Tucker Carlson alleged Monday that the National Security Agency is spying on him to get his prime time Fox News show canceled. (Watch the clip below.)
“Yesterday we heard from a whistleblower within the U.S. government who reached out to warn us that the NSA is monitoring our electronic communications and is planning to leak them in an attempt to take this show off the air,” he said.
Carlson, a Fox News star who has pushed revisionist takes on the Capitol insurrection, stoked fears over teaching students about racism and advanced anti-vaccine conspiracy theories, said he had proof of government spying from his source, who knew about a story the show is working on that could have only come from Carlson’s texts and emails.
“The Biden administration is spying on us,” Carlson declared. “We have confirmed that.”
“Spying on opposition journalists is incompatible with democracy,” he added. “This is scary and we need to stop it right away.”
Bradley P. Moss, a lawyer specializing in national security, expressed skepticism about Carlson’s pronouncement, but allowed that “maybe his comms were picked up.”
“Tucker is making serious accusations with no proof and is basing corroboration on a story he allegedly is working on that none of us know about,” Moss tweeted.
Famed whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed the NSA’s mass surveillance of ordinary Americans in 2013. The Justice Department under the Trump administration secretly seized communications records for reporters at The Washington Post, CNN and The New York Times.
The Daily Beast suggested Carlson was perhaps “looking to get ahead of a potentially negative story” about himself.
Here’s a longer look at the segment. Carlson’s spying claims begin at the 19:20 mark: