CNN’s Avlon Tears Into Tucker Carlson for Questioning Duckworth’s Patriotism: She Got a Purple Heart, He Did Dancing With the Stars

CNN senior political analyst John Avlon absolutely tore into Fox News host Tucker Carlson for his attacks on Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL).

In a scathing commentary on Wednesday morning’s New Day, Avlon blasted the Fox News host for questioning the senator’s patriotism.

“You know what’s unpatriotic?” Avlon said. “Calling your opponents unpatriotic.”

Carlson, on his show Monday night, went after Duckworth and others for criticizing President Donald Trump’s speech at Mount Rushmore on Friday, and questioning whether George Washington statues should be taken down.

“It’s long been considered out-of-bounds to question a person’s patriotism,” Carlson said. “It’s a very strong charge and we try not ever to make it. But in the face of all of this, the conclusion can’t be avoided. These people actually hate America.”

Avlon compared the senator’s CV — highlighted by her tenure as an Army combat pilot who lost both her legs while serving in Iraq — to that of the Fox News host.

“In 2004, she went to Iraq as one of the first American female combat pilots,” Avlon said. “Her black hawk helicopter was hit by an RPG. She lost both her legs, along with half of the blood in her body. She earned the purple heart among many other medals and spent a year recuperating. But she never let her disability hold her back. ‘This didn’t change who I am,’ she said, ‘I’m not about to let some guy who got lucky with an RPG decide how to live my life.’

“She became director of the Illinois V.A. — the same year that Tucker Carlson was on Dancing With the Stars.”

The CNN analyst wrapped up his commentary by invoking Washington.

“This isn’t just about whether Tucker Carlson or Donald Trump served and sacrificed for their country the way that Tammy Duckworth did,” Avlon said. “They didn’t. It’s about the ugly rush to demonize your political opponents — which Carlson did again last night, desperately calling Duckworth a moron, a coward, a fraud. Someone who was once injure while serving in the Illinois National Guard, and — because irony is dead — a callous hack.

“He did this allegedly to defend George Washington — whose statues Duckworth never said should be taken down. And, for what it’s worth, I don’t think they should be. But he might want to refer back to Washington’s warning that we should ‘guard against the impostors of pretended patriotism.’ Some folks fearmonger when they don’t have the facts on their side.”

Avlon was not the only CNN commentator to go after Carlson for his remarks. In Tuesday night’s Reliable Sources newsletter, CNN senior media reporter Oliver Darcy blasted the Fox News host for an attack he deemed to be way over the line.

“Carlson’s attacks on the U.S. senator, his literal questioning of her patriotism, should be considered far out of bounds by most reasonable standards of public decency,” Darcy wrote. “It’s certainly fair to passionately disagree with Duckworth’s political positions. But smearing her as someone who hates the country she sacrificed so much for? That crosses a very clear line.”

Watch above, via CNN.