White House said 'we don't know' whether aliens exist

After congressional testimony that suggested the U.S. government may have encountered alien technology, the White House said through a spokesperson that "we don't know" whether alien life exists.

"We don't know. We don't have the answers about what these phenomena are," National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said at the daily White House press briefing when a reporter asked if the U.S. government believed there "may be life outside of our planet."

Recent sightings of "unexplained aerial phenomena" make it "a national security issue worth looking at," Kirby said.

"Unidentified aerial phenomena doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, but it's an honest assessment of what we think about this problem set. And so we'll see where it goes," he said.

"There's a whole office at the Pentagon that is stood up to analyze the data, collect reports, collate those reports and forward them up appropriately. And that's, I think, testament to the fact that we know that in some cases these phenomena have impacted military training, have an impact on military readiness," he said to explain why the White House takes the sightings seriously.

The government is trying to balance transparency and finding answers, he concluded.