Tucker Carlson is continuing to push the assertion that he is being spied on by the National Security Agency.
And while there’s still a lack of evidence to prove this, Tucker claimed Wednesday during an appearance on Fox Business that he now has reason to believe his emails were leaked to journalists by the NSA.
“Yesterday I learned, that — and this is going to come out soon — that NSA leaked the contents of my email to journalists in an effort to discredit me,” Tucker told “Mornings with Maria” host Maria Bartiromo. “I know this because I got a call from one saying ‘Oh, this is what your email was about.’”
While the Fox News website has amply covered Tucker’s on-air comments, Tucker notably hadn’t discussed this issue on any other Fox shows besides his own (“Tucker Carlson Tonight” and the recently launched “Tucker Carlson Today” on Fox Nation). So his decision to sit down with Bartiromo was definitely noted.
Tucker didn’t say which outlets or reporters have allegedly gotten copies of his emails, and didn’t respond to requests for comment clarifying this. Fox declined to elaborate on TheWrap’s requests for comment inquiring why it hasn’t more widely covered the NSA issue on other networks.
When he first announced the allegations last week Carlson claimed the NSA was doing this to take his show off the air. Tucker claimed the NSA is working for the Biden Administration to gather research on “opposition journalists” like himself, he said, who are putting out unfavorable coverage of the Biden presidency.
“So, it is not in any way a figment of my imagination,” Tucker went on. “It’s confirmed, it’s true. They are not allowed to spy on American citizens and I think more ominously they are using information they gather to put leverage to threaten opposition journalists, people who criticize Biden administration happening to me right now, I think shocking I don’t think we should put up with it in a free country.”
It’s worth noting, again, that the current NSA chief Lt. Gen. Paul Nakasone is a Trump appointee. Trump picked Nakasone to lead both the U.S. Army Cyber Command and the NSA in 2018.
The NSA has denied Tucker’s accusations and said in a statement last week, “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. NSA has a foreign intelligence mission. We target foreign powers to generate insights on foreign activities that could harm the United States.”
Mediaite was first to note Tucker’s appearance and has video of the exchange between him and Baritromo.