Former President Barack Obama has walked back his casual claim that aliens are “real” during an interview on a progressive podcast.
Obama was asked about extraterrestrial life during a rapid-fire interview on the podcast No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen released over the weekend.
“Are aliens real?” the host asked.
Obama replied, “They’re real, but I haven’t seen them, and they’re not being kept in — what is it? There’s no underground facility, unless there’s this enormous conspiracy and they hid it from the president of the United States.”
The clip spread like wildfire online, as people have long wondered what presidents actually know about life on other planets.
On Sunday, Obama posted the viral clip on Instagram and wrote, “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!”
