Seth Moulton
© The Boston Globe"Aliens"
Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.), who has launched a 2020 campaign for president, on Monday responded to a question about a hypothetical alien invasion with a dig at President Trump's immigration policies.

"I would not build a wall between here and Mars," Moulton said on BuzzFeed News's "AM to DM" the same day he announced his run for the White House. "I would not do that."


"No, you got to start - and this is serious, guys - you got to start with diplomacy," he continued. "You always have to start with diplomacy."

Moulton backed his diplomacy-first approach by quoting former Defense Secretary James Mattis, who served as a general when Moulton was in the Marines.

"General Mattis, when he was General Mattis, not Secretary Mattis, was my division commander. And he said ... 'If you cut the State Department budget, you got to buy me more bullets,'" Moulton said, adding that he would offer the alien "a classic American meal."

"I'd serve a beer and a burger, and then if the meeting goes well, that's all good," Moulton said jokingly. "If the meeting starts to not go so well I'd say, 'By the way, that burger - that's the last aliens who visited.'"

Moulton, 40, joined a massive field vying for the 2020 Democratic nomination on Monday. He said in a video that he is running because "we have to beat Donald Trump, and I want us to beat Donald Trump because I love this country."

Moulton is one of a few veterans in the Democratic field. South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) are also running for the nomination.

The three-term congressman's comments about a hypothetical alien invasion come as Trump moves forward with his plans to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Trump declared a national emergency earlier this year to fund it after failing to secure funding from congressional spending bills.

The Pentagon in March transferred $1 billion from its accounts to help build Trump's long-sought wall.