“They’re not being kept at Area 51. There’s no underground facility, unless there’s this enormous conspiracy, and they hid it from the president of the United States,” he added.
Cohen then asked Obama: “What was the first question you wanted answered when you became president?”
“Where are the aliens?” he responded, laughing.
However his answers quickly went viral, prompting a load of predictable speculation online.
On Sunday he sought to clarify his comments, posting a statement alongside a clip of the interview on Instagram.
He said: “I was trying to stick with the spirit of the speed round, but since it’s gotten attention let me clarify.
“Statistically, the universe is so vast that the odds are good there’s life out there.
“But the distances between solar systems are so great that the chances we’ve been visited by aliens is low, and I saw no evidence during my presidency that extraterrestrials have made contact with us. Really!”
The interview with Cohen predominantly focused on a more serious issue – the state of US political discourse, which Obama described as “a level of cruelty that we haven’t seen before”.
Obama criticised the erosion of shame and public decorum in modern political discourse and condemned the degradation of behaviour seen in recent years, pointing to the viral video.
“There doesn’t seem to be any shame about this anymore. It’s like a clown show happening on social media and on television,” Obama said.
The White House had initially dismissed the outrage as “fake” before eventually blaming a staffer for the post and removing the video.
The clip showed the faces of Barack and Michelle Obama superimposed onto apes, set to the tune of “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”.
Trump told reporters he “didn’t see” the part of the video that featured the Obamas.
When asked if he planned to apologise, he responded: “I didn’t make a mistake.”
casual_creator on
Honestly, anyone who was reading more into his answer than this was lying to themselves, IMO.
4StarCustoms on
Are we shocked? I doubt the really juicy info gets shared with a guy that might only be their 4 years. Presidents are figureheads and not the ones really running the show.
3 Comments
Full article: [Barack Obama](https://inews.co.uk/topic/barack-obama?srsltid=AfmBOoo1OvtPmXzXowlmtwCIXcAH9eAMPr8rxu21LG5EN9-fVLBFq2sQ&ico=in-line_link) has clarified his beliefs on extraterrestrial life, after an interview in which he casually claimed [aliens](https://inews.co.uk/topic/aliens?srsltid=AfmBOorFnUe0elK3q5B1jW9LwXSTu1m92g2CBrISMH5dnJ6CgQbmPdDo&ico=in-line_link) to be real sparked an online frenzy.
During a speed round of questions in a podcast with host [Brian Tyler Cohen,](https://inews.co.uk/news/world/trumps-racist-obama-post-just-latest-nod-far-right-4220182?ico=in-line_link) the former US president had said that aliens “were real, but I haven’t seen them”.
“They’re not being kept at Area 51. There’s no underground facility, unless there’s this enormous conspiracy, and they hid it from the president of the United States,” he added.
Cohen then asked Obama: “What was the first question you wanted answered when you became president?”
“Where are the aliens?” he responded, laughing.
However his answers quickly went viral, prompting a load of predictable speculation online.
On Sunday he sought to clarify his comments, posting a statement alongside a clip of the interview on Instagram.
He said: “I was trying to stick with the spirit of the speed round, but since it’s gotten attention let me clarify.
“Statistically, the universe is so vast that the odds are good there’s life out there.
“But the distances between solar systems are so great that the chances we’ve been visited by aliens is low, and I saw no evidence during my presidency that extraterrestrials have made contact with us. Really!”
The interview with Cohen predominantly focused on a more serious issue – the state of US political discourse, which Obama described as “a level of cruelty that we haven’t seen before”.
During the interview he also spoke out for the first time about a [viral racist video](https://inews.co.uk/news/world/trump-posts-racist-video-depicting-obamas-monkeys-4219878?ico=in-line_link), which appeared on Trump’s Truth Social, that depicted he and his wife Michelle as apes.
Obama criticised the erosion of shame and public decorum in modern political discourse and condemned the degradation of behaviour seen in recent years, pointing to the viral video.
“There doesn’t seem to be any shame about this anymore. It’s like a clown show happening on social media and on television,” Obama said.
The White House had initially dismissed the outrage as “fake” before eventually blaming a staffer for the post and removing the video.
The clip showed the faces of Barack and Michelle Obama superimposed onto apes, set to the tune of “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”.
Trump told reporters he “didn’t see” the part of the video that featured the Obamas.
When asked if he planned to apologise, he responded: “I didn’t make a mistake.”
Honestly, anyone who was reading more into his answer than this was lying to themselves, IMO.
Are we shocked? I doubt the really juicy info gets shared with a guy that might only be their 4 years. Presidents are figureheads and not the ones really running the show.