This past Sunday, the editorial board of USA Today published a piece called What Bannon shares with ISIL leader: Our view . The item drew an alarming comparison between one of President Donald Trump s closest advisers former Breitbart News chairman Steve Bannon and Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, leader of the militant group that calls itself the Islamic State. Both men, opined the editors, harbor apocalyptic visions of a clash of civilizations between Islam and the West.

One wonders if Bannon would even object to the comparison. In just about every medium at his disposal , he has not only laid out his belief that the United States is steering headlong into such a clash of civilizations, but has gone to great lengths to explain how he arrived at this way of thinking. (Spoiler alert: It involves stuff like saecula, Heroes, Nomads, Grey Champions and other such Game of Thrones -ish esoterica. Exciting!) So youd think that Bannon might actually relish the notion that he and Baghdadi are on some sort of eschatological collision course.

But someone had to raise an objection to this, I guess, and so Fox News Tucker Carlson took up the task, in a segment Wednesday with USA Todays deputy editorial page editor David Mastio .

As you might imagine, Carlson was somewhat incredulous. Right off the bat, he presented Mastio with a novel defense of Bannon. I want to play a quick game with you, he said. Its called Who Did It?