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Tucker Carlson goes on transphobic rant at Biden appointee likening her to a horse

Carlson compared Dr Rachel Levine, a top US public health official, to Roman emperor Caligula’s horse

Andrew Feinberg
Washington DC
Friday 22 October 2021 18:15 BST
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Just one week after drawing condemnation for a homophobic attack on Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Fox News host Tucker Carlson is attacking another LGBT+ Biden administration official.

This time, Carlson’s target was Dr Rachel Levine, the Assistant Health and Human Services Secretary for Health and the highest-ranking openly transgender person currently serving in the US government.

Earlier this week, Dr Levine was commissioned as an officer of the US Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, one of the United States’ eight uniformed services. Because Dr Levine’s position within HHS places her in charge of USPHS, US law requires that she be appointed to the rank of four-star admiral.

Her swearing-in as a USPHS officer makes her the first female four-star admiral in the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps’ history, as well as the first female or transgender four-star officer in any of the US uniformed services.

Though Admiral Levine came by her appointment as a matter of law, Carlson mocked the milestone as evidence of the Biden administration’s unfitness.

“Behind the heavily guarded walls of the White House, everyone has gone crazy. Just this week the Biden administration declared that a biological man who wears a dress is now a female admiral,” Carlson said.  “They’re daring you to sit there and not say this is ridiculous … it is ridiculous … but they don’t think it is”.

Carlson then compared the Harvard University and Tulane University Medical School graduate to Incitatus, the horse thought by some Roman historians to have been named a consul by Emperor Caligula sometime between AD37-41.

“And so you have to ask yourself, how long will it be before Joe Biden appoints his horse to the Supreme Court? And when he inevitably does do that, you have to ask, how long will it be until CNN informs us, ‘This is a watershed moment for equine rights. Don’t you dare laugh. That would be a hate crime,” he said.

The Independent has contacted the White House for comment.

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