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Did NSA 'lie' about spying on Tucker Carlson? Fox News host says they didn't deny reading his mails

Tucker Carlson had earlier accused the Biden administration of spying on his private communication through NSA in a bid to take his show off-air

After Tucker Carlson made the shocking claim that the National Security Agency (NSA) was spying on his private communication, the agency has issued a statement refuting the allegations. In the statement shared on Twitter, NSA authorities clarified, "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." The statement further added, "...NSA may not target a US citizen without a court order that explicitly authorizes the targeting."

However, it appears that the Fox News host was not quite convinced with NSA's elaborate statement which he dubbed as an 'infuriatingly dishonest formal statement'. In the latest episode of his show 'Tucker Carlson Tonight', he said, "Last night on the show I made a very straightforward claim - NSA has read my private emails without my permission. Period...The statement from the NSA does not deny that." Carlson also spoke about his 'very heated' phone conversation with the NSA officials where he directly asked if they had read his private emails, but the agents refused to answer his question. While emphasizing the lack of privacy due to the NSA's alleged monitoring, Carlson also equated the situation to 'living in China'. 

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On Monday, June 28, Carlson said on his show that the US government was 'spying' on him through the NSA, in a bid to take his show off the air. "Yesterday we heard from a whistle-blower within the US government who reached out to warn us that the NSA, the national security agency, is monitoring our electronic communication and is planning to leak them in an attempt to take this show off the air," he claimed. "The Biden administration is spying on us. We have confirmed that," he concluded. 

Prior to the NSA issuing an official statement, White House Press secretary Jen Psaki responded to Tucker Carlson's claims on Air Force One. "Well, the NSA as you are well aware and everyone is aware and everyone on this plane is aware is entities that focus on foreign threats and individuals who are attempting to do us harm on foreign soil. So that is their purview, but beyond that, I would point to the intelligence community," Psaki said. 

Carlson was not convinced at all by Psaki's response, as he accused the Biden administration of ignoring his story, instead of denying it.

Soon afterward, the NSA published their statement completely rejecting Carlson's claims. The controversial talk show host was also targeted by netizens who ridiculed his claims following his furious reaction to the NSA statement. But, he did gain the support of a section of social media users who believed that the NSA is indeed spying on the personal lives of citizens.

"I wonder how long he can keep saying this without any evidence to support his claims?" tweeted Daily Beast Editor-at-large Molly Jong-Fast.

"Tucker Carlson got friend-zoned by the NSA. Add that to the long list of rejections," a Twitter user joked. Another tweeted, "Hell, this shows that no one wants to listen to Tucker Carlson - not even the NSA."

"Just in. The NSA announces Tucker Carlson has no intelligence to target," joked a third user.

However, there were a few users who supported Tucker Carlson's spying allegations, citing the reveal by Edward Snowden about NSA monitoring on the personal information and communication of citizens. 

"Leftists are really going to pretend the NSA isn't spying on absolutely all of us but ESPECIALLY people like @TuckerCarlson? REALLY? After Snowden? After all that?" tweeted NewsRadio's Austin Petersen. "The NSA is spying on everyone, and our elected officials don't care. They just reauthorize things like FISA with huge bipartisan majorities," wrote another Twitter user.

A third user believed, "I doubt that the NSA is purposefully spying on Tucker Carlson, but that doesn't mean they haven't spied on him incidentally because that does happen."