Tucker Carlson was against mocking Dan Crenshaw’s missing eye before he was very much for it.
On Monday night, the Fox News host made fun of the Texas Republican for losing an eye in combat, jokingly referring to Crenshaw as “eyepatch McCain” over his support for Ukrainian military aid.
Of course, Carlson’s attack comes just a few years after he tore into Saturday Night Live star Pete Davidson over a similar joke at Crenshaw’s expense, claiming that SNL had sunk to a new low by ridiculing a wounded veteran.
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The far-right primetime star’s flip-flop on mocking vets came during a Monday night rant against the United States government for supporting the expansion of NATO amid Russia’s unprovoked war on Ukraine.
Additionally, he groused about the bipartisan congressional approval of $40 billion of aid to Ukraine, contrasting it—in his typical “just asking questions” style—with the current national shortage in baby formula.
“Why is Congress so focused on Ukraine but you can’t find baby formula?” Carlson wondered. “According to Congressman Dan Crenshaw of Texas, asking questions like that, or really any questions at all, thinking you’re a citizen, makes you pro-Russia.”
Carlson then aired a clip of Crenshaw telling Fox News host Trey Gowdy over the weekend that “arguments” made by many Republicans are “very depressing and they are almost pro-Russia." The Texas lawmaker also took a shot at those claiming we should spend the Ukrainian aid on baby formula, noting that the shortage “is not a money issue, it is a manufacturing issue.”
Speaking with frequent guest and former Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard, Carlson then sneeringly compared Crenshaw to John McCain. The late senator, an unapologetic war hawk and Vietnam War veteran, was famously injured in combat and held prisoner for several years.
“The more I think about it, it takes a lot of gall for eyepatch McCain to attack moms who are worried about baby formula as pro-Russia,” Carlson huffed. “That is probably one of the most outrageous things I have ever heard now that I am thinking about it. Why not just answer the question, why the attacks? What does that tell you?”
Yet, back in November 2018, Carlson joined the conservative outrage machine over Davidson’s joke about Crenshaw’s missing eye. The SNL comic drew intense backlash, and a week-long Fox News freakout, for saying Crenshaw looked like a “hitman in a porno movie” before glibly adding: “I’m sorry, I know he lost his eye in war or whatever.”
“Well, for the past two years, the Democratic Party has outsourced much of its political philosophy to the late-night TV shows,” Carlson began a Nov. 5, 2018 segment on Davidson. “They pay attention to Saturday Night Live. It’s not as funny as it used to be but it tells you a lot about what the left believes.”
Alongside on-air graphics blaring “NO RESPECT” and “SNL Sinks To New Low By Insulting Wounded Veteran,” Carlson claimed the message SNL was sending is that “Republicans are disgusting” and “some of them were even wounded in wars.”
After quoting Davidson’s bit, the Fox News host concluded, “So that’s their position and they are not hiding it anymore. Useful for you to know.”
Less than a week later, Davidson would appear alongside Crenshaw on Saturday Night Live and issue an apology to the congressman’s face, calling himself a “dick” while giving Crenshaw an opportunity to take some shots at him. Davidson would later reveal in a stand-up special that he felt “forced” to apologize to the GOP lawmaker.
Carlson’s latest mockery of Crenshaw, meanwhile, isn’t the only time he’s ridiculed an injured combat veteran. The cable TV pundit has repeatedly attacked Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) as a “coward” and “fraud” who hates America, even though she’s a Purple Heart recipient who lost both of her legs in the Iraq War.
