Who?
Rep. Eli Crane (R-AZ) — fmr. Navy SEAL; Homeland Security Committee
LISTEN: Laslo & Crane
Ask a Pol asks:
In this month’s public UAP hearing, what did you make of the notion — from George Knapp and some others, they’re kind of convinced that military contractors have this and are hiding it from Congress based on executive branch contracts?
Key Crane:
“Yeah. I wouldn’t be surprised,” Rep. Eli Crane exclusively tells Ask a Pol. “They do that intentionally so that they can dodge FOIA — Freedom of Information Act — requests.”
And that undercuts oversight?
“100% — and it’s one of the reasons that I’ve been opposed to a lot of, you know, [Pentagon] programs,” Crane says. “It’s kind of rare on my side of the aisle to vote against defense projects and whatnot, but I just think there needs to be more accountability, more oversight and some of these agencies need to be reined in.”
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Caught our ear:
“I didn’t grow up believing that this stuff was really true, and the more evidence that I’ve seen, I believe there’s something to it,” Crane tells us. “I just don’t know what it is.”
Do you get more scared at the thought of it being foreign adversaries?
“Oh, of course,” Crane says. “I’d definitely be more concerned if it was foreign adversaries or even something that, you know, we can’t explain and no other government can explain. But I wouldn’t be surprised if, you know, we have some technologies that are just not revealed to the American people.”
Crane on his friend Charlie Kirk:
“Charlie was a friend of mine and a mentor, and I’m just I’m devastated for him, his family, the country in general,” Crane says. “It’s sad that a guy that who seriously would have never harmed anybody, just wanted to debate people was assassinated by a young man who got radicalized online...”
Below find a rough transcript of Ask a Pol’s exclusive interview with Rep. Eli Crane (R-AZ), slightly edited for clarity.
TRANSCRIPT: Rep. Eli Crane (9-15-2025)
SCENE: Ask a Pol’s Matt Laslo cuts Rep. Eli Crane off before he enters the Capitol, so the two proceed to chat on the Capitol steps…
Matt Laslo: “What was your takeaway from last week’s UAP hearing?”
Crane’s at a distance and is taking his earbuds out, hence misses question.
Eli Crane: “From Charlie [Kirk]?”
ML: “No. The UAP hearing.”
EC: “Umm — oh yeah.”
ML: “I want you to ask you about Kirk, but…”
EC: “Yeah. It was pretty wild, man. You know, the video that Burlison showed.”
ICYMI — the new UAP footage Rep. Eric Burlison released
*Source: Rep. Eric Burlison via Video From Space’s YouTube channel.
ML: “Right?”
EC: “That was pretty wild.”
ML: “How’d you read that?”
EC: “You know, it was hard to tell…”
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