Who?
Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) — Member, Senate Intelligence Committee
LISTEN: Laslo & Rounds
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Ask a Pol asks:
Someone told us that it was China that shut down Langley [Air Force Base] in 2023 for 17 days, causing our entire fleet of F-22 Raptors to be moved?
Key Rounds:
“I can’t talk about that right now,” Sen. Mike Rounds exclusively tells Ask a Pol UAP.
Ask a Pol throwback — Langley’s been on Senate’s mind
Is the US deploying similar advanced tech?
“Let’s put it this way, they don’t keep me or members of our [Intelligence] Committee awake at night,” Rounds says. “But I suspect we keep them awake at night.”
That’s the American way.
Caught our ear:
Do you think we have that under control? Because it’s not really good if China is in US airspace.
“Let’s just say we learn every day, and our adversaries are very good at taking advantage of our freedoms here,” Rounds tells us. “But that’s the reason why we’ve got legislation* in right now to prohibit China from owning land anywhere near one of our sensitive areas or our bases. There’s a reason behind that.”
* we believe Rounds is referring to his bipartisan Promoting Agriculture Safeguards and Security (PASS) Act. It would “ban individuals and entities controlled by China, Russia, Iran and North Korea from purchasing agricultural land and businesses located near U.S. military installations or sensitive sites,” according to the Senator’s official site.
Below find a rough transcript of Ask a Pol’s exclusive interview with Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD), slightly edited for clarity.
TRANSCRIPT: Sen. Mike Rounds (9-24-2026)
SCENE: After the last Senate votes of the week, Ask a Pol founder Matt Laslo catches Sen. Mike Rounds before he hops in an aide’s car before flying home for the weekend.
Matt Laslo: “Hey, were you part of a recent briefing with AARO?”
ICYMI — stay tuned: we’re still looking for Gillibrand…
Mike Rounds: “Not that I know of.”
Laslo: “I think [Sen. Kirsten] Gillibrand had one a month or so ago.”
Rounds: “No.”
Laslo: “No?”
Rounds: “I wasn’t part of it.”
Laslo: “Have you looked at any of these — I guess the Pentagon’s released six tranches of these?”
Rounds: “Yeah, yeah. Most of them, nothing new in it that we haven’t seen before.”
Laslo: “Someone told me that it was China that shut down Langley [Air Force Base] in 2023 for 17 days, causing our entire fleet of [F-22] Raptors to be moved?”
Rounds: “I can’t talk about that right now.”
Laslo: “Yeah?”
Rounds: “I’m sorry.”
Laslo: “Do you think we have that under control? Because it’s not really good if China is in US airspace.”
Rounds: “Let’s just say we learn every day, and our adversaries are very good at taking advantage of our freedoms here.”
Laslo: “Yeah?”
Rounds: “But that’s the reason why we’ve got legislation in right now to prohibit China from owning land anywhere near one of our sensitive areas or our bases. There’s a reason behind that.”
Laslo: “Do we have comparable — do we have comparable tech? Like are we flying over Chinese nuclear sites?”
Rounds: “Let’s put it this way, they don’t keep me or members of our [Intelligence] Committee awake at night, but I suspect we keep them awake at night.”
Laslo: “That’s the American way.”
Rounds: “See you later.”
Laslo: “Have a good one, sir.”
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Ask a Pol’s playing around with as many new AI tools as we can, so this small, unfunded startup can compete in today’s new media landscape.
