The National Security Agency taught Tucker Carlson a lesson in espionage and fake news. One that looks sure to turn up the volume in the current war of words, real and imagined.
In a rare social media reprimand, the agency shot down the Fox News Channel host’s recently self-described “shocking claim” that he and his primetime show were trapped on an intelligence network.
A statement from the NSA on the recent allegations: pic.twitter.com/vduE6l6YWg
– NSA / CSS (@NSAGov) June 30, 2021
Just now, on the show, Carlson called the NSA’s comments “an annoying dishonest formal statement.” He went on to call it “an entire paragraph of lies written solely for the benefit of the lackeys in the intelligence community at CNN and MSNBC,” he continued. Carlson reiterated that “The NSA read my private email without my permission, period. We said that. Today’s statement by the NSA does not deny that. ”
“The message was clear, we can do what we want,” exclaimed Carlson, quoting the NSA as refusing to answer questions from its staff when their boss’s emails were combed through. “Orwellian doesn’t begin to describe the experience, it was like living in China,” said the former CNN and MSNBC front man. “Now that the Biden administration has identified tens of millions of patriotic Americans who have served in the military and fly flags in front of their homes as potential domestic terrorists and saboteurs of white supremacy, we’re going to see much more of this,” said Carlson and tossed red meat from the “Recipe of Tyranny” in front of his Red State audience.
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Like so much in American public life, this clash between Carlson and the Intelligence Agency feels like alternate universes are colliding.
“Yesterday we heard from a whistleblower within the US government who warned us that the NSA, the National Security Agency, is monitoring our electronic communications and plans to leak them to take this show off the air.” Rebel who was declared in his kind of bomb on Tucker Carlson Live Monday night
It didn’t escape attention that no one else at Rupert Murdoch’s conservative outlet endorsed Carlson’s outlandish claim or treated a great story in almost any other context. This contrasts with the headlines generated in the Washington Post, New York Times, and CNN when their reporters were informed that Justice Department attorneys were secretly revealing their phone and email records as part of a leak investigation had summoned.
On the other hand, this is the same Tucker Carlson a federal judge shouldn’t take too seriously last year because the “general tenor” of the show should then inform a viewer that they are not giving “factual facts” about the subjects it is raising and instead engages in ‘exaggeration’ and ‘non-verbal comments’. ”The report by Donald Trump-appointed Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil actually cites the arguments of FNC’s own lawyers in their successful attempt to have a defamation lawsuit against Karen McDougal , the former Playboy model and lover of the Celebrity Apprentice host, was rejected.
Interestingly, Carlson himself didn’t mention the espionage claim tonight, well into his show. Probably when its writers were struggling to find outrageous bullet points to get on Carlson’s teleprompter after the well-timed NSA tweet.
Instead, the Daily Caller founder pounded on immigration to the country’s southern border, drug trafficking, and how it is “killing America.” Carlson also beat VP Kamala Harris and, somewhat surprisingly, Texas Governor Greg Abbot, who did not seal the border with the Lone State National Guard.
On the flip side, White House press secretary Jen Psaki was questioned about Carlson’s allegation during a press conference Tuesday. A reporter asked if the Biden administration is “aware of any espionage of the NSA’s wiretapping efforts against US citizens, and is Tucker Carlson one of them?”
Psaki said the NSA is “a unit focused on foreign threats and individuals trying – trying to cause harm on foreign soil. So that is their area of responsibility. But beyond that, I would refer you to the secret services. “
“For their part, the Biden administration did not deny the story,” claimed Carlson for over 20 minutes in today’s TCT. “You can’t, you know it’s true,” he added, clearly overlooking the NSA’s tweet calling his claim “untrue”. He also played an audio file of Psaki’s response, “It’s like she’s reading Wikipedia … no denial.
In many ways, Carlson’s newest target is not exactly unexpected. For one, it comes from the Deep State chorus in Donald Trump’s hymnbook.
Carlson, whose show now tops all the other cable news programs, has also unleashed a flurry of conspiratorial allegations and testimony in recent weeks, apparently designed to arouse outrage among his viewers and to attract the attention and rejection of public officials. Last week he described Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as “a pig” and “stupid”. The week before, he claimed the January 6 riot was orchestrated by the FBI, a conspiracy theory that has also gained prominence among some Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
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