Fox News Today:
Tucker Carlson said Wednesday Justice Department Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz’s report on Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) abuse during the 2016 election exposed misleading or false narratives spread on CNN.
The “Tucker Carlson Tonight” host said many network hosts, contributors and guests had tried to convince viewers the Steele dossier was “totally irrelevant” to the FISA warrant application.
He criticized CNN primetime anchor Don Lemon, who had accused the Trump administration of “gaslighting” the American people in response to both President Trump’s impeachment proceedings and the Horowtiz report.
“There was no spying of course. The FBI obtained proper warrants to read the report… Facts first,” claimed Lemon, who added that the report purportedly found the Russia probe’s origins “legally sound” and “unbiased.”
Also Read: Fox News Today: FISA report: DOJ watchdog shares findings on Russia probe surveillance
In response, Carlson said Lemon was irresponsibly doubling down on a false narrative, adding the report did not express what the CNN host claimed it did.
“‘Facts first’, that’s kind of his motto — wizened old newsman that he is,” Carlson said sarcastically.
“[New York] Governor [Andrew] Cuomo’s brother agrees with that,” he added, referring to Lemon’s fellow CNN primetime host Chris Cuomo.
In a recent clip, the younger Cuomo mocked Trump for claiming he is a “victim” in the midst of the FISA firestorm.
“[The president] is lying to you about the report. Please do yourself the favor, do the homework — he’s lying to you,” Cuomo continued.
Carlson remarked in response that he believed Cuomo himself has not done the “homework” he assigned his viewers.
“Unless he is a pathological liar, Chris Cuomo didn’t actually read the IG report,” he said. “Otherwise, he would not have sat in the television studio, stared into the camera and pretended that the Justice Department inspector general just confirmed what CNN has been telling you for three years.”
Carlson also singled out CNN anchor and former Obama administration staffer Jim Scuitto — who in a 2018 tweet claimed the FBI would “further corroborate information in the [Steele] dossier… before using such intel to justify the FISA warrant.”
“In other words, you can believe your government, ladies and gentlemen, and anyone who doubts that is a bad person,” Carlson said.
“Of course, that was a lie too. It didn’t happen. In fact, just the opposite happened,” the host added.
He said the Horowitz report showed the FBI instead hid information exposing the dossier as false and pretended it had been authenticated.
The host said Scuitto was incorrect “at best” and had not yet issued a correction.
“He was too busy tweeting a Nancy Pelosi quote about how solemn impeachment was. What a shill.”
Carlson added that CNN was not alone in what he claimed was their misleading coverage, but also criticized NBC News intelligence correspondent Ken Dilanian, who tweeted in 2018 that Trump is “wrong about Carter Page, the dossier and the FISA warrant.”
“Except, it looks like Trump was right ‘about Carter Page, the dossier and the FISA warrant’, and Ken Dilanian and his sources in the intel community were completely wrong,” he remarked.