It is a generally accepted fact within the UFO community that Bill Clinton had an interest in discovering the answer to the UFO puzzle. He had even sent his close friend Webster Hubbell to look into the UFO mystery.
What many don’t know, however, is how open Bill and Hillary were about talking about the subject. They talked about UFOs and aliens at least 26 times on the record while in the White House. This was far beyond any presidential administration.
Like Ronald Reagan, both Bill and Hillary Clinton expressed interest in the concept of an alien invasion. Reagan had spoken of the “alien invasion” half a dozen times while in the White House. The Clintons would talk about it even more.
The first time President Clinton brought up the idea of an alien invasion idea during an interview with Tom Brokaw of MSNBC. This interview, done on July 15, 1996, involved the just released movie “Independence day.” Clinton conveyed to Brokaw how much he had enjoyed the movie.
I loved it. I loved it and ‑‑Mr. Pullman came and showed it. I thought he made a good president. And we watched the movie together, and I told him after it was over he was a good president, and I was glad we won. And it made me wonder if I should take flying lessons.
During the interview, Brokaw took a question from an Internet e-mail message asking Clinton if he thought that we could actually win a war against the aliens if they were to attack America, as the fictionalized Independence Day movie had shown.
President Clinton replied, “Yes, I think we'd fight them off. We find a way to win. That's what America does ‑‑ we'd find a way to win if it happened.”
The President then launched into a speech about the positive elements of an alien invasion.
The good thing about Independence Day is there's an ultimate lesson for that ‑‑ for the problems right here on Earth. We whipped that problem by working together with all these countries. And all of a sudden the differences we had with them seemed so small once we realized there were threats that went beyond our borders. And I wish that we could think about that when we deal with terrorism and when we deal with weapons proliferation ‑‑ the difference between all these others problems. That's the lesson I wish people would take away from Independence Day.
Clinton was a big fan of the movie Independence Day, and he spoke highly of it a number of times. On the day of the movie’s release, at the 200th Birthday Celebration for Youngstown Ohio, Clinton said this of the movie.
Somebody joked with me ‑‑ I don't know if any of you have seen this new movie "Independence Day" ‑‑ (applause) ‑‑ but somebody said I was coming to Youngstown because this is the day the White House got blown away by space aliens. (Laughter) I hope it's there when I get back. (Laughter) Anyway, I recommend the movie. I got a chance to see it the other night.
A couple weeks after the release of the movie, still inspired by the Independence Day movie, President Clinton made yet another alien invasion remark.
Very interesting, don't you think, that this movie, Independence Day, is becoming the most successful movie ever? Some say it's because they blew up the White House and the Congress ‑‑ (laughter) ‑‑ and that may be. But, you know, you see story after story after story about how the movie audiences leap up and cheer at the end of the movie when we vanquish the alien invaders, right? I mean, what happened? The country was flat on its back, the rest of the world was threatened, and you see all over the world all these people have all of a sudden put aside the differences that seem so trivial once their existence was threatened, and they're working together all over the world to defeat a common adversary.
The next alien invasion comments came from Hillary Clinton who seemed to share the President’s interest in the alien invasion concept. On October 13, 1998, at Spanish Hall, Prague Castle Hillary said:
In one of those popular movies I referred to that swept my country and apparently made a lot of money around the world, called Independence Day — these movies always seem to start with an attack on Washington, D.C., which I don’t really know how to take, the blowing up of the White House and Capitol to begin with—the ending of it required all of us to cooperate to fend off an alien attack. And certainly in the theater in which I saw it, there were great cheers as people of all different races and backgrounds and societies around the globe came together as human beings to save ourselves. We certainly don’t expect it to come to that...
On January 25, 1999, speaking at the White House Hillary said this “Most of the movies about the future show aliens descending from outer space determined to blow up the world, and somehow they always begin or end with Washington, D.C. (Laughter)” Then on June 17, 1999 speaking in Paris, France, Hillary tied the concept of the alien invasion to the making of movies in America.
In my own country, many of the movies in recent years express our innate fears about what awaits us. They are apocalyptic visions that leave only a few people on earth—whole cities surviving under domes because we have depleted our natural resources. And often in these movies, for reasons that I question, we have space aliens who are always blowing up Washington, D.C., and the White House.
A few months after Hillary made her reference to movies and alien invaders, President Clinton made a speech to a group of schools that identified an alien invasion scenario as good as any President Reagan had ever used.
