said he did not see evidence that aliens 鈥渉ave made contact with us,鈥� after sending social media abuzz by saying aliens were real on a podcast over the weekend.
During a lightning round of questions with podcast host Brian Tyler Cohen, Obama was asked, 鈥淎re aliens real?鈥�
鈥淭hey鈥檙e real,鈥� he answered, continuing: 鈥淏ut I haven鈥檛 seen them. And, they鈥檙e not being kept in Area 51.鈥�
On Sunday, the former president released a statement on Instagram, appearing to clarify what he meant by his comments that have since gone viral.
鈥淚 was trying to stick with the spirit of the speed round, but since it鈥檚 gotten attention let me clarify. Statistically, the universe is so vast that the odds are good there鈥檚 life out there. But the distances between solar systems are so great that the chances we鈥檝e been visited by aliens is low, and I saw no evidence during my presidency that extraterrestrials have made contact with us. Really!鈥�
Secrecy around Area 51, a top-secret Cold War test site in the Nevada desert, has long fueled conspiracy theories among UFO enthusiasts.
In 2013, the CIA acknowledged the existence of the site, but not UFO crashes, black-eyed extraterrestrials or staged moon landings.
Declassified documents referred to the 8,000-square-mile (20,700-square-kilometer) installation by name after decades of U.S. government officials refusing to acknowledge it.
The base has been a testing ground for a host of top-secret aircraft, including the U-2 in the 1950s and later the B-2 stealth bomber.
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This story corrects the name of the podcaster.
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