Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson sparked a right-wing "media meltdown" after interviewing a Holocaust-denying podcaster on his online platform, said Axios. Carlson called Darryl Cooper the "most honest historian" in America. Cooper, in turn, called Winston Churchill the "chief villain of the Second World War," said CNN. Cooper also suggested that the Holocaust was an inadvertent consequence of poor German war planning, in which "millions of people ended up dead." 

That false history prompted a backlash from the White House and Jewish groups. The controversy also forced a "rare moment of introspection" among conservative media figures, said Axios.

Donald Trump must "disavow" Carlson, said conservative commentator William Galston at The Wall Street Journal. Trump should "draw a bright line between what's acceptable and what isn't." Trump's vice-presidential nominee, J.D. Vance, is scheduled to join Carlson onstage on September 21.

'Whackadoo revisionism'
Carlson's journey into "whackadoo revisionism" has made a dent in his "last cadre of conservative defenders," said conservative writer Ben Domenech at The Spectator. Carlson's motives are "unknown," but it's clear that he has gone from his longtime practice of "skirting the edge of acceptable discourse" to "jumping over the edge." 

"Dubious charges of Nazism are a dime a dozen in U.S. political rhetoric," said Sohrab Ahmari at The Free Press. But there's no other way to describe Cooper's ideas or Carlson's promotion of them. The "obvious fact" is that the Nazis were evil and Cooper's casting of Churchill as the war's villain is a "perverse moral inversion." 

'We believe in free speech'
"Is Vance still going to hang out with Tucker Carlson?" Jim Geraghty said at The Washington Post. Vance's infamous "childless cat ladies" comment came on Carlson's Fox News show in 2021. And the latest controversy is worse. An "ordinary campaign" would avoid sending a candidate to hang out with a "conspiracy theorist" ahead of the election, but Trump and Vance aren't running an ordinary campaign. 

It does not look like Vance will skip out on Carlson, said The New York Times. "We believe in free speech and debate," Vance said during a campaign stop.

Finishing third in the Paralympics medal table would be cause for celebration for most nations, but in the U.S., it has been met with searching questions and more than a little finger-pointing. Team USA's showing in Paris, finishing below China and Great Britain, follows years of disappointment. 

Having topped the medal table at every Paralympics between 1976 and 1996, Team USA has finished sixth, fourth, third and third again, respectively, at the last four Games. As the baton passes from Paris to Los Angeles, which will host the 2028 Games, time is running out for Team USA to stage a return to the glory of past golden days on home soil. 

What did the commentators say? 
No single factor explains the decline of U.S. Paralympic dominance, Julie Dussliere, Team USA's Paralympics chief, said to CNN. But one issue is that the global growth of the Paralympic movement in recent decades has made the Games much more competitive. 

The U.S. decline has coincided with a remarkable period of Paralympic glory for China. "At the Olympics, as in geopolitics, China is locked in a continuing battle for global dominance with the U.S.," said Mark Dreyer at The Guardian. But when it comes to the Paralympics, China "leaves the U.S. (and everyone else) in the dust." 

Another issue is "visibility," with the U.S. trailing behind other countries in its Paralympics coverage over the past 20 years. This "may also encourage a lack of general interest among audiences," said CNN, and that, in turn, can put off sponsors and investment. 

Lack of funding is a key problem. Unlike competitors from many other countries, U.S. athletes, "apart from Paralympic military veterans who get central government support, rely entirely on commercial sponsorship to pay for their training and living costs," said the BBC in 2016 following the Rio Paralympics. By contrast, China's Paralympic program has "almost limitless" funding from the state. 

What next? 
Los Angeles 2028 could be an opportunity to "fundamentally change attitudes to para-sport and disability in general in the U.S.," said CNN. Those looking for positive signs point to China and the U.K., both of which saw a surge in public interest and Paralympic success in the lead-up to and following their hosting of the Olympics and Paralympics. While it's "difficult" to see a return to American dominance of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, said CNN, "there's hope."