Who?
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) — Senate Armed Services Committee
CORRECTION: Intel hearing on Nov. 19th wasn’t on UAPs
Last week, on Nov. 19th two classified Senate hearings overlapped with each other, both starting right at 2:30pm EST. Intel. Chair Warner led a classified Intelligence Committee hearing in the Senate Hart Office Building, which Ask a Pol’s Matt Laslo —accidentally — staked out. The topic(s) discussed are not public.
Separately and simultaneously, a handful of Senate Armed Services Committee members met with folks from AARO in the Office of Senate Security, ie the Senate SCIF (sensitive compartmented information facility).
ICYMI — CORRECTED: Warner nailed it — we were just at the wrong 2:30pm classified Senate hearing…
LISTEN: Laslo & Kaine
Ask a Pol asks:
Did you check out Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s public UAP hearing?
Key Kaine:
“I went to the classified one and asked Langley-related questions,” Sen. Tim Kaine told Ask a Pol.
“I couldn’t make it to go to the open one, but they just haven’t answered the questions I’ve wanted answered from the Langley incident.”
NDAA — NDAA still being tweaked behind closed doors
“We will be taking it up in the NDAA [National Defense Authorization Act],” Kaine said. ”We have some aspects of the NDAA — it’s currently pending — that deal with this issue, but we’ll have to do more.”
Caught our ear:
“Leaving these matters to local law enforcement is insufficient. I don’t want to go too much into what I heard in the classified hearing, even though some of it I knew before I went in,” Kaine told us of after last week’s classified AARO hearing. “I didn’t really learn much in that hearing.”
Below find a rough transcript of Ask a Pol’s exclusive interview with Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA), slightly edited for clarity.
TRANSCRIPT: Sen. Tim Kaine
SCENE: Sen. Kaine and an aide are walking from his office to the US Capitol alongside the underground tram when Ask a Pol’s Matt Laslo catches up with him and walks with him until he catches the Senator’s Only elevator up the Senate chamber.
BAD AUDIO ALERT: This is poor audio — Kaine’s a low talker, we were walking and passing others walking the other direction (single file is not good for interviewing…) and there was a steady hum next to the Senate trams — so it’s slightly more produced than normal (and it’s still bad…so transcript open for all so there’s no confusion on what he said). Apologies.
Matt Laslo: “Hey!”
Tim Kaine: “Yeah, man?”
ML: “Did you check out the — Gillibrand’s hearing yesterday?”
ICYMI — After AARO hearing, Gillibrand dropped news
T.K.: “I did, you mean the classified hearing?”
ML: “She also had an open one on UAPs and there was a focus on Langley.”
T.K.: “Yeah. I went to the classified one and asked Langley-related questions…”
Laslo whispers apology to someone he’s sliding behind in the cramped walkway between the two underground Senate trams…
T.K.: “…but I did not go to the open one.”
Would you insert the sub tag here in this one? Give more?
ML: “What um — well, it’s interesting. Gillibrand told me she’s introducing a bill either in the next couple weeks or next month aimed at giving the Pentagon the ability to shoot anything above Langley or Luke Air Force Base. I know you brought that up to the heads of North and Southcom.”
ICYMI — Sen. Kelly on incursions over Luke AFB
T.K.: “You know, what are they exploring about these authorities?”
ML: “Yeah. So would you be…”
T.K.: “I’d have to take a look. Yeah.”
ML: “Yeah?”
T.K.: “I don’t want to comment on it until it’s put in. I don’t want to get the — I mean…”
“I didn’t really learn much in that hearing.”
— Kaine on AARO briefing
ML: “But what have you heard…?”
T.K.: “…leaving these matters to local law enforcement is insufficient. I don’t want to go too much into what I heard in the classified hearing, even though some of it I knew before I went in. I didn’t really learn much in that hearing yesterday.”
ML: “And that was yesterday’s classified where…”
T.K.: “Yes. I couldn’t make it to go to the open, but they just haven’t answered the questions I’ve wanted answered from the Langley incident.”
ML: “That what I was gonna ask. Should your constituents around Langley be worried?”
T.K.: “It hasn’t happened since, so…”
Tram car passes Kaine and Laslo…
T.K.: “…you know, in that sense, it’s not ideal, but after we caught on it hasn’t happened. I would not worry if I lived there. It’s been getting a lot of news, and I’m in Hampton a lot and I don’t detect great worry. But we do have to have a strategy for dealing with these kinds of incursions. And what hampered the Langley reaction is ‘Is this local law enforcement?’”
ML: “Yeah?”
T.K.: “‘Is this the Air Force? Is it — who’s responsible? — is it DHS [Dept. of Homeland Security]? Is it Northcom?’ Who’s responsible?”
ML: “Is it…”
T.K.: “Either way, it was, unfortunately, another way we were pointed out the need to develop a better set of policies around how to handle it.”
ML: "Well, I think it was you that told me, or it might have been [former Gov. & current Sen.] Rick Scott. Or maybe both, when you were governor, you didn’t always know, you’d sometimes contact the Pentagon like ‘Hey, we’re getting sightings above our state.’”
ICYMI — Kaine: “they were fast movers”
T.K.: “Hmmm.”
ML: “But even they wouldn’t give you the details.”
T.K.: “Yeah.”
ML: “They’d be like ‘Oh, we got this.’”
T.K.: “That’s fairly accurate. That was 20 years ago, so been a while, sorta, hazy...”
ML: “But, does that concern you? I mean, or, how much does that concern you?”
T.K.: “We will be taking it up in the NDAA [National Defense Authorization Act].”
ML: “Yeah?”
T.K.: ”We have some aspects of the NDAA — it’s currently pending — that deal with this issue, but we’ll have to do more. And Sen. Gillibrand is very focused on this issue.”
ICYMI — UAPDA still alive in NDAA
ML: “Yeah.”
T.K.: “I look forward to working with her.”
ML: “Last question: Do you feel our airspace is safe, even though it’s regularly invaded by stuff we don’t know?”
Kaine’s entering an elevator so he can go vote on the Senate floor.
T.K.: “Generally, yes.”
ML: “Yeah? Appreciate ya.”
Elevator dings. Doors close…
Again: Apologies
We’re so, so sorry. Mistakes happen, but they’re still unacceptable. We’ll do better going forward. Sincerest apologies.
— Laslo
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