Jimmy Carter's 'Off-The-Record' UFO Comments Revealed In Interview With NPR Host

A conversation between the late Jimmy Carter, the 39th President of the United States, and NPR host Scott Simon has been publicly discussed for the first time. In an interview with American news channel NewsNation Simon shared details of a phone call he had with Carter years ago - an "off-the-record" exchange that he has only now chosen to speak about.

Carter, who served as President from 1977 to 1981, is well-known for having reported a UFO sighting in 1973 while he was the Governor of Georgia. His encounter is one of the most famous cases involving a high-ranking public official, and it led to speculation about how his presidency might approach government transparency regarding unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs), a modern term for UFOs.

Simon told NewsNation host Natasha Zouves that he originally reached out to Carter while working on a story about a New York hospital that had formed a support group for people who believed they had seen UFOs. While the hospital itself was not making any claims about the reality of these sightings, doctors had found that patients dealing with trauma and distress made better progress when placed in a group with others who had similar experiences.

Hoping to gain insight from someone with access to national security information, Simon was eventually rewarded with a call from Carter himself. "I said, look, you had access to national security information when you were in the White House. Could these people be right?" Simon recalled.

Carter reportedly responded with a chuckle, saying, "No, but remember UFO is just something we haven't identified." He then explained that there are dozens of unexplained incursions into airspace every year, but they are typically some kind of experimental aircraft - before drones became commonplace, for example, the military was conducting tests that even different branches of the armed forces were not aware of. "You'd actually be surprised how many times the Air Force doesn't know what the Navy's up to," Carter reportedly told him.

Simon then pressed further, asking Carter whether he believed there was any reason to think extraterrestrial life existed. Carter responded, "I don't want to go that far, but if there is, it's got nothing to do with UFOs." He expressed doubt that an advanced civilization would send "big bulky airships" to visit Earth, suggesting instead that if extraterrestrials existed, they would likely observe us from a distance and "leave us alone."

Simon also asked Carter whether the US government would have to keep evidence of extraterrestrial life secret to avoid public panic. Carter's response was characteristically calm and reassuring: "The way I see it, there is nothing to fear. If there is life out there, we are all part of the same master plan, and God's hands are big enough to hold us both."

This remark deeply moved Simon, not only for its philosophical weight but also because of Carter's well-documented openness and honesty. Carter had publicly reported his own UFO sighting without fear of ridicule, an act that showed both candor and integrity.

Decades later, Simon reflected on why this conversation has stayed with him. "His decency, his openness," Simon told Zouves. "And his openness not only in talking about a subject I think a lot of politicians would want to understandably avoid, but his openness as a human being to thinking that maybe there is life in another dimension or other planets."

Simon emphasised that Carter did not believe UFOs had any connection to extraterrestrial life, but he appreciated the possibility of a vast and shared existence. "His feeling that we were all in the hands of the same God, and therefore we are all part of the same world, we're all sharing our lives together at the same time - I was just struck by his expansiveness of spirit."