In episode 42 of his newest production, “Tucker on X,” host Tucker Carlson interviewed Tennessee U.S. Representative Tim Burchett (R-TN-02) about the decades-long government coverup of UFOs, also known as unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs).

Earlier this year, Burchett launched the Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Caucus after hearing testimony from Air Force veteran and former intelligence officer David Grusch who could not provide specific details regarding UAP crash retrieval programs or UAP reverse engineering programs because such details were classified.

Burchett sent a letter to the inspector general of the intelligence community investigating claims that information on UAPs were being withheld from Congress. In his response, Inspector General Thomas A. Monheim threw hot water on Burchett’s claims, saying there was no information available.

In Tuesday’s ‘Tucker on X’ episode, the Tennessee congressman said the government has been covering up knowledge of UAPs since at least 1947 and now “smells dollars,” which is why some information on the topic has been allowed to become public.

Burchett argued that the Pentagon would be “out of business” if it released information on, for example, an energy source that didn’t show a heat trail, which has been reported by American pilots.

“And so you figure, in a compartmentalized department like the Pentagon who has these untold billion dollar contracts with our defense contractors – who want us in every dadgum war, who want us in Ukraine, who want us in everything everywhere in the world – because they’ll be selling moe missile defense systems and things like that,” Burchett explained. “You imagine that there’s, probably I’d say, a half dozen of those top level contractors and these corporations multinational. And then we fund them and we don’t know where the money’s going and yet there’s cost overruns and we keep rewarding them with more.”

“So obviously, if they were in possession of some of this material or a craft or what have you, the reverse engineering possibilities would be unlimited. And they can control the ebbs and flows of technology and they’re on the cutting edge of it. They don’t want us out of war,” Burchett added.

Carlson then asked Burchett if the Pentagon may be funding “programs that we’re not allowed to know about” – acknowledging how the Pentagon has failed six audits in a row where billions of dollars are unaccounted for – to which the Tennessee congressman said, “I completely think it’s intentional, Tucker. You’re exactly right.”

“The reality is we’re going to tell them to tell us the truth after they’ve been lying to us and funding these programs,” Burchett added. “We have some of the best pilots in the world that are telling me their crafts have been buzzed by this. And I’ve had members of Congress say, “Burchett, we need to be on something important.” Let me ask you: what’s more important than something in our air space buzzing $50-$60 million aircraft, putting American pilots at risk and we don’t know who it is or what it is?”

As of press time, the latest installment of Carlson’s video podcast, posted at 6:13 p.m. Central Standard Time on Tuesday by @TuckerCarlson, had over 2.4 million views.

Hours after Burchett’s interview with Carlson was posted, Florida U.S. Representative Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL-13), a member of the Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Caucus, announced on X that she, Burchett, and other members of the Caucus will hold a press conference at the Capitol on Thursday morning to “publicly draw attention to the continual pushback, sidelining, & stonewalling we and countless Americans have received regarding UAPs.”

“Thank you @TuckerCarlson and @X for giving us a platform while the government & media have tried to silence Americans and bar us from the truth,” the Florida congresswoman added in her tweet.

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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.