Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson reiterated his criticism of vaccine mandates, saying that the policy forcing U.S. military members to get the jab was an attempt to weed out those who didn't share the political views of President Joe Biden.
In a monologue on Monday, the host of Tucker Carlson Tonight criticized the order by Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin that all active-duty military members be fully vaccinated as being: "Specifically designed to separate the obedient from the free."
"Can't have any of the latter category," Carlson said in the segment, in which he claimed that vaccination was a "political purity test" that was being implemented despite "zero scientific basis."
Amid a spike in cases, military officials have said that vaccinating troops can slow the spread of the disease near bases and areas where there is vaccine hesitancy, The New York Times reported.
Those service members who refuse the vaccine and aren't granted an exemption for a legitimate medical, religious or administrative reason, could be disciplined, and even relieved of duties or discharged.
But Carlson said that the military consisted of "young healthy people" who were at "extremely low risk of dying from COVID," as he suggested that deaths from suicides in the military posed more of a risk.
"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 does not love Joe Biden and make them leave immediately," Carlson said. "It's a takeover of the U.S. Military."
His monologue then took a surreal turn as he made a segue from his claim that the military was rooting out Christians.
Army Presentation on Vaccines
He claimed his program had obtained a U.S. Army PowerPoint presentation to inform service members about vaccines, including a slide that sarcastically read: "How many children were sacrificed to Satan because of the vaccine?"
He said the presentation went on to list "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," Carlson concluded.
The Fox anchor has repeatedly pushed doubts about the safety of the vaccines, once falsely claiming that the jab was not good for college students. He has said at least once that the jab "does have benefits" in reducing the disease's severity and the chances of hospitalization.
This week, Katie Lane blamed the death of her father, Patrick Lane, of Snohomish, Washington, on what she said was vaccine "misinformation" promoted by Carlson.
Newsweek has contacted the Pentagon for comment.
