Who?
Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-MT) — fmr US Interior Secretary; Armed Services Committee
LISTEN: Laslo & Zinke
Ask a Pol asks:
You were Interior Secretary during President Donald Trump’s first term, do you know anything about lasers? UAP?
Key Zinke:
“I was just over in Israel, and they do have a laser for incoming missiles — or drones — high powered. So I’ve seen it,” Rep. Zinke exclusively tells Ask a Pol.
“It doesn’t work on every system. It doesn’t work on ICBMs, ‘cause you have to have a concentrated time with it.
“But for drones and such things, it has proven to be effective. I think it’s their tech, but certainly we share on it. And the [US] Navy has developed a laser and have tested it at sea. So I think the laser technology is there.
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Caught our ear:
“I never saw any evidence of anything that was not from Earth,” Zinke tells us.
Did you see evidence that it was China or another adversary?
“The balloon was,” Zinke says.
How does American airspace get invaded by a f****** balloon?
“And the [Biden] administration lied. They said they immediately saw it; they didn’t,” Zinke says. “They said they didn’t down it because of collateral damage. It went across Petroleum County in Montana with 434 people* — one less than Congress by the way…
*latest Wiki update says population now 496.
“It went over four sites that are sensitive, and then they downed it off of Myrtle Beach, which was the higher probability of hitting somebody off Myrtle Beach. And then they said they recovered everything. That would be an impossibility off the coast…”
Below find a rough transcript of Ask a Pol’s exclusive interview with Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-MT), slightly edited for clarity.
TRANSCRIPT: Rep. Ryan Zinke (2-11-2026)
SCENE: Ask a Pol’s Matt Laslo catches up with former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke as he walks through an underground tunnel on his way to vote on the House floor inside the US Capitol.
Matt Laslo: Have you caught this stuff over El Paso?
RZ: No. What’s going on in El Paso?*
*Congress was in the midst of Department of Homeland Security (ie, ICE) funding impasse — which led to the agency’s partial shutdown (again) at the moment. Despite not doing their most basic duty of funding — or even defunding — the federal government, Congress then took last week off for Presidents’ Day.
ML: So, last I saw, they like, FAA announces: Boom — airspace, 10-mile range or, few mile range, shut down for the next 10 days.
RZ: Next 10 days?
ML: Next 10 days.
RZ: Is there a mechanical failure of…?
ML: No. Well, so turns out — this is what CNN’s now reporting — is, the Pentagon has a laser.
RZ: Oh.
ICYMI — Lasers…
ML: The administration was like, “Oh, it’s cartel drones — blah blah blah.” Pentagon’s got this laser that they were using to shoot down unidentified something. Could be cartel drones, could be not.
RZ: I have not heard that.
ML: But yeah — you used to be in the cabinet, do you know about of any space lasers?
RZ: Well, I was just over in Israel, and they do have a laser for incoming missiles — or drones — high powered. So I’ve seen it. It doesn’t work on every system.
ML: Yeah?
RZ: It doesn’t work on ICBMs, ‘cause you have to have a concentrated time with it.
ML: Huh?
RZ: But for drones and such things, it has proven to be effective.
ML: With that — with it being Israel, that’s probably US tech? Or maybe we’re using their tech?
RZ: I think it’s their tech, but certainly we share on it.
ML: Yeah?
RZ: And the Navy has developed a laser and have tested it at sea.
ML: Yeah?
RZ: So I think the laser technology is there.
ML: Our Navy, not theirs?
RZ: Our Navy. But the system in Israel is operational. I physically saw it.
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ML: Do you — like, when you were Interior Secretary, because there’s always like sightings of unknown objects — some call them drones, some call them UAS or whatever…
RZ: I never saw any evidence of anything that was from — not from Earth.
ML: Yeah? But did you see evidence that it was f****** China? Because that’s a BFD (according to Biden).
RZ: The balloon was.
ML: Yeah? Right? It’s nothing — like, how does American airspace get invaded by a f****** balloon?
RZ: Well, and the administration lied.
ML: Yeah?
RZ: They said they immediately saw it; they didn’t. They said they didn’t down it because of collateral damage.
An elevator arrives for the Congressman — “Going up” — which Laslo hops on.
RZ: It went across Petroleum County in Montana with 434 people* — one less than Congress by the way…
*latest Wiki update says population now 496.
ML: Right?
RZ: And then they said, ‘well, we’ and ‘to a degree’ — it went over four sites that are sensitive, and then they downed it off of Myrtle Beach...
ML: Yeah.
RZ: …which was the higher probability of hitting somebody off Myrtle Beach.
ML: Right?
RZ: And then they said they recovered everything. That would be an impossibility off the coast of North* Carolina.
*South…
ML: See, if you know all that, like, have you asked those questions?
RZ: I have.
ML: You gotten any good answers?
RZ: I got answers to know that the administration lied.
They laugh.
ML: There you go.
Zinke walks towards the floor of the House of Representatives.
ML: Have a good one, sir.
Laslo hops elevator back to the Capitol’s basement.
What should we ask at State of the Union this week?
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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. (generative) AI isn’t tomorrow’s tech — it’s yesterday’
