Tucker Carlson Claims Dr. Fauci ‘Morphed’ Into WW2 Dictator Benito Mussolini

Was November 29 somehow World War II Axis day? That day, both Lara Logan of FOX Nation and Tucker Carlson of FOX News invoked notorious World War II Axis figures when describing Anthony Fauci, MD, the current Chief Medical Advisor to the President.

First, on her FOX Nation TV show “Lara Logan Has No Agenda,” Logan invoked Dr. Josef Mengele, the Nazi doctor who had committed atrocities leading up to and during World War II. Then soon afterwards, on his FOX News TV show “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” Carlson claimed that Fauci had morphed into “an even shorter version of Benito Mussolini.” Yes, that Mussolini, the fascist dictator who had led Italy into the Second World War on the side of Nazi Germany.

The following tweets have videos featuring both of these segments:

What were the chances that Fauci, when he first became Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) back in 1984, thought that he’d eventually be referred to as a fascist dictator by the host of a news show? And that’s by a host who is apparently human and not a gigantic virus or somehow an agent for the Covid-19 coronavirus.

I’ve already covered for Forbes, how Logan had said, “And so in that moment, what you see on Dr Fauci, this is what people say to me, that he doesn’t represent science to them. He represents Josef Mengele, Dr. Josef Mengele, the Nazi doctor who did experiments on Jews during the second world war and in the concentration camps, and I am talking about people all across the world are saying this.” Not surprisingly, many on social media were appalled that Logan would say this about a scientist who has been trying to help the country control the spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus.

As you can see from tweets above, Carlson kept with the World War II fascism theme on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” when he claimed, “If you haven’t checked in on Tony Fauci lately, you may be a little surprised to discover what he’s become.” Carlson continued by saying, “If you tuned in a couple years ago you may recall Fauci as a conventional public health official. He wore button-down shirts, he gave careful, precise answers that suggested deep medical knowledge.”

Carlson then added, “No more. After two years of being nonstop media adulation, Tony Fauci has morphed into an even shorter version of Benito Mussolini.”

Thus, Carlson and Logan joined Republican Senators Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) in their continuing criticism of Fauci. It seemed like they all got their buttoned-down shirts in a bunch after Fauci had said, “I represent science,” on a recent TV interview on Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan, which you can see here:

Watching the conversation will show you that Fauci didn’t simply say, “I represent science,” with the wave of a scepter or golf club. Rather, he had first said that if certain politicians “criticize science, nobody’s going to know what they’re talking about. But if they get up and aim their bullets at Tony Fauci, well, people can recognize there’s a person there.” Fauci added, “So it’s easy to criticize, but they’re really criticizing science, because I represent science.” That’s a bit different from claiming that someone said, “I represent science,” out of context.

Nevertheless, the following Jimmy Kimmel Live segment showed how Carlson, Paul, Cruz, and others appearing on the FOX network used words such as “delusion of grandeur”, “the all-powerful Oz”, and, of course, “even shorter version of Benito Mussolini,” to describe Fauci:

Speaking of Mussolini, let’s put aside for now the stereotypes that may be evoked from Carlson’s choosing an Italian dictator to describe Fauci, who is of Italian descent, and referring to Fauci’s height. Focusing on one’s appearance is fairly high school-ish, don’t you think? Instead, let’s delve further into what Carlson may have been saying about public health officials and scientists. What exactly did Carlson mean by “conventional public health official?” Is there really such a thing? Is there “a conventional business executive”, “a conventional politician”, “a conventional lawyer” or “a conventional TV personality?”

It’s important not to stereotype public health officials, especially when that stereotype seems to be of a man who is “careful” and dressed a certain way. Button-down shirts are not a required uniform for public health officials. No one should say, “you can be a public health official but first we need to add buttons to your shirt, dress, or whatever you happen to be wearing on your top.”

Moreover, the word “careful” doesn’t always have a positive association. It may suggest that public health officials should be passive and meek. For example, how often do you hear, “I really like that movie because the actor and director were really careful” or “when choosing a tech CEO, we are mainly looking for someone who is careful” or the “best thing about Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson is that he is careful and that his biceps are careful.” Additionally, having a political slogan “vote for me, because I’m careful” or “Make America Careful Again” may not garner you that many more votes.

This may perpetuate the high school-ish narrative that scientists shouldn’t be leaders, which would be absurd since many world leaders throughout history have been scientists. Heck as the Union of Concerned Scientists state about the U.S. on their website, “many of the nation’s founding fathers were community scientists.”

One of the biggest problems during this Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic has been the sidelining of science in the U.S. Through a large part of the pandemic, Covid-19 policies and interventions have been inconsistent and often ineffective because they haven’t primarily followed scientific principles and have instead caved to political agendas. That’s a big reason why the U.S. has led the world in Covid-19 related deaths.

Of course, being a leader doesn’t mean being a dictator like Mussolini. And simply saying that you “represent science” doesn’t make you a dictator and doesn't mean that you are the only person representing science. Note that on Face the Nation, Fauci didn’t say something like, “I am science.” Or “I know science, I have the best science.” Or “no one has done more for science.” Or “I will build some beautiful science and get Mexico to pay for it.” Unfortunately throughout much of 2020, Fauci seemed to be the only one regularly appearing in White House press conferences who was willing to consistently speak about what was actually supported by science and disagree with then-President and now Mar-A-Lago resident President Trump. And in that way he may have been the one representing science.