Tucker Carlson, Fox News host, discusses Populism & the Right at the National Review Institutes Ideas Summit held at Mandarin Oriental Hotel on March 29, 2019, Washington DC. Photo by Chip Somodevilla ( Getty Images)The National Security Agency rejected Tuesday's claims by Tucker Carlson, Fox News host, that he was an intelligence target for the United States. This is a rare repudiation of public figures claiming to have been made.AdvertisementPrime-time host, who had claimed that he was the subject of a plot by the government during Monday night's show, accused U.S. intelligence officers of trying to steal [his] show from the air and leak his private communications.24 hours later, the NSA responded to Carlsons claim.The agency stated in a Tuesday night tweet that this allegation was false. It stated that Tucker Carlson was never an intelligence target of the Agency, and that the NSA never planned to take his program off-air.Carlson has not provided any evidence supporting the claim that his personal communications were seized by the NSA. He does however cite an anonymous whistleblower who he claims is in a position of knowing.According to the host, Biden is spying on us. This morning, we confirmed it.AdvertisementThe NSA has the authority to monitor foreign communications. It often gets records of calls, internet messages and phone calls of noncitizens of American companies like AT&T and Google.Although the intelligence agency must take steps to reduce the appearance of Americans within intelligence reports, thousands of Americans are still identified each year at the request U.S. officials.AdvertisementThere are some exceptions, such as when the government is unable to reach a particular person (e.g. The NSA said Tuesday that the NSA will not target a US citizen unless there are limited exceptions (e.g.Fox News' attorneys successfully argued in court last year that Carlson was not stating the actual facts when defending him from slander allegations.AdvertisementFox News won the court's support, and it was agreed that viewers would view Carlsons claims with appropriate skepticism.
