JD Vance stumps for Hungary’s Orbán
The NPR Politics Podcast
NPR
4.4 • 25.7K Ratings
🗓️ 9 April 2026
⏱️ 22 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This episode: senior political correspondent Tamara Keith, White House correspondent Danielle Kurtzleben, and international correspondent Rob Schmitz.
This podcast was produced by Casey Morell and Bria Suggs, and edited by Rachel Baye.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast. I'm Tamara Keith. I cover politics. I'm Danielle Kurtzleben. I cover the White House. And NPR's Rob Schmitz is with us. Hey, Rob. |
| 0:13.5 | Hey, Rob. Hey, guys. So today on the show, Vice President J.D. Vance is just back from a campaign rally to drum up support ahead of upcoming elections. |
| 0:23.4 | Except the elections are not in the United States. He was in Hungary, attending events to support the country's prime minister, Victor Orban, as he seeks re-election this month. |
| 0:35.8 | Rob, I want to start with you because you're in Budapest right now. |
| 0:39.3 | Tell us about Orban. |
| 0:41.5 | Victor Orban is Europe's longest-running prime minister. |
| 0:44.9 | He's been in power for more than 15 years straight after serving for other years as prime |
| 0:49.7 | minister in the late 90s. |
| 0:51.5 | He is famous for his populist nationalist far-right politics. He's friends with |
| 0:56.8 | Vladimir Putin. He is a staunch enemy of the EU, and he rails against the European Union |
| 1:02.9 | on an almost daily basis. And he is also known for another thing, and that's his corruption. |
| 1:11.7 | He has well-documented cases of corruption, of giving money to his friends and family, |
| 1:17.4 | doling out government contracts to them. |
| 1:19.7 | He's also famous for chipping away at Hungary's democratic institutions, including the judiciary. |
| 1:27.3 | He has consolidated the media, |
| 1:29.5 | and he's attacked civil society and also universities inside of Hungary. |
| 1:34.7 | Let's talk a little bit more about that corruption you mentioned, Rob. What does that look like? |
| 1:40.5 | Well, despite the fact that the media in Hungary has been mostly consolidated, there amazingly remains some independent journalists in this country that are continuing to do some extremely good work. |
| 1:52.9 | And we're seeing more and more stories about Orban's connections to not only his corruption side of Hungary, and that is almost like a familial |
| 2:04.2 | network of oligarchs that he's helped over his many years as prime minister, but also |
| 2:11.4 | his government's relationship with Russia, we've seen in recent weeks leading up to this election, |
| 2:17.3 | leaked audio of conversations |
... |
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