Famously? I've never heard of that. Is that even true?

He meant to say "Famously Tucker Carlson claimed that the NSA spied on him". Given that the man is a bastion of journalistic and personal credibility I can't see any reason not to believe him /s

Tucker made the claim that an internal USG whistleblower told him that his communications were being monitored by the NSA. Tucker stated that he sought the counsel of a Senator, and that the Senator told him that he should go public with the information. Tucker then discussed the claims on his television show. The NSA issued a statement saying that Tucker was not a surveillance target. Later, there was information that Tucker had been setting up an interview with Putin, and that those communications were intercepted, and Tucker's name was unmasked (when a U.S. citizen has communications picked up by the NSA, their name is redacted as part of the normal intelligence reporting, and it requires a high level official to request to see the actual name of the U.S. person). Subsequently, the NSA's internal watchdog began an investigation into whether Tucker was improperly targeted for surveillance. After investigating itself, the NSA cleared itself of any wrongdoing.

That sounds like a far cry from Carlson being spied on. More like Putin was being spied on, and Carlson walked into Putin's surveillance aura.