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The Biden administration’s ‘totalitarian’ move to extend the eviction moratorium means the head of the CDC ‘will now decide who can live in your home, under what circumstance, and for how long,’ Tucker Carlson says.

The Fox News host on Wednesday blasted Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the CDC director, as ‘just a college professor’ who ‘you’d almost certainly never heard of before this year.

'Rochelle Walensky now makes the laws,' Carlson told his viewers on Wednesday.

Carlson was reacting to the news that the CDC’s moratorium on rental evictions, a policy first imposed by the Trump administration at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, was extended another 60 days on Tuesday.

The new 60-day ban protects millions of renters from eviction and covers counties with substantial or high COVID-19 transmission rates.

Tucker Carlson of Fox News on Wednesday blasted Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, after the agency on Tuesday extended its moratorium on evictions

'Rochelle Walensky now makes the laws,' Carlson told his viewers on Wednesday. Walensky is seen above in Washington, DC on July 20

The ban currently applies to about 82 percent of US counties and more than 90 percent of the population.

More than 15 million people in 6.5 million US households are currently behind on rental payments, according to a study by the Aspen Institute and the COVID-19 Eviction Defense Project, collectively owing more than $20billion to landlords.

Realtor groups are now suing the Biden administration over the move.

Carlson says the CDC and Walensky have now usurped powers that the Constitution assigns to Congress.

'Walensky announced today that she has decided to nationalize America's rental properties, millions and millions of them from Maine to California,’ according to Carlson.

The new 60-day ban protects millions of renters from eviction and covers counties with substantial or high COVID-19 transmission rates

The Biden administration has come under fierce pressure from the progressive wing of the Democratic Party to extend the eviction moratorium. House Rep. Cori Bush (left) of Missouri staged a five-day sit-in on the steps of the US Capitol. She is seen left with House Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas

‘Tenants are no longer required to pay their rent.’

Carlson continued: ‘Property owners cannot evict them under any circumstances. Making someone pay to live on your property is now a federal crime.

‘Try it, and you can wind up in prison, with hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines.

‘At the same time, you should know, property owners will still be required to pay the banks that hold their mortgages.

‘There’s no moratorium on mortgages. Why?’

Carlson says there is no moratorium on mortgage payments because ‘banks are huge Democratic donors, and they’re getting the treatment they paid for.’

‘Sandy Cortez and The Squad aren’t calling for the banks to do their part,’ Carlson said, referring to Democratic lawmakers.

‘It’s property owners who will suffer, many of them members of the rapidly disappearing American middle class.’

'Where did Rochelle Walensky get the power to do this, to suspend private property rights in America?' Carlson said.

'The answer is, she simply asserted the power.

'Walensky claimed she had the authority, and no one stopped her from exercising it.'

Carlson continued: ‘If you’re wondering how all of this can possibly be legal, rest assured that it’s not — it’s not even arguably legal.

‘We know for a fact that it’s not. The Supreme Court just ruled on the question, specifically.’

Landlord groups late on Wednesday asked a federal judge in Washington, DC to immediately lift the new eviction moratorium, saying the new order was 'unlawful.'

President Joe Biden admitted that the new CDC order may be unconstitutional

The Alabama Association of Realtors and others said in an emergency filing the CDC issued the new order 'for nakedly political reasons - to ease the political pressure, shift the blame to the courts for ending the moratorium, and use litigation delays to achieve a policy objective.'

The groups won a ruling from US District Judge Dabney Friedrich in May declaring that the CDC's eviction ban was unlawful, but an appeals court blocked an effort by the Alabama landlord group and others to enforce the decision.

In June, a divided Supreme Court agreed to let the CDC moratorium remain in effect after the CDC announced it would allow the ban to expire on July 31.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh issued a concurring opinion saying in his view extending the CDC moratorium past July 31 would need 'clear and specific congressional authorization (via new legislation).'

Under pressure from President Joe Biden and Democrats in Congress, the CDC reversed course on Tuesday and issued a slightly narrower eviction ban, replacing the nationwide moratorium that expired Saturday at midnight after Congress failed to approve an extension.

House Rep. Cori Bush, a Democrat from Missouri, staged a sit-in on the steps of the Capitol for several days in protest of the expiring moratorium. 

The White House had repeatedly said previously before Tuesday's order it did not believe it had legal authority to extend eviction protections.

The White House did not immediately comment. A CDC spokeswoman declined to comment.

Lawyers for the landlord groups in asking Judge Friedrich to overturn the new CDC moratorium noted Biden on Tuesday said 'the courts ... made it clear that the existing moratorium was not constitutional; it wouldn't stand.'

The Supreme Court extended the federal ban until the end of July on a 5-4 decision, with Justice Brett Kavanaugh saying he would block future extensions without 'clear and specific congressional authorization' from Congress

Biden said the administration was moving forward in part because 'by the time it gets litigated, it will probably give some additional time' to get more than $40billion in rental relief approved by Congress distributed to renters and landlords.

The White House said on Wednesday that an 'old school' Biden would not have pushed for an extension of the expired eviction moratorium if he didn't believe it had 'legal standing.'

The statement came a day after Biden himself revealed scholars he had consulted believed such a move would not pass 'constitutional muster' – an admission that suggested Biden shopped for different attorneys who would tell him the move was legal.

'The president would not have moved forward with a step where he didn't' feel comfortable and confident in the legal justification,' said White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki. 

She rejected a question at Wednesday's press briefing that the administration took the action to 'buy time,' even if it were to get struck down in court.

'The president would not have supported moving forward if he did not support the legal justification. He is old school in that way,' Psaki said.

Biden warned on Monday that the latest effort, which extends the moratorium until October 3, 'is likely to face obstacles.'

Biden also revealed that he consulted constitutional scholars – most of whom gave him the bad legal news. 

'The bulk of the constitutional scholarship says it's not likely to pass constitutional muster, number one,' he told reporters shortly before the policy got announced. 'But there are several key scholars who say that it may and it's worth the effort.'

Then he added 'There are several key scholars who think that it may, and it's worth the effort.'

His comments suggested the possibility Biden gave a green light to the strategy despite harboring his own doubts the action was constitutional.