Fox's Tucker Carlson took on the deputy editor of USA Today on his primetime program Wednesday, challenging the publication on why it ran an op-ed claiming that President Trump's chief strategist Steve Bannon and ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi share the same worldview.

The USA Today opinion piece, which ran in its weekend edition, made the argument that Bannon has “apocalyptic visions of a clash of civilizations between Islam and the West,” similar to al-Baghdadi.



“We're at war with a psychotic death cult, a fringe of the Islamic world,” USA Today Deputy Editorial Page Editor David Mastio wrote. “Bannon agrees with Baghdadi that it is a war between Islam and the West. We don't need to give Baghdadi that propaganda victory.”

ADVERTISEMENT

Carlson responded by stating that the rhetoric of recent U.S. presidents had no bearing on ISIS expanding its power.



“I've heard that a lot but we've had two presidents in a row, George W. Bush and Barack Obama Barack Hussein ObamaGOP senator blocks Schumer resolution aimed at Biden probe as tensions run high D-Day for Trump: September 29 Obama says making a voting plan is part of 'how to quarantine successfully' MORE. Both of them as you noted went out of their way to say, Islam is a religion of peace, we're not at war with all of Islam and, you know, they've kind of repeated that message every day for many, many years, 15 years.

“And yet, ISIS still took over a huge portion of the Middle East,” he said. “And yet, they were fought back not with propaganda, but with, you know, weapons.”

After some crosstalk, Mastio conceded that President Obama erred in withdrawing forces prematurely from Iraq and creating a vacuum for ISIS for fill.



“President Obama withdrew our troops prematurely from Iraq and the remains of al Qaeda in Iraq became the Islamic State and the civil war in Syria gave them a big opportunity. So, just because Barack Obama made a huge mistake is not a good reason for a new administration to come in and add some new ones,” he said.

Fun new game show on Fox News. Looks like the leader of ISIS is beating Steve Bannon pic.twitter.com/Cc3u1gk9tO — Sam Reid (@SamReidSays) February 9, 2017

Carlson also displayed a graphic that made the rounds on social media that compared al-Baghdadi with Bannon in terms of acts committed, including check-marks for the ISIS leader on beheading journalists, using chemical weapons, employing child soldiers, mass executions of Christians and declaring a caliphate.



Carlson has booked guests for one-on-one debate segments every night since jumping into primetime, with the exchanges often going viral.



The 47-year-old former CNN and MSNBC host finished January as the top-rated cable news host in the key 25-54 demographic advertisers covet most.