Who?
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) — Member, Senate Intelligence & Armed Services Committees / Chair, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC)
LISTEN: Laslo & Gillibrand
Ask a Pol asks:
“Prof. Laslo brought homework,” Ask a Pol founder and Adjunct Political Comms Professor Matt Laslo says as he hands the Senator this summer’s WSJ feature — The Pentagon Disinformation That Fueled America’s UFO Mythology. “Have you ever read that?”
Senator starts slowly flipping through article.
“Check it out,” Laslo says. “Because if its claims are true then I’ll never ask you about a UFO again!”
Key Gillibrand:
“What’s it say?” Gillibrand asks.
Well, it says that there’s basically this Air Force PSYOP from the [fifties] on where they made up the whole “myth” around Area 51.
“Yeah. That’s true,” Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand exclusively tells Ask a Pol UAP. “That’s what I understand to be true.”
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Decades of secret UFO “hazing” inside US Air Force?
“I was like, ‘Well, if you’ve been hazing people for 20 f*cking years, you have a real problem,’” Gillibrand says.
“So I was very mad about it when I heard this, but I never got clarity whether it really was hazing or whether there is a program. Like, I don’t know which is true.”
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Caught our ear:
Do you still have UAP whistleblowers reaching out to you?
“Not to me, but let me ask my staff,” Gillibrand tells us. “I’ve not heard of anything lately.”
Over in the House, they’re talking about maybe subpoenaing whistleblowers, and I was like, ‘That’s interesting, because I thought these people were willing to talk?’ Seems like they need whistleblower protections...
“I have not heard,” Gillibrand says. “Let me get more intel for you.”
Below find a rough transcript of Ask a Pol’s exclusive interview with Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), slightly edited for clarity.
TRANSCRIPT: Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (10-9-2025)
SCENE: Ask a Pol UAP’s Matt Laslo spent the morning walking around the Capitol with printed out copies of this summer’s WSJ feature — The Pentagon Disinformation That Fueled America’s UFO Mythology — to hand deliver to senior members of the Senate Intelligence Committee who’ve still not read it.
After casting her third vote in yet another long series of competing partisan government shutdown messaging bills, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand links up with an aide before Laslo cuts off his colleagues and scores this exclusive conversation…
Matt Laslo: “Hey ma’am.”
Kirsten Gillibrand: “Hi.”
Laslo hands the Senator a copy of WSJ piece.
ML: “Prof. Laslo brought homework.”
ML: “Have you ever read that?”
Senator starts slowly flipping through article.
ML: “Check it out — because if its claims are true then I’ll never ask you about a UFO again!”
Laslo laughs.
KG: “Really? What does it say?”
ML: “I think [fmr. AARO Director Sean] Kirkpatrick’s their main source for it...”
Rubio: “Was hoping that’s what [Kirkpatrick] would do!”*
*Throwback: 2024 interview, before Sen. Marco Rubio became Secretary of State
KG: “What’s it say?”
ML: “Well, it says that there’s basically this Air Force PSYOP from the sixties* on where they made up the whole “myth”...”
*OOPS: The fifties…
KG: “Yeah. That’s true.”
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ML: “...around Area 51.”
KG: “That’s what I understand to be true.”
ML: “Oh, interesting.”
KG: “Well, I just don’t — he* explained to me that, well, there was a lot of people who said they had to sign a non-disclosure agreement to work on aliens.”
*The Senator never divulges who “he” is…
ML: “Yeah?”
KG: “And so they were told, ‘If you tell anybody, we’ll kill you.’ And so I believe that happened multiple times.”
ML: “Yeah?”
KG: “And then the DOD’s answer was, ‘Oh, it was just a ruse. It was — we were trying...’ — they said it was, like, hazing.”
ML: “Yeah? That’s what this thing claims.”
Laslo points to WSJ article.
KG: “I was like, ‘Well, if you’ve been hazing people for 20 f*cking years, you have a real problem.’”
ML: “Right?”
KG: “So I was very mad about it when I heard this.”
ML: “Yeah?”
KG: “But I never got clarity whether it really was hazing...”
ML: “That’s interesting.”
KG: “...or whether there is a program. Like, I don’t know which is true.”
ML: “And read this — like, I think, they have 18 or so sources.* It’s a well sourced article, so that’s where I’m very…”
* Sources = 22 — ”This account is based on interviews with two dozen current and former U.S. officials, scientists and military contractors...,” the WSJ article states.
KG: “So they think it is true?”
ML: “Yeah, but it looks...”
KG: “So it was not only...”
ML: “It seems to me that Kirkpatrick was their source — yeah?”
KG: “So it’s not only the hazing ritual of telling people they’re working on alien spacecraft or alien materials, but then second, this says that they also had the lure of Area 51, for what purpose?”
ML: “Basically, to get the American public talking about it, to basically hide stealth, uh, technology and stuff.”
KG: “Oh.”
ML: “Which I’m like, sounds plausible.”
Laslo shrugs.
KG: “No, no, no — this is the question…”
ML: “PSYOP on top of PSYOP.”
Laslo laughs.
KG: “This is a question. I don’t know if this is true.”
ML: “Yeah?”
KG: “And so that was my problem.”
ML: “Do you still have UAP whistleblowers reaching out to you?”
KG: “Not to me, but let me ask my staff.”
ML: “Yeah?”
KG: “I’ve not heard of anything lately.”
ML: “Over in the House, they’re talking about maybe subpoenaing some, and I was like, ‘That’s interesting, because I thought these people were willing to talk?’”
ICYMI — Secrets Task Force “subpoena list”?
KG: “Yeah.”
ML: “It seems like they need whistleblower protections...”
KG: “I have not heard. Let me get more intel for you.”
ML: “Yeah. You have a day job, ma’am.”
KG: “Thanks...”
ML: “Preciate ya.”
The Senator and her aide hop elevator just off the Senate floor.
Ask a Pol UAP…
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