It was not a metaphor, it was hyperbole. “I’d actually like to go back to the old times of Tudor England. I’d put their heads on pikes, right, I’d put them at the two corners of the White House as a warning to federal bureaucrats, you either get with the program or you’re gone.”

It is a call to violence. He is saying that these people deserved to be killed for what they have done to Trump. That in his estimation, the world would be a better place if someone were to kill Fauci and Wray as examples to the rest of Washington.

Sure, he's not really suggesting that he would actually do it, but he is certainly asking someone to.

Like the "punch a nazi" thing?

Labelling yourself a Nazi is confessing to conspiracy to commit genocide. This is a crime, whereas being disloyal to the president is explicitly not a crime.

I'm not a fan of vigilante justice in general, but at least the targets in the "punch a nazi" case have confessed, and the punishment called for isn't death.

However, I do not believe that posting "punch a nazi" is a conservative enough position given that the standard of evidence for labelling someone a nazi, in practice, is that they disagree with you on the internet.

Why is it mind-boggling?

So I'm going off of this clip:

https://twitter.com/FrankFigliuzzi1/status/13244858190427054...

It's hard for me to believe that someone can watch that and think that Bannon is literally suggesting we put Fauci's head on a pike, when it's clearly intended to be a metaphor.

If I get exasperated with this conversation and say something like "kill me now," I guess you'd call the suicide hotline?

But for many people it's a metaphor for taking their AR15 and paying Dr Fauci a visit.