A recent article at The Moderate Voice referring to Fox News’ political commentator, Tucker Carlson, was titled “Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Insults Women in the Military and Disgraces Himself and Fox News…Once Again.”
While the “once again” was briefly explained in the piece, it deserves more clarification and certainly cries out for us not to to forget.
And, voilà, an article from less than one year ago, should refresh our memories.
Here are some excerpts:
They are one year apart. “She” was born in March 1968. “He” was born in May 1969. Here is where any and all similarities end.
After graduate school, she joined the United States Army Reserve and chose to fly helicopters. After his college graduation, he tried and failed to persuade the Central Intelligence Agency to employ him.
A few weeks before the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter she was co-piloting was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade in Iraq, resulting in the loss of both her legs, he, while co-hosting Crossfire, received an ignominious “on-air dressing down from the comedian Jon Stewart that led to the cancellation of Crossfire.”
While she spent a year recovering at Walter Reed Army Medical Center learning to use what was left of her legs again, he was trying his hand at another TV show and perhaps already dreaming of trying his legs at the reality show Dancing with the Stars.
The same year that he appeared on Dancing with the Stars and was the first contestant to be eliminated, she became director of the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs where she established innovative programs to help veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder and other injuries.
Of course, the “she” is Purple Heart recipient, war hero and now United States Senator Tammy Duckworth.
And the “he” is Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
Almost 16 years after she almost gave her life for her country and he almost made it on Dancing with the Stars, they find themselves at the center of attention.
The almost-CIA agent and almost-star dancer had the nerve to attack a genuine – not “almost” — war hero and patriot.
On his show on Monday [July 2020], Carlson called the Purple Heart recipient “a deeply silly and unimpressive person,” suggested that the Senator hates America and questioned her patriotism.
Believing that he had not sufficiently humiliated himself, his network and – worst of all — a war hero, Carlson doubled down Tuesday night [July 2020] calling the double-amputee a “coward,” “fraud” and “moron.”
Why all this hate and vile towards a decorated war hero?
Simply because Duckworth called for a “national dialogue” regarding monuments amid the larger issue of race relations.
Many have condemned Carlson’s disgraceful display of lack of patriotism.
For example, Senate Democratic Leader Charles E. Schumer blasted both Carlson and his mentor [then-president Trump], saying:
President Trump and Tucker Carlson are clearly intimidated by strong female leaders like my friend Sen. Duckworth. She has more honor and love for our country in her pinky finger than they’ll ever have.
However, the patriot, the hero, the Senator did not need help.
She tweeted, “Does @TuckerCarlson want to walk a mile in my legs and then tell me whether or not I love America?”
But it wasn’t her last word.
The next day, in an opinion piece at the New York Times, the war hero again defended her patriotism and her service – including war injuries — against one who “doesn’t know what patriotism is” and included draft dodger Trump in her rebuke that said in part, “attacks from self-serving, insecure men who can’t tell the difference between true patriotism and hateful nationalism will never diminish my love for this country — or my willingness to sacrifice for it so they don’t have to. These titanium legs don’t buckle.”
Duckworth saved her most powerful words for last:
So, while I would put on my old uniform and go to war all over again to protect the right of Tucker Carlson and Donald Trump to say offensive things on TV and Twitter, I will also spend every moment I can from now until November fighting to elect leaders who would rather do good for their country than do well for themselves.
And indeed, she helped elect a leader who is doing just that.
The author is a retired U.S. Air Force officer and a writer.