Fox News’ Tucker Carlson defended accused Pentagon leaker Jack Teixeira, a member of the Air National Guard arrested Thursday “in connection with the leak of dozens of highly classified documents containing an array of national security secrets” largely related to the Russian war in Ukraine, by inventing honorable motives for his alleged actions without any supporting evidence.
In a monologue on April 13, Carlson left viewers with the clear impression that Teixeira took a principled stand to inform the public about U.S. involvement in defending Ukraine against Russia’s invasion. Carlson has been a vocal critic of U.S. involvement in the conflict, and a supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin more broadly.
In fact, the available evidence suggests that Teixeira was driven by a desire to impress a small group of friends in an online Discord chat group called “Thug Shaker Central.” Teixeira was known in the group as “OG” and presented himself as “the ultimate arbiter of secrecy,” who “allowed his companions to read truths that ‘normal citizens’ could not,” according to The Washington Post.
For all OG’s disdain for the federal government, the member said there was no indication that he was acting in what he thought was the public interest by exposing official secrets. The classified documents were intended only to benefit his online family, the member said.
“I would definitely not call him a whistleblower. I would not call OG a whistleblower in the slightest,” he said,...
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