The National Security Agency insisted Tucker Carlson “has never been an intelligence target” after the Fox News host claimed the Biden administration spied on him.
The NSA has a “foreign intelligence mission,” a spokesperson said Tuesday in response to Carlson’s claims the night before that a government whistleblower told his team the agency was spying on their communications and”planning to leak them in an attempt to take this show off the air.”
“This allegation is untrue,” the NSA spokesperson said. “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 ‘FOCUSES ON FOREIGN THREATS’: PSAKI PUSHES BACK ON TUCKER CARLSON SPYING CLAIMS
“We target foreign powers to generate insights on foreign activities that could harm the United States,” the statement continued. “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
White House press secretary Jen Psaki similarly referred to the agency’s foreign threat mission on Tuesday, telling reporters NSA focuses on “individuals who are trying, attempting to do us harm on foreign soil.”
Carlson did not disclose any specific evidence beyond describing the whistleblower’s tip — but insisted “they are definitely doing it to us.”
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“Spying on opposition journalists is incompatible with democracy,” he said Monday. “If they are doing it to us, and again, they are definitely doing it to us, they are almost certainly doing it to others. This is scary, and we need to stop it right away.”
Carlson responded to the NSA statement, released ahead of his show Tuesday, by noting the agency did not deny it incidentally picked up his communications while monitoring whoever its targets might have been.
He called the statement an “entire paragraph of lies written purely for the benefit of the intel community’s lackeys at CNN and MSNBC” and reiterated his accusation the agency spied on him.
Carlson also said he and his team spoke to NSA shortly before the show began in a “very heated conversation” during which officials refused to say whether the agency read his emails.