I told somebody the other day ‑‑ I got a big laugh ‑‑ I said, you know, I get so angry at all these conflicts around the world, and these expressions of hatred here at home based on race or religion or sexual orientation. If we were being attacked by space aliens, like in that movie, "Independence Day," we'd all be looking for a foxhole to get in together and a gun to pick up together. The absence of a threat sometimes causes us to lose our sense of focus, our center, our concentration... And what I'm saying is ‑‑ you all laughed when I said this before, I referenced that movie, "Independence Day" ‑‑ but, you know, if we were being attacked by space aliens, we wouldn't be playing these kind of games. These kinds of games are only possible because the economy is strong and the American people are self‑confident...
Not to be outdone, Hillary came up with another alien invasion scenario. Hillary delivered the remark at the Mars Millennium Project kick-off held at the National Air & Space Museum. She spoke of modern movie themes, alien invasion ideas, and a positive future.
When you look at popular culture today, positive images of the future are often hard to come by. You look at the movies that have tried to predict what will happen in the future, and we often see a lot of death and destruction and environmental degradation. It’s not just that people might live under domes on Mars, but they would have to live under domes here on this planet because of what we will have done to our environment. Or whether we will have to join together as human beings to stave off attacks from aliens in outer space, and then we’ll have to put aside our really petty differences—differences in our own country and differences among people around the world—to stand up for our common humanity... The logo of the Mars Project challenges us to picture a different kind of future. Not the one that is portrayed in the movies of our popular culture or in our worst nightmares, but instead one that really is filled with hope and possibility.
The final alien invasion reference, on November 7, 1999, came from President Clinton in a moment of total frustration. The latest Republican bill had just been pushed through the House of Representatives only days before. Clinton realized he would have to veto it. Faced with the upcoming veto fight, Clinton made the following statement to a group of educators. “If we were being attached by space aliens, we wouldn’t be playing these kinds of games.”
This was one of the few Clinton UFO remarks that gained any media attention. Conservative broadcaster Rush Limbaugh responded to Clinton’s alien invasion remark by saying, “What he going to do? Arrange one?”
Less spectacular than the alien invasion remarks, but much more frequent were comments about UFOs in the Clinton White House. On at least eight different occasions and locations, Clinton compared UFO sightings and Social Security. The general UFO/social security reference made by Clinton resembled the line he used in West Orange, New Jersey, at a DNC Dinner. “And everyone knows,” said Clinton, “there are surveys which show that young people believe it is more likely that they will see a UFO than that they’ll every draw Social Security.”
On a couple occasions, Clinton would double up on the UFO reference and add a comment about one of his favorite shows- x-files, such as he did during a 1998 speech at Georgetown University.
You know, there was a recent poll which said that young people in the generation of the students here felt it was far more likely that they would see a UFO than that they would draw Social Security... It's very important you understand this. Once you understand this, you realize this is not an episode from the X Files, and you're not more likely to see a UFO if you do certain specific things.
Sometimes the alien trash talk was brilliantly hidden and immeasurably meaningful. It escaped the attention of everyone who heard it, except the one person or group the comment was intended for. A prime example of this was a statement made by Hillary Clinton on April 10, 1997 on the Diane Rehm show.
During the show Hillary was asked about the story that she had approved hush money payments to Webster Hubbell, her former partner at the Rose law firm in Little Rock, and later President Clinton’s attorney general. The hush money was to stop Hubbell from talking about his and Hillary’s role in Whitewater, according to the rumor.
“That’s part of the continuing saga of Whitewater,” said Hillary, “the never-ending fictional conspiracy that honest to goodness reminds me of some people’s obsessions with UFOs and the Hale-Bopp comet.” [12]
The comment generated immediate reactions from Ufologists around the country. “We demand an apology,” Michael Luckman told the New York Post. Luckman and other researchers figured that the remark was insensitive in light of the Heaven’s Gate suicides that had just occurred.
In reality Hillary’s comment had nothing to do with the UFO community. After all, friend Laurance Rockefeller had briefed her on the evidence of UFO reality. The comment was actually directed, not at her friends in the UFO community, but at Congressman Dan Burton, Chairman of the House Government Oversight Committee. Burton, a conservative Republican congressman, had according to some turned his committee into “a one-stop shop for Clinton haters.” As Burton told the Indianapolis Star of Clinton, “this guys a scumbag. That’s why I’m after him.” [ Only days before Hillary appeared on the Diane Rehm show Burton had issued 25 subpoenas. Seventeen of these were issued to focus on the hiring of Hillary’s friend and former coworker at the Rose Law Firm in Little Rock Webster Hubbell, by the White House.
Burton, like the Clintons, was also very interested in UFOs. On the day before the Hillary’s comment about UFOs, Burton sent his chief congressional aide to attend Dr. Steven Greer’s Top Secret UFO witness briefing held for members of congress. Hillary had also been invited, as were many members of the White House. Hillary did not attend, but some White House people did attend, and Greer received “wonderful personal letters” from within the White House.
Following the briefing Burton had requested everything Greer had on the subject of UFOs. Burton’s interest in UFOs was also known to most in Washington. Time magazine columnist and former Deputy Washington Bureau Chief, Margaret Carlson wrote about how Hillary’s comment was directed at Burton, and she seemed to defend Hillary. “The UFO comparison is apt in his (Burton) case. He is considered flaky and a bit of a crackpot, even though a nice guy. Some crackpots are nice.”
When Hillary took her shot at Burton on the radio show, one of the White House reporters questioned the President about it in a news scrum just before a cabinet meeting. He asked Clinton what he thought about Hillary’s statement about “the continuing saga of Whitewater, the never-ending fictional conspiracy” and “some people’s obsession with UFOs and the Hale-Bobb comet.”
Realizing whom Hillary was referring to Clinton burst out laughing and said, “Did she say that? (Laughter) That's pretty good. (Laughter)”
The reporter asked, “I was wondering if you share that sentiment? And also, we haven't had a chance to ‑‑”
Still laughing, the President said, “Well, if I didn't, I wouldn't disagree with her in public.”
Sometimes the trash talk was much less intense, with much less hidden meaning, and more like a simple obsession by a President and his staff with extraterrestrials. At a meeting in the East Room dealing with Genomics the President stated, “Won’t it be sad to have an Internet connection to Mars if there are no Martians to write to or e-mail us?” In another musing about the extraterrestrials Clinton stated, “Well, I don’t know what to say. You know if they’re out there, I hope they have the best of what we have and fewer headaches.
Very early in the administration at a NAFTA meeting in the White House, in front of ex-president Jimmy Carter who had experienced a UFO sighting, Clinton made this bizarre extraterrestrial comment, “I have been sent an extraterrestrial telegram stating that “I too, am for NAFTA,” signed Otto von Bismarck.Finally, at the 2000 Kennedy Center Honors held in the White House Clinton stated “NASA even sent Chuck Berry's music on a space probe searching for intelligent life in outer space. (Laughter) Well, now, if they're out there, they're duck walking.
Sometimes, President Clinton would have one of those days when everything he saw was alien. October 3, 1994 was such a day. At 7:53 p.m. during a Victory Rally speech for Senator Robb, Clinton unleashed a whole string of alien remarks.
But the other thing that both of us had to do, even to make a career in public life, was to fight against what has been the brilliant strength of the Republicans, particularly the Republicans on the right, for many years now. And that is, that they are better talkers than we are, and ‑‑ and listen to me now ‑‑ and they raise more money than we do to turn their opponents into aliens. Right? (Laughter)...And they are brilliant at it. They sort of try to turn you into a space alien... And now the Republicans are saying, well, if your problems aren't all solved, it's just because the aliens have taken over Washington. (Laughter)... And while we have been working, they have been talking, blaming, dividing, and turning us into aliens...
Whether inspired by the crowd or just having an “alien day,” at 9:20 p.m. at the Robb Victory Dinner Clinton started up again.
And here in Virginia, you have this stark, graphic example of how really good they are at making down, up; up, down; square, round, and turning us into aliens... So they try to turn the President or the Senator from Virginia into an alien in the minds of ordinary voters, and hope they can clog the information channels enough so that will guarantee that in the scales inside us all, fear will outweigh hope on election day... You have to decide ‑‑ what do you believe in?...They have turned me into an alien with a lot of voters in Virginia so I can be in the ad... . And the idea that they could be trying to turn him into some sort of space alien who is from the far left, when he has done something that they talked about but never did...
The most bizarre alien trash talk came not from the President, but from his chief spokesmen - Presidential Press Secretaries Mike McCurry and Joe Lockhart. Consider, for example McCurry talking about the President’s upcoming travel schedule in early 1998.
Q: Right. Where is he going on Monday or Tuesday?
McCurry: It’s always good to let a little rabbit out that people can chase. You will be especially happy at where he’s going.
Q: Tucumcari, New Mexico? Roswell?
McCurry: I didn’t say a thing. No, we don’t need to go there because we were there in the flying saucer yesterday.
Following the release of the movie Independence Day, in July 1996, two Florida Today reporters faced Press Secretary McCurry with a question. The reporters asked if the White House had any plan for an alien invasion attack if it were to come. The reporters were told there were no plans.” An Air Force spokesman also told the reporters that if someone had an alien sighting and felt “in imminent danger,” that he or she should contact the local authorities. This lead the reporter to conclude an attack on the White House would be responded to by Clinton and McCurry with a call to the D.C. cops.
