Burchett will not lead UFO whistleblower hearing: ‘It’s just politics’ – The Hill

Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) will not lead a House Oversight subcommittee hearing focused on UFOs slated to take place Wednesday.

Burchett told The Hill that subcommittee chair Glenn Grothman will chair the hearing. But, he had expected to lead it after spearheading the hearing with Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.).

“Yeah, I’m upset. I mean, you know, I’ve spent a lot of time helping put this thing together. It’s just politics,” he said.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) said Burchett misunderstood his role, saying, “he’s not a committee chairman.”

“Tim misunderstood. He is going to give an opening statement. He’s going to get to ask 20 questions.:

“You don’t — I mean, he’s not a committee chairman,” Comer added. “You don’t have a subcommittee. We’re gonna have a good UFO hearing tomorrow.”

Related coverage from The Hill

Comer said Burchett is still the “main player” in the hearing and regretted the miscommunication.

The change in the role Burchett expected to have comes after he attacked the Pentagon one day before the UFO-focused hearing.

Members of the House will hear from a whistleblower who claims the U.S. is withholding evidence of “non-human craft” or unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs).

During an interview with Fox News, host Martha MacCallum showed clips of supposed “tic-tac” videos of suspected unidentified flying objects (UFOs) and unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) released by the Department of Defense.

MacCallum asked Burchett what people should expect from Wednesday’s proceedings, and he first doubted the “tic-tac videos” before slamming the “war pimps at the Pentagon.”

“So this — the Tic Tac videos, which you showed earlier … The military denied that that even existed, and then it was put out and they said they were fakes and then they eventually came around,” Burchett said.

“The Pentagon is coming around because they smell dollars, man, the war pimps at the Pentagon, all they want to do is drain more dollars from us,” he continued. “We don’t need any more dollars. All we need is transparency. That’s the job of you all in the media and us in Congress.”

Emily Brooks contributed to this report.