Who?
Rep. Eric Burlison (R-MO)
Ask a Pol asks:
“Is this thing proceeding at all? Do you have any clarity on field hearings?”
“I haven’t heard a definitive ‘No’ yet.”
NEW:
“I’ve been advocating to [House Oversight Chair James] Comer and [Speaker Mike] Johnson to kinda create a special subcommittee,” Burlison exclusively tells Ask a Pol, before arguing a UAP Subcommittee shouldn’t be funded through Oversight Chair Comer’s limited budget. “He shouldn’t, and I don’t want him to. I don’t want him to do it. I want the Speaker to hire up whoever is needed to staff that [sub]committee.”
Key Burlison:
“I haven’t heard a definitive ‘No’ yet,” Burlison says.
Caught our ear:
We ask: “Did ya see the thing we reported last week on Luna and Gaetz?”
“She’s got some documents for me, she said,” Burlison tells Ask a Pol.
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LISTEN: Laslo & Burlison
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Below find a rough transcript of Ask a Pol’s exclusive interview with Rep. Eric Burlison (R-MO), slightly edited for clarity.
TRANSCRIPT: Rep. Eric Burlison
Matt Laslo: “How are you doing?”
Eric Burlison: “Hi, how are you?”
ML: “Did ya see the thing we reported last week on Luna and Gaetz?”
EB: “Yes. She’s got some documents for me, she said.”
ML: “Oh yeah?”
EB: “So she’s gonna — I don’t know what it is. So, hopefully I’ll find out.”
ML: “Is this thing proceeding at all? Do you have any clarity on field hearings?”
EB: “We — I’ve been advocating to [House Oversight Chair James] Comer and [Speaker Mike] Johnson to kinda create a special subcommittee.”
ML: “Oh, a special subcommittee? Oh, interesting.”
EB: “And give it the authority, because that would be the key thing is that it would have the ability to call into a SCIF [sensitive compartmented information facility], you know?”
ML: “Yeah. Because Comer’s kinda told me that he was — or he said he was fine with a Select Committee, he just didn’t want to devote resources from Oversight to it. He said…”
EB: “He can’t. Yeah. He shouldn’t, and I don’t want him to. I don’t want him to do it. That’s why I want the Speaker to hire up whoever is needed to staff that [sub]committee.”
ML: “Oh, interesting. And they haven’t said ‘No’?”
EB: “Because Comer’s staff is very into the Biden administration stuff.”
ML: “Yeah. And they haven’t said ‘No’? They’re open to it?”
EB: “I haven’t heard a definitive ‘No’ yet.”
ML: “Yeah. Sounds like you haven’t heard a definitive ‘Yes’ yet either?”
Laslo laughs.
EB: “I haven’t, no.”
ML: “Have you heard about [UFO whistleblower David] Grusch’s op-ed being held up? I guess, he’s got an op-ed that needs approval…”
EB: “He did tell me that. He did tell me that.”
ML: “How long ago? Like is it…?”
EB: “I’ve got his op-ed…”
ML: “Oh yeah?”
EB: “He showed me.”
ML: “Are you — are you surprised that it hasn’t passed the approval process?”
EB: “I don’t know — I don’t know why it hasn’t been.”
ML: “’Cause when you read it, there was no flags?”
EB: “Well, I don’t know what is…”
ML: “Classified.”
EB: “…classified and what’s not.”
ML: “Yeah. But nothing stuck out to you like, ‘Ohh, that’s…?’”
EB: “Or maybe not classified, it’s like, what’s open for public distribution. I don’t — I don’t know that.”
ML: “How long have you had it? When did you get it? This year or last year?”
EB: “Just recently.”
ML: “Oh yeah? That’s what I told the community. I’m like, ‘If a year, then yeah, that can be a story. If two weeks ago, then probably not a story.’”
Laughs.
EB: “You mean, getting that document?”
ML: “If they hold it for six months or they have it for a year.”
EB: “I think that they eventually will probably allow him to do it.”
ML: “Yeah? Interesting…”
Rep. Burlison in talks with Speaker Johnson & Oversight Chair Comer for UAP subcommittee