Fox News host Tucker Carlson has been spouting conspiracy theories about the COVID-19 vaccine—and COVID in general—since the topic first graced the nightly news more than a year ago. But now that Joe Biden has issued a mandatory vaccination order for federal employees, he’s kicking things into high gear. This week, Carlson trained his eyes on the U.S. military—which in the past he has accused of promoting feminist ideology and critical race theory—suggesting that the mandate is a White House power grab. “The army is essential for political control,” he said, adding that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has manufactured “a new political purity test. One designed to separate the obedient from the free.”
In that vein, he continued: “The point of mandatory vaccination is to identify the sincere Christians in the ranks, the free thinkers, the men with high testosterone levels, and anyone else who doesn’t love Joe Biden and make them leave immediately.” He did not mention that the Department of Defense has had vaccine requirements in place for years, or that there is no scientific evidence to suggest that the vaccine reduces testosterone levels.
He then proposed a red herring, pointing to veteran suicide rates as more worthy of attention than COVID. “Only 46 members of the entire U.S. military have died from the coronavirus over the last year and a half. Suicides, by contrast, kill many, many times more,” he said. “So, military suicide is an actual crisis that the Pentagon might want to address. Lloyd Austin might want to look into that. But, no, that would get the Democratic Party nothing.” (As recently as July, Austin addressed the veteran suicide epidemic during a press conference at Eielson Air Force Base. “I’m deeply concerned about the suicide rates, not only here but across the force,” he said. “One loss by suicide is too many. While we’re working hard on this problem, we have a lot more to do.”)
Carlson went so far as to say that the U.S. Army’s behind-the-scenes talking points on the COVID-19 vaccine feature “the so-called tenets of Satanism which are taken from the Temple of Satanism website. So here you have the United States Army doing P.R. for Satanists.” In a statement responding to Fox News, a U.S. Navy spokesperson said, “Mandatory vaccination for our service members is a lawful order that maximizes our operational effectiveness. To be worldwide deployable, Naval personnel must be medically qualified which includes being up to date on required vaccinations. Service members are entitled to seek religious exemptions and those requests will be considered in keeping with current Navy policy.”
Carlson’s line of thinking has spread to other corners of his network, where on Wednesday night, former GOP lawmaker and retired Navy SEAL Scott Taylor spoke against the mandate, describing the “devastating” impact it will have on the nation’s national security if “hundreds of Navy SEALS” resign because of it. “If it’s just tens of folks [who] are leaving that’s a problem, if it’s hundreds––this is devastating to our force,” he told Fox host Shannon Bream. “I have gotten a lot of text messages from my former colleagues, of course, who will get out, and you’re talking about senior leaders with massive amounts of knowledge…. So this is a potentially dangerous impact on our readiness if those numbers are true.”
At least one high-ranking member of the military has proven out Taylor’s concerns. “I am incapable of subjecting myself to the unlawful, unethical, immoral and tyrannical order to sit still and allow a serum to be injected into my flesh against my will and better judgment,” wrote Lt. Col. Paul Douglas Hague, who resigned in response to the vaccine mandate. Naturally, Hague appeared on Fox News to be praised for his anti-vax martyrdom; Sean Hannity referred to him as a man of principle and a hero who was “pushed into a corner” by DOD policies. Hague did note that he has gotten “all of the other Army vaccines,” before adding that his resignation is in the name of “the freedom of the American people” and their “right to decide what’s gonna be injected into your body and what’s not…. I swore an oath to protect and defend the Constitution, which affords those rights to the Americans.”
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