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A Republican candidate for the US Congress says she stands by her claims she was abducted by tall, blonde aliens and taken aboard a spaceship at age seven but that the incident shouldn’t detract from what she’s done here on Earth. Bettina Rodriguez Aguilera claims since then the aliens have communicated telepathically with her – although it is not clear whether they told her to enter politics. Her son-in-law, Jarrod Agen, is US Vice President Mike Pence’s deputy chief of staff.