Who?*
Rep. Joe Courtney (D-CT) — second highest ranking Democrat on HASC; ranking member on Armed Services Committee’s Seapower & Projection Forces Subcommittee
*Our sincerest apologies. We thought we posted this after covering the DNC in Chicago in August, but Ask a Pol founder Matt Laslo got laid out with COVID after the convention, signals got crossed within our tiny team and at it fell through the cracks.
But, please know: Ask a Pol never stopped pressing Congress on the UAPDA and the NDAA…
LISTEN: Laslo & Courtney
Ask a Pol asks:
Sen. Mike Rounds told Ask a Pol the House Intel Committee gutted Schumer’s UAPDA amendment to the NDAA — National Defense Authorization Act — last year. Have you ever discussed UAPs with Intel. Ranking Member Jim Himes, your fellow Connecticut Democrat?
Key Courtney:
“Not much, to be honest,” Rep. Joe Courtney exclusively told Ask a Pol. “[House Intelligence Committee Ranking Democrat] Jim [Himes] never approached me or anybody on the Intel.”
ICYMI — Ask a Pol’s exclusive w/ Sen. Rounds
Below find a rough transcript of Ask a Pol’s exclusive interview with Rep. Joe Courtney (D-CT), slightly edited for clarity.
SUBSCRIBER-ONLY CONTENT*
*Student? Lost your gig? Hard times? Been there. Got you. No questions asked. Just ping us.
TRANSCRIPT: Rep. Joe Courtney
SCENE: In August, just off the floor of the Democratic National Convention — or DNC — in Chicago, Ask a Pol bumped into Congressman Joe Courtney, the second most senior Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee (HASC), so we asked for an update on backdoor NDAA politics.
Matt Laslo: “Can I get you real quick?”
Joe Courtney: “Sure.”
ML: “I gotta start with an issue I brought up to you before. You’re on Armed Services [Committee]?”
JC: “Yes.”
ML: “Have you ever discussed UAPs with Jim Himes?”
JC: “What?”
ML: “Have you ever discussed UAPs — or UFOs — with Jim Himes?”
JC: “Umm, not much, to be honest with ya”
ML: “Yeah?”
JC: “Yeah.”
ML: “Well, it’s interesting, in this year’s NDAA [National Defense Authorization Act] Sen. [Mike] Rounds tells me it’s House Intel that was gutting [Senate Majority Leader Chuck] Schumer’s UAPDA amendment. But last year, none of them would fess up to it.”
JC: “Right.”
ML: “But when I talked to [HASC] Chair [Mike] Rogers, he said it wasn’t that. So UAPs never really came up in your committee or…?”
JC: “No.”
Courtney greats a colleague passing by us in the hall.
JC: “Hey, how are you doing, Catherine? Good to see you.”
ML: “No?”
JC: “No. I mean, Seapower & Projection Forces, it wouldn’t.”
ML: “Yeah?”
ICYMI — UAP Caucus Co-chair Luna investigating USOs
JC: “So, the — Jim [Himes] never approached me. Or anybody from Intel [Committee].”
ML: “My gut says, Himes doesn’t care about it, so [HPSCI Chair Mike] Turner, it’s all in his hands. But I’m like, you haven’t even been in conversations about the gutting of the Majority Leader of the Senate’s measure?”
JC: “Yeah, no, I mean — not a word.”
ML: “But this go around in the NDAA in the House, there wasn’t even a UAP discussion?”
JC: “Right. And it’s — the House bill actually got a more thorough process. I mean, the Senate one was kinda a truncated version, so that, you know…”
ML: “Sounds like the Washington I know.”
JC: “Yeah, that’s right.”
Not Courtney’s issue, so Laslo switches to the politics of the DNC.
ML: “Alright, so that issue aside. Does Biden’s address tonight matter? Or does Pres. Biden come into the party and now its…”
JC: “I mean, I do think, by and large, most people have kind of pivoted already, you know, but still, I think it would be, I think good for everyone to sorta hear Biden embrace it, y’know, that he's fully all-in in terms of the ticket, which I do think [Democratic VP candidate Tim] Walz is obviously one of his favorites. So I think that's gonna be easy for him.”
ML: “Did you know Walz?”
JC: “Oh, he was in my class [of freshmen House members of 2006]. We came in together.”
ML: “Oh really?”
JC: “Yeah. So I was on Ag [House Agriculture Committee] with him, and he did a term or two on Armed Services as well. So we were talking during the whole lead up. You know, I endorsed him publicly before [VP Kamala Harris] announced. Don’t think that mattered that much.”
ML: “Were you surprised or you solid?”
JC: “You know what, I actually was starting to feel, when I talked to [DNC senior advisor and former Rep.] Cedric Richmond — who was on the selection committee — and he was super positive. I mean, it was before they have, y’know, come down to a decision, but y’know, honestly, to me, it’s not about which state is, y’know — Tim’s a better pick. I mean, you already have like a coastal Democrat, attorney general, which is what [PA Gov. Josh] Shapiro was. He was kind of a mirror image of [Harris]. So Tim was more of a guy who fills gaps. From the heartland; not a lawyer.”
ML: “I guess, when Biden was there (inaudible)...”
JC: “Right, yes.”
ML: “…which at first I was like, you know, that must be a typo.”
JC: “Yep.”
ML: “But then, real quick. Where’s Biden on — what do you make of Republican calls for him to resign? That if he’s unfit to run, he’s unfit for office?”
JC: “Y’know, it’s like their impeachment report. I mean, it’s — it feeds, it satisfies a small group of them. But I think that, you know, that's just — I mean, really, politically, why are you focusing on Joe Biden? The race is not between him anymore, him and Trump. They should be talking about Harris and Walz. They can't let go.”
Courtney laughs.
ML: “They make the case that, look: the media were complicit, all these Democrats they’re lying to the American public, Biden’s unfit just based on his debate performance…”
JC: “No, but I mean, you know, the State of the Union address, I think actually — you know, people, I was with a bunch of members watching the debate and going into it, people were really like, ‘Oh, he was so good at the State of the Union that, you know, this will be good, this will be fine.’ And, y’know, it wasn't fine. So. But I don’t think anyone was complicit in anything. I mean, I think people have that memory of him where he performed very well.”
ML: “Yeah? And so you're not worried about him keeling over in the next few months?”
JC: “No.”
ML: “Yeah?”
JC: “Honestly, I mean, I think not having the pressure of a campaign and the stress, I mean, I think he's gonna run through the tape. And I think he's gonna do his pet projects, like the Cancer Moonshot. And, you know, he had fun announcing the prescription drug deal the other day. Which was really good stuff — 80% cost reduction on some of those medications…”
ML: “Can’t beat that.”
JC: “That’s a big deal.”
ML: “But not good enough...”
JC: “Yeah, yeah.”
ML: “Good seeing you.”
Content posted at AskaPol.com is copyrighted. Use our original content to move the story forward. And, please, link to us.
Powerful HASC Dem: “Not a word" spoken about Schumer's UAPDA in NDAA negotiations w/ Himes, HPSCI