Further inquiries by the reporters about a possible Independence Day scenario led McCurry to say that if the aliens did attack, “I just hope it’s one of those days when Whitewater or the FBI files have dominated the news.”
A couple weeks after the Independence Day movie comments it was time for the Clintons to return to Jackson Hole, Wyoming for their 1996 vacation.
The Clintons had been in Jackson Hole for their 1995 summer vacation, where they stayed at the cabin of West Virginia Senator John D. Rockefeller and where Laurance Rockefeller briefed both Hillary and Bill Clinton on the subject of UFOs.
In a press briefing just prior to leaving, McCurry commented on the possibility of the President returning to Washington, part way through the vacation, as he had done in 1995. With Independence Day still fresh in his mind McCurry stated,
He will hold to that tradition. The only thing that would compel a high public profile is if space aliens came to Washington and destroyed the White House. (Laughter.) That would probably compel him to come out of his blissful vacation mode.
Sometimes the bizarre alien comments made by Clinton’s press secretaries took a bitter tone when the questions dealt with scandals, or leaks. In November 1997, McCurry was forced to answer the embarrassing revelation in a book just published by Clinton’s former Attorney General Webster Hubbell, that Clinton had sent him off in search of the answer to UFOs and the JFK assassination.
Q: Did the President ask Webb Hubbell to find out about UFOs and the JFK assassination?
MR. MCCURRY: No. We have a regular briefing in the Oval Office with this space alien that some tabloids report. (Laughter) Maybe the New York Post hasn't reported that, but we asked the space creature to look into that story.
Q: Did he ask Hubbell to find out about those two issues?
MR. MCCURRY: I have no idea and I'm not going to respond to specific things in books that are written.
In June 1996 McCurry was faced with questions about the book Unlimited Access, written by Gary Aldrich. Aldrich was a former FBI agent in the White House who accused the Clinton White House of a whole range of illegal activities. In response to some reporters question about whether any of Aldrich’s claims were true McCurry shot back, “No, except that space aliens had probably landed on the South Lawn of the White House, too, and we're cavorting with them as well. It's absolutely ridiculous.”
Clinton’s Press Secretaries were particularly ready with alien trash talk when the question had anything to do with a story that had appeared in a national tabloid. One such case was on the morning after Dick Morris, a Clinton strategist, resigned after being caught with a $200‑an‑hour call girl. The allegations had been written up in the tabloid newspaper The Star. The Clinton reelection committee accepted Morris’s resignation immediately.
In Mike McCurry’s news conference the next morning, McCurry fielded a number of questions about the detailed allegations made in the article, and asking him to speculate what damage Morris’s resignation had done to the Clinton White House. McCurry moved to downplay the damage caused by the article. “A publication in a tabloid like this ‑‑ or a story in a publication like this is not something that routinely we worry about. It kind of falls in the space alien category.”
In response to this reply another reporter came back with “How is it the President's could be in the position of letting himself lose a valued advisor for a story you say is in the space alien category?” McCurry responded that campaigns lose people all the time and the President honored Morris’s request that his family not be dragged through the scandal by remaining with the campaign.
In January 1999, it was Clinton Press Secretary Joe Lockhart’s turn. He was faced another scandal query about a 13-year-old boy in Arkansas. The boy’s mother was claiming, in a tabloid story, that Bill Clinton was the boy’s father. One reporter stated to Lockhart that the photo of the boy in the national tabloid did look like Clinton. “That’s good,” replied Lockhart, “and I’m an alien space baby.”
The Clintons were under constant pressure during the eight-year administration, accused of all manner of scandals. Some of the alien references reflected these attacks. They took on a tenor of persecution, such as during the rally for Senator Chuck Robb, which was quoted above.
They raise more money than we do to turn their opponents into aliens. Right?... That is what they do. And they are brilliant at it. They sort of try to turn you into a space alien... And here in Virginia, you have this stark, graphic example of how really good they are at making down, up; up, down; square, round, and turning us into aliens... They have turned me into an alien with a lot of voters in Virginia so I can be in the ads...
Near the end of his second term as President, Clinton still felt persecution by the Republicans. In a fund-raising speech for Hillary’s Senate campaign, Clinton President Clinton accused New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani of enlisting a "right‑wing venom machine" to help “raise a double‑ton of money” in his senate campaign against Hillary. He also accused Guiliani’s party of trying to convince voters that he and Hillary were space aliens.
