not the case “a big deal” is probably the ultimate understatement.
The possibility of advanced life forms existing somewhere other than the planet where humans run the show has been a topic of debate since thinkers in ancient Greece began to grapple with that possibility. Plenty of people have claimed to have had run-ins with aliens and UFOs, but there is still no incontrovertible evidence proving we’ve been visited by beings from outer space.
The United States military does have plenty of files on the flying objects it officially refers to as “unidentified anomalous phenomena,” and one whistleblower who testified in front of Congress has claimed the government oversees a secret program concerning alien interactions (including an attempt to make human hybrids).
That’s the kind of thing you might have been made aware of if you’ve been elected to serve as the President of the United States, and Barack Obama had to do a little bit of damage control after he seemingly let a wild revelation slip.
Barack Obama had to clarify he’s never seen any proof concerning the existence of aliens after saying they’re real
Independence Day may not be a documentary, but the man who serves as the President in that movie is not made aware of the spaceship and aliens at the center of a research project inside Area 51 until the Earth is invaded due to “plausible deniability.”
There’s a chance the government decides to take the same approach in real life, and during a recent interview with Bryan Tyler Cohen, Obama implied that could be the case, saying, “They’re real, but I haven’t seen them” before noting “enormous conspiracy” is the only way he would have been kept in the dark about a real-life Independence Day situation.
Many people who saw that clip interpreted his answer as a confession concerning information Obama was able to gain access to during his eight years in office; he may not have seen an alien firsthand, but he didn’t say he didn’t see any files concerning their existence.
The clip generated enough buzz to the point where the former POTUS had to clarify he wasn’t referring to any concrete evidence, as he reposted the video on Instagram along with a caption where said he was simply talking about the statistical odds of other types of “life out there.”
Bummer.