Fox News host Tucker Carlson in lewd recordings controversy

Audio recordings reveal a top Fox News host using misogynistic and offensive language on a controversial radio show.

Tucker Carlson, who speaks on the programme every week, is heard in the recordings from between 2006 and 2011 defending child marriage and making sexual comments about underage girls.

He describes women as "extremely primitive" and "basic".

The Fox News anchor has invited "anyone who disagrees" with his views to come on his show.

Mr Carlson was hired by Fox News in 2009 and has presented an eponymous daily evening talk show since 2016.

The unearthed recordings (which contain explicit language) reveal Mr Carlson calling into a controversial show known as Bubba the Love Sponge. They were published online by the organisation Media Matters for America.

In the recordings Mr Carlson talks to the host, Todd Clem (known as Bubba the Love Sponge), as well as his anonymous co-host, about a range of current affairs.

On several conversations, the three men discuss abuse and sexual scenarios involving children.

On two occasions, Mr Carlson lambasts charges against Warren Jeffs, who is in jail for child rape: "Now this guy may be a child rapist," he says, "I'm just telling you that arranging a marriage between a 16-year-old and a 27-year-old is not the same as pulling a stranger off the street and raping her."

When the show host describes 14-year-old girls at Mr Carlson's daughter's school sexually experimenting with each other, he says: "If it weren't my daughter I would love that scenario."

He also says that Bill Clinton should divorce his wife Hillary and "take up plural marriage or something with a bunch of teenagers in a foreign country".

The three men use extremely offensive and misogynistic language against well-known female figures.

Mr Carlson refers to celebrities Britney Spears and Paris Hilton as "the biggest white whores in America", he calls the journalist Arianna Huffington a "pig" and says that Oprah Winfrey and Hillary Clinton are "anti-man".

He says that "what gets women going is arguing with them".

"You just need to be quiet and kind of do what you're told," he added.

When describing Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan, Mr Carlson says: "I feel sorry for her in that way. I feel sorry for unattractive women."

Mr Carlson posted on Twitter acknowledging that he had been caught "saying something naughty on a radio show more than a decade ago".

He did not "express the usual ritual contrition" but publicised his show and asked his opponents to come on as guests.

In December, Fox News lost more than a dozen advertisers due to derogatory comments Mr Carlson made about immigrants.

On Sunday, Fox News rebuked remarks made by host Jeanine Pirro suggesting that Democratic congresswoman Ilhan Omar supported Sharia Law because she wore a hijab.

"We strongly condemn Jeanine Pirro's comments about Rep Ilhan Omar," the network said in a statement.

In a tweet on Monday, Ms Omar thanked Fox News, writing: "No one's commitment to our constitution should be questioned because of their faith or country of birth."