Tucker Carlsons defense of Maine Democrat Graham Platner has ignited fresh controversy on the right, as critics argue he is excusing conduct and symbolism long associated with some of historys worst atrocities.
According to The Daily Signal, Jack Fowler highlighted a recent post on X in which Carlson claimed, Rather than respond to what his positions are, theyve called him a Nazi because he had a tattoo that was not a swastika but was allegedly connected to the German military, adding, Theyve attacked the guy and his personal life. They dont like him because hes not sufficiently supportive of Israel.
Victor Davis Hanson immediately challenged the framing, noting that the Totenkopf just means, in German, deaths head and has appeared in various militaries, but stressing that this particular typology is popular in European right-wing circles and in other white supremacist circles because it denotes the Totenkopf the particular SS group that was responsible for the death camps.
Hanson underscored that the SS had it for a reason because they were there to kill people, and that particular insignia was worn by them, and he recalled that American GIs identified Waffen-SS by their blood-type tattoos and did not treat them very well. He pointed out that one of the most notorious was the 3rd Panzer Division, and they had Totenkopf, and that U.S. troops knew they had murdered prisoners in Normandy and recognized that particular type of Totenkopf.
Turning to Platners shifting explanations, Hanson said the candidates claim of ignorance is refuted by witnesses who recall him calling it My little Totenkopf, and that he knew exactly what it signified. Hanson noted Platners evolving excusesI didnt know, then post-traumatic stress, then toxic military masculinity cultureas evidence he was lying because he knew what he had done, because he liked the idea of wearing it, and thats why he told people about it and pulled off his shirt and took pictures of it.
Hanson rejected Carlsons hedging language: When Tucker says allegedly, thats simply not true, Tucker. Its not allegedly. That particular version of a deaths head is tied particularly with SS groups that slaughtered people both in the Holocaust and prisoners of war. And he knew that, and he put it on there for a reason. And that reason is substantiated with all of his white supremacist stuff he was on.
He argued that scrutiny of Platners personal life is warranted because every time he says he didnt abuse women, some woman comes and says, He jammed my arms behind my back. He pushed me. He locked me in a room all night. Hanson also mocked Platners blue-collar brandingIm just an oyster man and I know what its like to buy a houseby noting the one-person oyster man operation with one client, your mother on an oyster island that your fathers owned, and the two hundred thousand dollar loan from your daddy.
Hanson expressed puzzlement that Carlson, a critic of open borders and supporter of deportation and energy development, would rally to Platner, who doesnt want any of that. Nothing. He suggested the dividing line is hostility to Israel and Jews and their influence in the United States and Israel, saying, No, its one issue. Its the Iran war and the Jews made us do it. And that issue then overrides all the other issues. All the other issues pale.
Describing himself as a 90% conservative, Hanson warned against abandoning core conservative priorities over animus toward Israel: I am a 90% conservative, but I hate Israel so much and the people who support it so much, I am willing to cancel out all the other issues and join this fanatic communist socialist. Makes no sense. Fowler, for his part, ridiculed the choice of such a notorious emblem in a culture with several hundred thousand tattoos you could get, saying that instead of a tattoo of Kermit the Frog or something, a heart with an I love you, Mom, its kind of foolish for Tucker to pull the allegedly thing.
The conversation ended on a lighter note as Hanson recounted how he dissuaded his own children from tattoos and piercings by threatening to get a barbed wire tattoo around my biceps and wear a wife-beater T-shirt, telling them, Every single day that I pick you up at school or Im with you, Im going to have two barbed wire tattoos, one on each arm, and Im going to show them. When his son protested, Well, you dont have big biceps, Hanson replied, Thatll be even more pathetic, wont it? and joked he might have to get a nose ring, after which The nose ring came out, and all three of them never had a tattoo.
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