
Who?
UAP Caucus Co-Chairs Rep. Luna & Burchett (& Ogles)
Say what?
“It was a nothing burger,” Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) tells Ask a Pol.
“There’s no reason any of that stuff was told in a SCIF,” Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) tells Ask a Pol.
“Other than to get us not to talk about it,” Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN) told Ask a Pol.
SCENE: Upon leaving the SCIF, UAP Caucus Co-chairs Luna and Burchett look over at Ask a Pol and NewsNation and maneuver away from them and toward a bank of elevators on the other side.
Ask a Pol’s Matt Laslo jets up two flights of winding stairs to cut Luna and Burchett off — only slowing down to interview Rep. Ogles and predict he’ll beat the UAP Caucus Chairs up to the main floor.
Elevator opens: Luna and Burchett, confused, exit.
Luna: “How do we get outta here?”
Laslo: “Back to your office or [the House] floor?”
Luna: “Back to my office.”
Laslo turns to Ogles.
Laslo: “See? Told you I was gonna beat em up there!”
Laslo points their way out, as they laugh.
Laslo: “Nothing?”
Burchett: “Ask her.”
Luna: “It was literally — it was a nothing burger.”
Laslo: “Really?”
Luna: “Yup.”
Laslo: “So now how do you guys — what's the next step?”
Burchett: “There’s no reason any of that stuff was told in a SCIF.”
Laslo: “Yeah?”
Ogles: “Other than we just can’t talk about it.”
Luna: “Yeah. It was a nothing burger.”
Laslo: “Have any of you been able to look at that Kona Blue? Declassified?”
Burchett: “I just saw it just today, I haven't looked at it.”
Luna: “I have to check it out.”
Laslo: “Do you guys feel like AARO’s delivering on their congressional mandate?’
Luna: “I mean, they showed up, yeah.”
Laslo’s in back closer to Burchett and can’t quite make out what Luna’s saying…
Burchett: “Of disinformation?”
Laslo: “I mean, if you guys funded em, started em two years ago — before some of y'all were here — you guys, ultimately, are their bosses?”
Burchett: “It was tucked into another bill. It wasn’t what we had. I mean, it wasn't in the bill we [woulda] funded.”
Laslo: “What do you make of their Senior Technical Advisory Board?”
Burchett: “I don't think anything of anything.”
Laslo: “Yeah?”
Burchett: “Because it's just. I just don't get a lot of information from them.”
Laslo: “I mean, over on the Senate side, now, we're getting a ton of complaints about incursions over US military bases and nuclear sites.”
Burchett: “We're not getting anything.”
Laslo: “Yeah?”
Burchett: “I'm sorry.”
Laslo: “What’s you make it their report though? Because they think that's definitive.”
Some guy in the Longworth Tunnel does a quick introduction of Miss America — who’s walking the opposite dingy direction in the tunnel — to Rep. Luna, who he says she’s meeting with tomorrow am (so. why’d. you. interrupt. the. congresswoman. fleeing. Ask Pol. questions. now. bro…).
Burchett: “I’m just — once again. Once again, I just feel like the whole thing is disinformation. I mean, it’s so compartmentalize that we're not going to get information and we’re told stuff in the SCIF that shouldn't be classified and it is.”
Laslo: “Do you feel like part of it’s they don’t know?”
Burchett: “Yeah. That’s where the compartmentalization aspect is.”
Laslo: “So that makes them useless?”
Burchett: “I mean, that's federal government in a nutshell.”
Laslo: “Yeah? So now how do you guys for the next public?”
Burchett: “We got to have a president that just says: ‘Release it all.’
Laslo: “Yeah?”
Burchett: “Yeah, that's the only way it's gonna happen.”
Laslo: “I was talking to Rep. Glenn Grothman earlier…”
We ran out of energy…
Good work Matt, thanks again mate :)
Cheers!
For what it's worth, Matt, I wouldn't have thought you worth following if not for you showing up on reddit a few times with great reporting. Then again, the subscriber only content wasn't there, just an added bonus when I subscribed.
They seem somewhat demoralized. Guessing the GOP is not wanting to pursue this it sounds like from Garcia and Biden isn’t going to do anything until the election.
Can’t they still subpoena them via the chair or special committee and question them about everything discussed in the SCIF on the House floor?
Yes, but only the Committee and Subcommittee chairs can issue subpoenas and call hearings. (I believe) And forming a special committee requires action by the Speaker. Neither Luna, Burchett, nor Ogles are members of even the National Security subcommittee under the Oversight committee. They need to acquire the support of others in order to advance this issue. They don’t have much congressional power to wield right now.
Amateur hour. Apparently the grownups are in Senate Intel and Armed Services committees (maybe). Gang of Eight are you our only hope?
Well, on to the hearings!