Sen. Murkowski on UAP shot down over Alaska: "We don't know"
Sen. Lisa Murkowski was briefed on the object shot down over her home state but hasn't seen pics or video.
Ahead of the second all-senators AI briefing this afternoon (7-11-2023), Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) was explaining what a SCIF is to two of her summer interns when Matt Laslo joined the conversation—offering some advice under his professor cap, before the journalist in him took over…
AUDIO: Sen. Lisa Murkowski
Lisa Murkowski: Super top secret…I’m trying to tell the interns what a SCIF is.
Prof. Laslo: Don’t go near it. That’s my rule.
LM: Heavy doors…oh, this is another reporter…
Matt Laslo: One new reporter, they started to walk in there with [Sen.] Grassley one time. We were like, ‘You’re gonna get shot!’
LM: Woah, woah—you’re gonna get run out of town, man.
ML: I’m curious, have you heard about this UAP-UFO whistleblower David Grusch?
LM: No, it sounds like I might learn about it in the SCIF.
ML: Have you heard yet what the Air Force shot down over Alaska?
LM: Oh, you mean the balloon?
ML: Was it?
LM: Well, you know, the spy balloon—the big spy balloon—that they took down off of South Carolina, that’s one, but then the one that they shot in Alaska, that one just went out on the ice and is still out there waiting for the ice to go out.
ML: Do you have confirmation it was a balloon?
LM: No. I mean, do I have confirmation it was a balloon?
ML: Yeah?
LM: We haven't been able to retrieve it, so we haven't been able to confirm, you know: ‘what was it?’
ML: What do they have to wait for it to melt or…?
LM: All right, my friend, I got to take you to the artic—it’s like this huge open space where it’s just ice, right? Well, what happens to ice? Ice can ultimately melt, but in the meantime, it's like saying, let's go find something on the moon.
ML: Yeah?
LM: Yeah.
ML: But don't they know the coordinates of where they shot it down?
LM: Approximately. Yeah. But you know, there's wind and there's drift and motion and stuff that goes on in there.
ML: I’ll go to the Arctic with ya.
LM: Huh? Please, we’ll have more fun.
ML: Have a good one ma’am.
Upon exiting the second all-senators AI briefing on Tuesday (7-11-2023)…
Murkowski 2
Reporter (not Laslo): What's your sense for the latest on the spy balloon…? Are you satisfied with the answers from the administration?
Lisa Murkowski: The big one you're talking about?
Reporter: The one that consumed everybody six months ago.
LM: The last guy (ie, Laslo—consult Murkowski 1 above) asked me about the little one that went down and I'm like, Yeah, we gotta come with me to the ice guys.
Matt Laslo: How do you know it was a little one that went down?
LM: Based on what our F-22s saw that took it down. They saw it, so…
ML: Have you asked for an image of that? Or video?
LM: I haven't asked for an image, but I received a briefing in Alaska very shortly after it had come into Alaska, and we were in the process of following it, monitoring it.
Reporter: What about the big one?
ML: Did they say that was a balloon, just a smaller one?
LM: We don't know. I mean, we talk about ‘objects’ because we don't really know how to describe them.
Sen. Murkowski then responds to other reporter’s question.
LM: In fairness, in terms of…the big one that was off the coast of South Carolina, I have not, I've not been briefed on that.
Reporter: Okay.
LM: I don’t know if other members have.
Reporter: Does it feel like it’s hard for Congress to sort of stay focused on any one of these, especially in the national security realm?
LM: Yeah. Yeah.
Matt Laslo is a veteran congressional correspondent and the founder of Ask a Pol—the people-powered press corps. Find him on Twitter @MattLaslo and please follow @Ask_a_Pol!