Tennessee Republican congressman Tim Burchett issued a dire warning after claiming to have seen classified unidentified flying object (UFO) footage that has not been released to the public just yet.
Also known by its official US government nomenclature "unidentified anomalous phenomena" (UAP), UFOs have been recently tackled by Burchett and his congressional colleagues.
In an appearance on the "Event Horizon" podcast, Burchett speculated extraterrestrial life forms could have technologies that humanity could not handle.
"[I]f they can travel light years or at the speeds that we've seen, and physics as we know it, fly underwater, don't show a heat trail, things like that, then we are vastly out of our league," he added.
Burchett also stated during his podcast appearance that if the potential alien tech was indeed real, humans would not be able to fight them off. But as it was, he added, they do not pose a threat to planet Earth, otherwise, they have already wiped humanity out.
Burchett is a sitting member of the house oversight committee which has held hearings about potential threats and unexplained UAPs.
His startling comments came after whistleblower David Grusch, a decorated US Air Force veteran who is considered by many to be credible, came forward claiming the US government has been running a secret UFO retrieval program.
Burchett and fellow Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida would be leading the committee's investigation regarding Grusch's unverified claims.
Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) told NewsNation last month that other "high-level" government whistleblowers with "high clearances" have come forward to back Grusch's claims.
"We're trying to gather as much of that information as we can..." he added. "And, frankly, a lot of them are very fearful of their jobs...fearful of harm coming to them."
US Efforts to Understand UFOs/UAPs
Meanwhile, US Department of Defense spokesperson Susan Gough told Fox News Digital there was no "verifiable information to substantiate the claims."
The same week as Rubio's interview, the US Senate approved new language in the Intelligence Authorization Act to further transparency and investigative efforts and protect whistleblowers.
According to the updated language, any employee under contract that "has in their possession material or information provided by or derived from the" government relating to UAPs has 60 days to notify Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick, the director of the Pentagon's All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO).
As of this report, the AARO has been investigating over 800 cases of UAPs. However, they indicated only 2.5% of the cases were "truly anomalous."
NASA is also investigating UFOs in a separate but parallel track as AARO.
Related Article: NASA Experts Hold First Public Forum to Discuss UAPs
