As we’ve already covered here repeatedly, upon taking office, Joe Biden is going to be a busy guy. He has some ambitious plans (to put it mildly) for all sorts of executive orders and bills he’d like to submit to Congress for consideration. With that in mind, I don’t expect this to be anywhere near the top of his to-do list. But it’s a question that was addressed over at The Debrief this week by my friends Lt. Tim McMillan and Tom Rogan. Are the entire issues of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena and the Pentagon’s UAP Task Force going to be dumped in his lap, forcing him to address the situation with the public? Is he even interested?

In typical Debrief style, Tim and Tom run through a lot of the recent history that has kept this pot simmering on the back burner for the past few years, including the fact that the Senate is expecting an unclassified report from the UAPTF by the end of June. If there’s anything even remotely exciting in there (which is far from a sure thing), then Biden almost has to be asked about it at a press conference. But as the Debrief article reminds us, there’s always been a serious stigma associated with the subject and politicians, at least until recently, have tended to shy away from it, with a few exceptions like Marco Rubio.

With all of that information as context, Tim and Tom offer some advice to the President-elect. Damn the “UFO taboo” and just level with the people. Current polling shows that a lot more people are aware of the subject today than there were only four years ago. And 68% of Americans believe that the United States government knows more about UFOs than they let on. If Joe Biden truly wants to run a transparent administration, he should be willing to tackle this subject head-on.

When we suggest this issue could be a defining one in your presidency, be assured this isn’t to suggest any of the very pressing issues facing this new presidency should take a back seat.

President-elect Biden, as you survey the lay of the land and all of the issues you aim to tackle as president — in addition to putting in place the very best people to confront the Covid-19 pandemic, restore unity amongst people, ensure national defense, and rebuild America’s role on the world stage — we suggest that you also make it a point to put smart and non-dogmatic people in place on the UAP issue, and make it known you want them finally to face this decades-long UFO taboo.

Acquaint yourself with the best UAP evidence held by any branch of the government and then ensure the principles you’ve championed, of evidence-driven policy and transparency, are applied without fear or favor. UFO taboo and institutional resistance be damned.

I can already hear some of you snickering at the idea that UFOs could be “the defining issue of the Biden presidency,” and perhaps you’re correct. If it turns out that the UAPTF report is mostly an empty bag and there are no startling revelations, but Joe Biden goes out and talks about it with no new facts to offer, people will likely make fun of him. But what if that’s not the case? If the task force delivers information that confirms for everyone that the unidentified objects our military has been encountering are definitely not ours, not the Russians’ or the Chinese’ either, and we don’t really have any idea what they are, that’s something awfully historic. Going one step further, if our military actually does know something more substantial and believe that these things come from “off-world” (as people like to say) and Biden is the one to break the news, he will have made history.

Will it happen? I don’t want to splash too much cold water on Tim and Tom here, but I’m definitely not getting my hopes up. Even if there is something to know, I’m not 100% sure the Pentagon would tell Biden about it. (Before you set your hair on fire, I said the same thing about Trump.) One possibility is that, aside from some much better photos and video that the military is alleged to have, they really don’t know any more about these things than most of us. If that’s the case, there’s not that much more to tell us.

Even if they do, we already know that the military is loath to discuss the issue with the public for a variety of reasons. And if they don’t want to give up the goods, it’s hard to expect Biden to go out there and walk the plank without them.

In the end, I think the only way there is a really dramatic conversation between the White House and the public is if something so incredibly dramatic happens that it simply can’t be ignored. If some sort of fantastic craft crashed in a public place where too many people could see it and film it before it was covered up, that would do it. Alternately, if somebody (or something?) made a very public landing and wanted to make contact, you would see the White House (and possibly the military) respond. But aside from that, secrecy is a very addictive drug and the Pentagon has been hooked on it for the better part of a century. Let’s let the Task Force continue their work and perhaps publish a report for Congress and reconvene after that. If Joe Biden wants to talk about it, we’re ready to listen. But I’m not holding my breath.