Zack Beauchamp on the American Right’s Embrace of the Hungarian Regime of Viktor Orbán
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 18 August 2021
⏱️ 56 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Earlier this month, Tucker Carlson, whose nightly news show on Fox has become the most popular show in U.S. cable news history, traveled to Budapest to record a special version of his show. The centerpiece of his visit was an interview with Hungary's authoritarian leader, Viktor Orbán. But far from criticizing Orbán or questioning him on Hungary's increasing move away from liberal democracy, Carlson was all compliments, praising the fence that Hungary has built along its border and allowing Orbán to lash out against his critics at home and abroad.
Carlson is not the only one with kind words for Hungary's would-be strongman. In the past months, an increasing number of conservative media and intellectual elites have praised Hungary, as well as earlier models like Portugal under the post-World War II right-wing dictator António Salazar, for what they view as its willingness to use state power to fight for conservative social, cultural and religious values.
To discuss what this embrace of foreign authoritarianism means for the American conservative movement, Alan Rozenshtein spoke with Zack Beauchamp, a senior correspondent at Vox, who has written about the right’s embrace of Orbánism and what it means for the future of American democracy.
Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/lawfare.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | The following podcast contains advertising to access an ad-free version of the LawFair |
| 0:07.2 | podcast become a material supporter of LawFair at patreon.com slash LawFair. |
| 0:14.7 | That's patreon.com slash LawFair. |
| 0:18.2 | Also, check out LawFair's other podcast offerings, rational security, chatter, LawFair |
| 0:25.6 | no bull and the aftermath. |
| 0:34.0 | He's constantly looking for new ways to be able to not only make them angry and angsty |
| 0:39.8 | about the stuff to ramp up the level of anxiety so Tucker can offer you your daily dose of |
| 0:45.8 | xenophobia every night and thus keep his viewers but also to be able to provide new and interesting |
| 0:51.3 | ways of getting that message across that there's something wrong with America fundamentally. |
| 0:56.5 | And appealing to Hungary and standing it up as this model of what a country could be like |
| 1:00.6 | is one way of doing that. |
| 1:02.3 | One way of being like look, look guys, here's what's happening, here's what things would |
| 1:07.6 | be like if it wasn't for the corrupt elites running your country. |
| 1:11.4 | I'm Alan Rosenstein and this is the LawFair podcast August 18th, 2021. |
| 1:17.7 | Here this month, Tucker Carlson, whose nightly new show and Fox has become the most popular |
| 1:22.3 | show in US cable news history, travel to Budapest to record a special version of his show. |
| 1:28.2 | The centerpiece of his visit was an interview with Hungary's authoritarian leader Viktor |
| 1:31.8 | Orban. |
| 1:32.8 | But far from criticizing Orban or questioning him on Hungary's increasing move away from |
| 1:37.6 | liberal democracy, Carlson was all compliments, praising the fence that Hungary is built along |
| 1:42.4 | its border and allowing Orban to lash out against his critics at home in abroad. |
| 1:47.6 | Carlson is not the only one with kind words for Hungary's would be strong man. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Lawfare Institute, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Lawfare Institute and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.