Scoop: Tucker Carlson sought Putin interview at time of spying claim

[demmiblue]

Tucker Carlson was talking to U.S.-based Kremlin intermediaries about setting up an interview with Vladimir Putin shortly before the Fox News host accused the National Security Agency of spying on him, sources familiar with the conversations tell Axios.

Why it matters: Those sources said U.S. government officials learned about Carlson's efforts to secure the Putin interview. Carlson learned that the government was aware of his outreach — and that's the basis of his extraordinary accusation, followed by a rare public denial by the NSA that he had been targeted.

Axios has not confirmed whether any communications from Carlson have been intercepted, and if so, why.

The big picture: Carlson's charges instantly became a cause célèbre on the right, which feasted on the allegation that one of America's most prominent conservatives might have been monitored by the U.S. intelligence community.

The backstory: Carlson told his roughly 3 million viewers on June 28 that the day before, he had 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."

https://www.axios.com/tucker-carlson-putin-interview-surveillance-c9952d7c-33d7-45e9-be68-2ba4c3817f98.html

Link to tweet

[marble falls]

1. What a self involved little nitwit. It hadda be NSA, not someone connected to the "intermediaries".

[lapfog_1]

2. THIS

I think we all expected this... tucker reached out to the Kremlin and the NSA (rightly) intercepted this email traffic. I assume if I am sending an email to someone not in the US that the NSA is snooping on it.

It is routine.

There is a very large data center in Utah... just north of Salt Lake City... that is the size of about 3 football fields.

I have no idea what's in it... but I bet that every communication done from the USA citizens to foreign nationals (encrypted or not) is captured and stored there many many years. It is all part of attempting to stop the next 9/11. Invasion of privacy... possibly... illegal? Nope.

The interesting part is if Fucker Carlson was in any way offering to soliciting anything... ahhh questionable... with the Russian government officials he was emailing...like, IDK, suggesting that Russia should push more cyber attacks NOW to make Biden look bad before the midterm races (not that far away).


Lets just say I wouldn't be surprised.

[C_U_L8R]

3. Putin shrugged.

Clearly, it’s a national security issue when Republican stooges reach out to Russia and conspire for treason, money laundering and other nefarious acts of self-enrichment. But with a talentless inconsequential bow-tied hack like Carlson, who gives a shit?