Tucker Carlson Tonight
January 15, 2023
"Roswell Before Roswell" (partisal transcript)


Tucker Carlson: So, history has recorded the first big UFO sighting in the United States is 1947 in Roswell, New Mexico, very famous-- right outside Roswell. But actually, there was in some sense a bigger and more significant event, sighting, two years before, also in New Mexico, at exactly the moment the U.S. government was detonating the first atomic weapon, shortly thereafter used in Japan. And witnesses on the ground saw some kind of object, shaped like an avocado they said, crash land. It was inspected by a lot of locals. There were beings inside, they said. And it was carted away by the U.S. government.

Now, people don't want to be called crazy, so no one said too much about it for quite some years. But people within the U.S. government believe it's true, and they believe it so strongly that now, as of this week, the Defense Department's annual spending bill will require, as per Congress, the Pentagon to go back and investigate what really happened. 

Nick Pope is a former U.K. Ministry of Defense official who has following this closely. He joins us to assess. Nick, thanks so much for coming on.

So, this is story that most, I think, Americans are not even aware of, but clearly people within the U.S. government believe it's real, or they wouldn't have attached this to a spending bill, correct? 

Nick Pope: Correct! Yes. This is being called the "Roswell before Roswell."  And you're right. People with some knowledge of these intelligence programs, who've been briefing Congress about this, made sure that this was put into the legislation. It's one of many UFO provisions in the new defense bill. DoD must provide Congress with a list of everything they've found out about this-- this specific incident but all other incidents and programs, from January 1, 1945 onwards. And anyone involved in these programs or with information about it, will be released from their secrecy oaths and nondisclosure agreements, and they'll be able to testify to Congress about this.
[discussion continues of nuclear angle]