Florida Senator Marco Rubio (R) wants the government to pay more attention to UFO sightings.
“There’s a stigma on Capitol Hill,” Rubio told CBS News. “Some of my colleagues are very interested in this topic and some kind of giggle when you bring it up…but I don’t think we can allow stigma to keep us from having an answer to a very fundamental question.”
The term UFO refers to any unidentified flying object that cannot be classified as any known aircraft or spacecraft.
UFOs are a threat to national security and should be taken seriously by the Pentagon, explained Rubio.
“I want us to have a process to analyze the data every time it comes in. That there be a place where this is cataloged and constantly analyzed, until we get some answers,” he continued. “Anything that enters an airspace that’s not supposed to be there is a threat.”
While UFO sightings have captured America’s interest for decades, legitimate arguments have gained validity in recent years due to a series of mysterious videos released by the Navy.
According to former Navy pilot Lt. Ryan Graves, UFO sightings are an almost daily occurrence for pilots on training flights.
“I am worried, frankly,” said Graves. “You know, if these were tactical jets from another country that were hanging out up there, it would be a massive issue. But because it looks slightly different, we’re not willing to actually look at the problem in the face. We’re happy to just ignore the fact that these are out there, watching us every day.”
Graves isn’t the only one to make these claims. In a separate interview, Cmdr. Dave Fravor and Lt. Cmdr. Alex Dietrich spoke about a UFO they spotted during a training exercise over the Pacific Ocean in 2004.
“[It was] the strangest, most obscure thing I’ve ever seen flying,” said Fravor, describing the UFO as a “little white Tic-Tac-looking object” that lacked conventional exhaust plumes, had no wings or markings of any kind, and moved erratically. Fravor and Dietrich got within half a mile of the UFO when it suddenly disappeared.
In August 2020, the Department of Defense established the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force to investigate UFO sightings and “gain insight” into the “nature and origins” of these objects.
Information obtained by the task force will be included in a federal report on UFO sightings that will be shared with lawmakers in June.
The report was ordered as part of the $2.3 trillion coronavirus relief and appropriations package signed by former President Donald Trump in 2020.