Fox News host Tucker Carlson is doubling down on his claim after the National Security Agency (NSA) denied it.
The agency wrote in a statement on Tuesday evening, “This allegation is untrue. Tucker Carlson has never been an intelligence target of the Agency and the NSA has never had any plans to try to take his program off the air.”
Carlson alleged during his show on Monday night that the NSA has been “monitoring our electronic communications and is planning to leak them in an attempt to take this show off the air.”
The NSA added, “With limited exceptions (e.g. an emergency), NSA may not target a US citizen without a court order that explicitly authorizes the targeting.”
A statement from NSA regarding recent allegations: pic.twitter.com/vduE6l6YWg
— NSA/CSS (@NSAGov) June 30, 2021
Carlson said during Monday night’s show, “The whistleblower, who is in a position to know, repeated back to us information about a story that we are working on that could have only come directly from my texts and emails.”
The Fox News host also alleged “the NSA captured that information without our knowledge and did it for political reasons.”
“The Biden administration is spying on us. We have confirmed that,” he claimed, later adding, “Spying on opposition journalists is incompatible with democracy. If they are doing it to us … they are almost certainly doing it to others.”
Following the nation’s leading intelligence agency’s denial, Carlson doubled down on Tuesday night, “Did the Biden administration read my personal emails? That’s the question that we asked directly to NSA officials when we spoke to them about 20 minutes ago in a very heated conversation. ‘Did you read my emails?’ And again, they refused to say … ‘We can’t tell you and we won’t tell you why we can’t tell you.’ My emails. And the message was clear: ‘We can do whatever we want.'”
He also said that the statement put out by the NSA “does not deny” his allegations made on Monday night.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki was asked on Tuesday if the administration is “aware of any espionage or listening efforts on U.S. citizens by the NSA” and if “Tucker Carlson [is] one of them.”
She responded, “Well, the NSA, as I think you’re well aware — I’m not sure everyone is aware — everyone on this plane is aware, I should say — is an entity that focuses on foreign threats and individuals who are trying — attempting to do us harm on foreign soil.”
Psaki added, “So, that is their purview. But beyond that, I would point you to the intelligence community.”
