Rep. Tim Burchett said during a Tuesday interview that he believes aliens exist, citing government briefings, pilot testimony and what he described as video and photographic evidence shown to him by officials.
"We've seen too much. I've seen too much," Burchett said on "Piers Morgan Uncensored." "Not myself personally, but when I've been briefed by government officials, video, pictures. Some of the best-trained pilots in the world have described having close collisions with some sort of aircraft or apparatus, and so I think it's time that they come clean."
Burchett made the remarks after host Piers Morgan pressed him directly on whether he believes extraterrestrial life exists.
"Yes, sir, I do," Burchett said.
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Burchett said his belief was shaped in part by religious interpretation, pointing to biblical passages as possible descriptions of advanced technology.
"Genesis one, chapter one, 'God created the heavens and the earth.' You look at the Book of Ezekiel, Ezekiel saw the wheel, and it described a wheel within a wheel with some sort of landing craft."
Morgan expressed skepticism about whether any claims rise to the level of verifiable proof, even as he acknowledged the vastness of the universe.
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"So I guess the more difficult question for you is you've seen and heard about what we would describe as phenomena, but it's unexplained phenomena. Have you ever seen any cold, hard, irrefutable factual evidence to support alien life?" Morgan asked.
Burchett acknowledged he has not personally witnessed unidentified craft but argued that testimony from military personnel and officials carries weight.
"Have I seen a craft or anything fly over me that was unidentifiable? No, sir, I have not personally," Burchett said. "I have to question why a pilot, some of the best in the world, would risk their reputations coming forth and telling me this stuff."
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Burchett also described a reported encounter relayed to him by a former Navy serviceman involving a large, silent object.
"This craft flew over them and then it took off without any noise or any disturbance around them," Burchett said. "The descriptions they gave were very vivid and very similar."
He described sonar detections of large, fast-moving objects and suggested the ocean could be a plausible location for unknown phenomena.
"There's five deepwater areas. We have a lot of sightings in the air over that," Burchett said. "Something as big as a football field has been traced on our sonar that went over 200 miles an hour."
"When they make a sighting like this, they're pulled off the line and they will get a psych evaluation," Burchett said.
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He suggested the federal government is withholding information about unidentified aerial phenomena and criticized what he described as a lack of transparency.
"I feel like this is something that's being held back for whatever reason," Burchett said. "I have no faith in our federal government will release any of this stuff."
Morgan pointed to the possible shock and uncertainty that could follow a full disclosure of classified UFO government findings.
"Is the world, is America, is the wider world ready?" Morgan said.
"It's not the government's job to decide what I can and cannot handle," Burchett said.
