Tucker Carlson - amid 2024 presidential bid rumours - calls double-amputee senator-veteran a 'coward'

Fox News commentator and host Tucker Carlson is at it again, this time attacking as a "coward" a US Army veteran-turned-Democratic senator who lost her legs in combat.

The conservative opinion-shaper in recent weeks has grabbed headlines for lashing out at White House aide and presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner and saying there is no medical or scientific reason to wear a mask or socially distance despite the spreading-like-wildfire coronavirus.

This time, Mr Carlson struck after a 2 July Politico report that he is eyeing a 2024 presidential bid, might have made his latest play to take over the Trump wing of the Republican Party when he attacked the double-amputee former Army helicopter pilot who lost her legs in Iraq as a "fraud."

The two have been going back-and-forth over Ms Duckworth's comments about removing more statues of historical figures who owned black slaves. She said she would not rule out a national conversation about George Washington, the Revolutionary War military commander who became the first US president.

In fact, asked if taking down statues of the first president is a "good idea," Ms Duckworth replied: "I think we should listen to everybody. I think we should listen to the argument there."

Mr Washington owned over 100 black slaves and his wife inherited even more from her deceased first husband, according to multiple sources, something that is not always discussed about his legacy.

"At the time of George Washington's death, the Mount Vernon enslaved population consisted of 317 people," according to the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association.

"Of the 317 enslaved people living at Mount Vernon in 1799, a little less than half (123 individuals) were owned by George Washington himself. Another 153 slaves at Mount Vernon in 1799 were dower slaves from the Custis estate," according to the association. "When Martha Washington's first husband, Daniel Parke Custis, died without a will in 1757, she received a life interest in one-third of his estate, including the slaves."

Mr Washington owned his first slave at age 11. He decided to free all of his enslaved workers in 1799, the first of the slave-owning Founding Fathers to do so, according to the association.

Despite Mr Washington's documented slave-owning history, Mr Carlson slammed Ms Duckworth, an Illinois senator, for her "grotesque" comments.

"Only someone who hates the country would suggest ripping down monuments to its founder," he said on his evening opinion show, also saying Ms Duckworth called General Washington and others mentioned by Donald Trump in his 3 July Mount Vernon speech defending historical statues as "dead traitors."

"George Washington was a genuinely great man," Mr Carlson said. "But to morons like Tammy Duckworth, Washington was just some old white guy who needs to be erased."

Ms Duckworth is the first woman born in Thailand to serve in Congress. She also reportedly is on former Vice President Joe Biden's shortlist to be his 2020 running mate on the Democratic ticket.

Mr Carlson claimed he invited the senator on his Tuesday evening show for a "debate," but her office declined.

"How can you lead a country you despise?" he said, alluding to her potential VP bid.

"Keep in mind, she is also described as a hero," Mr Carlson said of her combat record. "Yet Duckworth is too afraid to defend her own statements on a TV show. What a coward. Tammy Duckworth is also a fraud."

Ms Duckworth, in a 6 July tweet, wrote this: "Does @TuckerCarlson want to walk a mile in my legs and then tell me whether or not I love America?"

Mr Carlson did not dispute one part of Ms Duckworth's response to the CNN anchor's question: "But remember that the president at Mount Rushmore was standing on ground that was stolen from Native Americans who had actually been given that land during a treaty."