Tucker Carlson Whitewashes Viktor Orbán’s Authoritarian Ways in Softball Interview
Tucker Carlson sat down with authoritarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán of Hungary for a layup interview that aired Thursday night on Fox News.
Carlson noted that Hungary is a small country. “So you wouldn’t think leaders in Washington would pay a lot of attention to Hungary, but they do, obsessively. By rejecting the tenets of neoliberalism, Viktor Orbán has personally offended them and enraged them.”
The host claimed, “Just a few years ago, his views would’ve seemed moderate and conventional. He believes families are more important than banks. He believes countries need borders. For saying these things out loud, Orbán has been vilified.”
Last year, Orbán gained the power to rule by decree. These powers were officially scaled back, but Orbán maintains a firm grip on the country. Associates of his control the vast majority of media in the country, ensuring favorable press coverage for Orbán, and negative coverage of his opponents.
In 2020, the editor-in-chief of Hungary’s largest independent news site was fired in a move that Human Rights Watch said was orchestrated by a powerful ally of Orbán’s who’d bought a stake in the company that owned it. Earlier this year, Reporters without Borders placed Orbán on its list of enemies of press freedom. He is the first European leader to achieve that distinction.
Carlson also bizarrely suggested the Americans who live in big U.S. cities are actually less free than people who live in Hungary:
If you live in the United States, it is bitter to see the contrast with Budapest and New York City. Let’s say you lived in a big American city and you decided to loudly and publicly attack Joe Biden’s policies. His policies on immigration or Covid or transgender athletes. If you kept talking like that, you would likely be silenced by Joe Biden’s allies in Silicon Valley. If you kept it up, you might very well have to hire armed body guards. That’s common in the U.S. Ask around.
Carlson referred to Orbán’s opponents as “former communists and anti-Semites,” and suggested that if Orbán loses his reelection bid in April, it may be due to meddling by the Biden administration.
At one point, the host suggested to Orbán that the Biden administration might interfere in Hungary’s upcoming election in April. “Why wouldn’t the Biden State Department work to prevent you from being president?” he asked.
“I think sooner or later, the Americans will realize that issues in Hungary must be decided by the Hungarians,” said Orbán. “And it’s better even for the leftist, liberal government in the United States to have a good partner, which is a conservative Christian democratic-supported long-term, supported by the people, the Hungarian people.”
After the interview played, Carlson suggested to his viewers that following Orbán’s policies would improve the U.S.:
No wonder they don’t want you to hear what he says. You don’t have to watch your country collapse. You don’t have to have leaders who hate the population or divide their own people against each other, who make the country worse, who open the borders, who increase crime, who encourage people to live on the sidewalk and do drugs. If there’s any lesson of talking to Victor Orban, maybe it’s that.
At no point in the clip Carlson played did the Fox News host ask Orbán about press freedom or his consolidation of power in Hungary.
Watch above via Fox News.
