Former Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson has been seeking an interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to recent statements from Margarita Simonyan, Editor-in-Chief of Russia Today (RT).
The revelation comes as Carlson rebrands his show, publishing episodes directly on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
“[Carlson] is strongly requesting an interview with Vladimir Putin,” Simonyan said during an interview quoted by RT. “It would be great, if someone listens and notifies the president about this.”
In 2021, Carlson alleged that the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) hacked his account through the encrypted messaging app Signal to spy on him as he attempted to set up the interview.
Carlson said he was called by a contact in Washington D.C., who told him that the NSA had pulled a text between him and another individual he was texting to arrange a chat with the Russian president.
JUST IN — Tucker Carlson is reportedly in discussions to interview Vladimir Putin, as reported by RT.
Notably, the NSA spied on Tucker Carlson to prevent a pre-war interview with Putin, potentially stopping the American public from gaining insight into Putin's perspective before… pic.twitter.com/2cRp9useaG
— KanekoaTheGreat (@KanekoaTheGreat) August 27, 2023
“And so I immediately, I was intimidated,” he said during a podcast interview. “I’m embarrassed to admit, but I was, I was completely freaked out by it.”
Carlson says he reached out to a U.S. senator who admitted that it happened, but says the NSA spying on his messages happened for a good reason.
“Republicans and Democrats are all in on it,” he explained. “And by ‘it’ I mean the assumption there’s no privacy whatsoever, that they have a right to know everything you’re saying and thinking.”
He added, “And that’s just not a right as far as I’m concerned. By the way, if you have no privacy, you have no freedom. Freedom is predicated on privacy. It’s like none of your business.”
Since Carlson’s departure from Fox News, he has been racking up big numbers on “Tucker on X” videos.
Last week, he sat down with former President Donald Trump for an interview that aired while his former network broadcasted the first Republican 2024 presidential primary debate.
As of Aug. 23, the video had garnered more than 261 million views.
