4 Big U.F.O. Questions for the White House

One obstacle to figuring out why, exactly, parts of the American government have developed a strange fascination with “unidentified aerial phenomena” and “nonhuman intelligence” — in lay terms, U.F.O.s and aliens — is the journalistic embarrassment that attends asking directly about the subject. Unless they’re all-in and unencumbered by respectability, it’s hard for reporters to treat this as a pressing matter, an issue where they can legitimately (as opposed to winkingly) demand answers the way they would on Iran strikes or immigration policy or even the Jeffrey Epstein affair.

But look what a few direct questions can accomplish. Last week a YouTuber and podcast host named Brian Tyler Cohen asked Barack Obama about aliens, and the former president indicated that they exist while disavowing any personal knowledge of extraterrestrial........

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