With help from Allie Bice and Daniel Payne Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. Did someone forward this to you? Subscribe here! Have a tip? Email us at transitiontips@politico.com. JOHN PODESTA thinks the truth is out there. And he believes that President JOE BIDEN can help. The former White House chief of staff and Democratic party luminary has been pushing the federal government to be more transparent on all things UFO — or “unidentified aerial phenomena” for people who want to sound more serious — for over two decades. Now that the Pentagon and the media are taking the subject more seriously, Podesta thinks Biden should move the ball forward by creating a dedicated UFO office inside the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). “They're more used to dealing in an open-source environment, used to dealing with scientific information disclosed to the public, and having a conversation with the scientific community than, you know, black programs at the Pentagon,” Podesta told West Wing Playbook while driving with his wife across rural Wyoming. The idea for the office, which Podesta credits to novice UFO researcher and journalist LESLIE KEAN , would be a “central hub” to pool all the X-Files from across the federal government and then, ideally, share them with the public. OSTP declined to comment. Podesta says he is particularly interested in the 1965 crash of an unidentified object in Kecksburg, Pa., in 1965. “There were clearly more documents generated than were disclosed under the Freedom of Information Act given the attention the government paid to it,” he said. The UFO issue has gotten a flurry of coverage in recent months — from the New Yorker, “60 Minutes,” and many others. It’s not going away, either. Biden’s director of national intelligence is mandated to produce a public report to Congress documenting “unidentified aerial phenomena” or “anomalous aerial vehicles," per legislation signed during the Trump administration. While the Senate Intelligence Committee has been pushing for information as soon as June 25, some expect the Biden administration to delay the report due to foot dragging by military and spy agencies. White House press secretary JEN PSAKI told reporters today that the White House was “aware of the report requirement and our team at the office of the director of national intelligence (ODNI) is of course actively working on that report.” She said ODNI would ultimately decide whether to release the report in full. Trump’s former national intelligence director, JOHN RATCLIFFE, teased the report on Fox News in March. “Frankly, there are a lot more sightings than have been made public,” he said. Podesta says that there has been a sea change in the way the federal government deals with the question of UFOs and how the public writ-large reacts to those who express belief in them. “It was kind of career-ending to basically talk about this subject. That has clearly switched, and that's a good thing,” he said. Podesta’s own interest in the subject goes back to the 1990s. "John can get totally maniacal and phobic on certain subjects," President BILL CLINTON’s press secretary, MIKE McCURRY, told the Washington Post in 1998. "He's been known to pick up the phone to call the Air Force and ask them what's going on in Area 51." “What intrigued me about this was how much the government refused to sort of come clean on things that it’s done in the past,” Podesta said. Over time, Podesta’s association with the issue became so pronounced that fanatical UFO believers latched onto HILLARY CLINTON’s 2008 presidential campaign (to which he was an adviser) even after a fellow candidate — DENNIS KUCINICH — claimed during a Democratic debate that he’d personally seen a UFO. In January 2016, Hillary said Podesta had made her "personally pledge we are going to get the information out." Podesta did temper expectations for those hoping for/dreading proof of aliens. “I'm not expecting to have my wife and myself beamed up from my car into a spaceship,” he said. “I just like to know what the government knows and I think the public has a right to know.” PSA — We’re going to be experimenting with some new items and sections. Tell us what you like and what you hate. Do you work in the Biden administration? Are you in touch with the White House? Are you RYAN MONTOYA? We want to hear from you — and we’ll keep you anonymous: westwingtips@politico.com. Or if you want to stay really anonymous send us a tip through SecureDrop, Signal, Telegram, or Whatsapp here. You can also reach Alex and Theo individually. | 
