Tucker: I’ve Been Trying to Get This Interview for Three Years But The U.S. Gov’t Prevented Me by Spying on My Messages and Leaking Them to the NYT

Carlson: “I’ll start in reverse order. Why now? Well, I’ve been trying for three years to do this interview. The U.S. government prevented me from doing it by spying on my text messages and leaking them to The New York Times. And that spooked the Russian government into canceling the interview. So, I’ve been trying to do this, but my country’s intel services were working against me illegally, and that enraged me because I’m an American citizen. I’m 54, I pay my taxes, I obey the law. And there was no expectation in the America that I grew up in that my government and its intel services, NSA and CIA, which were always outwardly focused on our foreign enemies, would be turned inward against American citizens. And I’m shocked by that, and I’m infuriated by that. And so once I discovered that that was happening and I confirmed it was happening, and they admitted that they did it, then I was totally determined, mono-maniacally dedicated to doing this interview, not simply because I want to know what Vladimir Putin is like and what he thinks about a war that is resetting the world and really gravely damaging my country’s economy, but also because they told me I couldn’t on the basis of illegitimate means and for no really clearly stated justification. And I thought that can’t stand I don’t. I want to live in a free country. I was born in one, and I’m going to do whatever small thing I can do to maintain, you know, this society that I love.”