They believe you have to drive people apart in order to win elections. And since they're wrong on the issues, they're right. In other words, people won't agree with them on the issues, so the only way they could win is to convince them that we're the first cousins of space aliens. (Laughter) They've got this figured out now; we're right and they're wrong on these big issues. So the only way they can win is to convince people that we're space aliens.
[1] Interview of the President by Tom Brokaw of MSNBC, Office of the Press Secretary, July 15, 1996 The reception, dinner and premiere of the blockbuster movie Independence Day occurred in the White House on June 22, 1996
[3] Clinton, Bill, Remarks by the President at the 200th Birthday Celebration of Youngstown, Ohio, and the 150th Birthday Celebration of Mahoning County, Ohio, Office of the Press Secretary, July 4, 1996. In a related matter, as announced by Bill Clinton from the south lawn of the White House on August 7, 1996, the very next launch to explore Mars would land on the Martian surface July 4, 1997, “Independence Day.” It was sort of a return invasion.
[4] Clinton, Bill, Remarks by the President at Ceremony for Boys and Girls Nation, Office of the Press Secretary, July 18, 1996
[5] Clinton, Hillary, Speech by Hillary Rodman Clinton at Forum 2000, Office of Press Secretary, October 13, 1998
[6] Clinton, Hillary Remarks by the President, The First Lady, Professor Natalie Davis and Professor Martin Marty at the Fifth Millennium Evening at the White House, Office of the Press Secretary, January 25, 1999
[7] Clinton Hillary, “Globalization into the Next Millennium: Remarks at The Sorbonne by First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton Paris, France, White House Press Office, June 17, 1999
[8] Clinton, Bill, Remarks by the President at Awards Ceremony for Blue Ribbon Schools, White House Press Office, October 28, 1999
[9] Clinton, Hillary, Mars Millennium Project Kick-off: Remarks by First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton” Office of the Press secretary, January 14, 1999
[10] Clinton, Bill, Remarks by the President to DNC Dinner, Office of the Press Secretary, February 19,1998
[11] Clinton, Bill, Remarks by the President on Social Security, Georgetown University, Office of the Press Secretary, February 9, 1998
[12] Diane Rehm Show, WAMU- Radio National Public Radio, April 10, 1997
[13] Lindsey, Daryl, “Dan Burton’s Glass House” from salon.com, February 28, 2001
[14] Interview done by Jeff Rense on Sightings.com, 4-29-97, with Shari Adamiak- Dr. Greer’s personal assistant.
[15] Media Research Center Cyber Alert, Volume Two; no.48, April 14, 1997
[16] Remarks by the President and the Vice President at Top of Cabinet Meeting, Office of Press Secretary, April 10, 1997
[17] Millennium Evening at the White House: Informatics Meets Genomics, White House Press Office, October 12, 1999
[18] Remarks by the President and the First Lady at Millennium Matinee “Under the Sea, Beyond the Stars”, White House Press Office, June 12, 2000
[19] Clinton, Bill, Remarks by the President to NAFTA Distinguished American Endorsement Event, White House Press Office, November 2, 1993
[20] Clinton, Bill Remarks by the President at Kennedy Center Honors Reception”, Office of Press secretary, December 3, 2000
[21] Remarks by the President at Senator Robb Virginia Victory Rally, Office of the Press Secretary, October 3, 1994
[22] Clinton, Bill, Remarks by the President at Senator Robb Victory Dinner, Office of The Press Secretary, October 3, 1994
[23] Press Briefing by Mike McCurry, Office of the Press Secretary, January 29, 1998
[24] Washington, D. C. Police Department spokesman Kenny Bryson said: "They [The Pentagon] told you to call us? Aw, c'mon, you've got to be kidding. What are we supposed to do, write them a ticket?"
[25] Edmonds, Patricia and Eisler, Peter, “What if they come? The U.S. has no Plan to Deal with Aliens” from Florida Today Space Online, July 12, 1996
[26] Press Briefing by Mike McCurry, Office of the Press Secretary, July 26, 1996
[27] Press Briefing by Mike McCurry, Office of the Press Secretary, November 26, 1997
[28] Press Briefing by Mike McCurry, Office of the Press Secretary (Lyon, France), June 28,1996
[29] Press Briefing by Joe Lockhart, Office of the Press Secretary, January 4, 1999
[30] Clinton, Bill, Remarks by the President at Senator Robb Virginia Rally, Office of the Press Secretary, October 3, 1994
[31] Clinton, Bill, Remarks by the President for Mrs. Clinton, Office of the Press Secretary, April 1, 2000
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