Fox News has a thing for using World War II villains to describe Dr. Anthony Fauci . (Watch the video below.)

Tucker Carlson , the stations blowhard prime-time star, called the infectious-disease expert an even shorter version of Benito Mussolini on Monday after Lara Logan compared Fauci to Nazi doctor Josef Mengele on the channel.

The right has reaccelerated its attacks on Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a White House adviser on the countrys COVID-19 response, as the omicron variant has emerged as a potential threat.

If you havent checked in on Tony Fauci lately, you may be a little surprised to discover what hes become, Carlson said on Tucker Carlson Tonight. 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. No more. After two years of being nonstop media adulation, Tony Fauci has morphed into an even shorter version of Benito Mussolini.

Carlson went even further, calling Fauci a self-styled deity accountable to no one who would dare to demonize a sitting senator.

That would be Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who said Fauci should be prosecuted for his testimony on COVID-19 research to Congress. To which Fauci replied , I have to laugh at that. I should be prosecuted? What happened on Jan. 6, Senator?

Carlson twisted Faucis burn of Cruz, who voted against confirming Joe Biden s electoral victory before the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection attempt to overturn the results, into more attacks.

Cruz had also accused Fauci of distorting science and facts in order to exercise authoritarian control over millions of Americans. Perhaps that helped trigger Carlsons comparing Fauci to the fascist dictator.

h/t Media Matters