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Aug. 29, 2023 - The Tucker Carlson Show
30:16
Tucker Carlson - Ep. 20 Hungary shares a border with Ukraine. We traveled to Budapest to speak with the country’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán.
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tucker carlson
07:53
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viktor orbán
22:08
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Speaker Time Text
tucker carlson
The Biden administration described you in the United States in the media as a fascist.
Are you worried about being crushed by the United States?
viktor orbán
It's dangerous, may I say.
I'm not the favorite politicians of the liberals, unfortunately, but nobody's perfect, you know?
There are certain things which are more important than me, than my ego, family, nation, God.
Liberal originally meant freedom, but now in Europe, liberal means that you are enemy of the freedom.
We are ally to the United States, and we are...
tucker carlson
If you respect democracy, don't you let countries govern themselves.
If you take a step back, the point of NATO is to provoke war with Russia.
viktor orbán
This is a bad strategy.
We have to stop it.
We cannot beat them.
They will not kill their leader.
They will never give it up.
They will invest more.
It's a joke.
It's a very dangerous moment now.
tucker carlson
That's obvious to you.
viktor orbán
Not just for me.
Everybody on the street.
The Third World War knocking on our door.
tucker carlson
You were just in an election.
Did you consider at any point just indicting your challenger?
Wouldn't that have been easier?
viktor orbán
To do what's going on now in your country, you know, to use the justice system against the political opponents.
In Hungary, I think it's impossible to imagine.
That was done by the communists.
tucker carlson
As the war in Ukraine completely reshuffles the world order and threatens to destroy human civilization...
It's striking just how little information Americans are receiving about what happens there.
The nation of Hungary shares a border with Ukraine.
Its leader, Viktor Orban, the nation's longest serving prime minister, has been dealing with the Russians all of his life.
He grew up under Russian occupation.
As a young man, he was arrested and thrown into jail by Russian-backed police for his efforts to liberate the country.
And as prime minister, he's dealt regularly with Vladimir Putin, whose nation supplies Hungary with most of its energy.
Viktor Orban understands Russia and Ukraine.
So two years after we last spoke to him, we returned to Hungary to sit down with Prime Minister Viktor Orban and ask him what exactly is happening in Ukraine right now.
Here's what he said.
So in the United States, the view is that Ukraine is winning this war.
It doesn't sound like that's true.
viktor orbán
No, it's a lie.
It's not just a misunderstanding.
It's a lie.
It's impossible.
Everybody who's in politics and understand the logic, the figures, the data, no way.
tucker carlson
Why is it impossible?
viktor orbán
Because that way, the Ukrainian, the poor Ukrainians die every day.
tucker carlson
Yes.
viktor orbán
Hundreds and thousands, you know.
So my heart is with them.
So it's a tragedy.
It's a tragedy for Ukraine.
But they will run out earlier from the soldiers, number of soldiers, than the Russians.
What finally will count is boots on the ground.
And the Russians are far stronger, far numerous, more numerous than Ukrainians.
tucker carlson
- There is more of, many more. - So this strategy what we are just supporting is a bad engineering of the strategy. - So if the Biden administration has said, our goal is to beat Russia, is to effect regime changes, to kill Putin and take him out of power.
viktor orbán
They misunderstand probably the Russians.
You know, to understand the Russians is a difficult thing.
Especially if you have an ocean between you and Russia.
So when we speak about politics, I mean Westerners, what is the focus point of our conversation?
The focus point is freedom.
How to provide more and more freedom to the people.
tucker carlson
Yes.
viktor orbán
When you speak on politics in Russia, this is not the number one issue.
The number one issue, how to keep together the country.
Because the country is very big.
And there's a privilege of the question how to keep together the country and not freedom.
Freedom is just another issue.
Second, third, whatever.
First, keep the country together.
And that generates a different kind of culture and understanding of politics.
That creates a kind of military approach like they have.
Always on security, safety, buffer zone, geopolitical approaches.
It's not our culture.
It's a different approach.
It's legitimate to have that because it's their history.
But we have to understand that we cannot beat them as we do just now.
It's impossible.
They will not kill their leader.
They will never give it up.
They will keep together the country and they will defend it.
We finance more, they will invest more.
If we send more technical equipment, they will produce more.
So don't misunderstand the Russians.
tucker carlson
So they're not going to get sick of Putin and throw him out?
viktor orbán
Come on, it's a joke.
tucker carlson
What would happen if the West succeeded in killing Putin?
What would happen to Russia and its nuclear stockpiles?
viktor orbán
Okay, so that's...
Okay, may I recall one of my experiences?
Yes.
So I was prime minister exactly at the time when the change happened in Russia, Putin after Yeltsin.
tucker carlson
Yes.
viktor orbán
Yeltsin was very weak and getting weaker and weaker.
And I do remember the fear of that time here in Hungary and in Europe as well, whether there will be a new leadership or not.
So the real fear here was...
That there'll be an anarchy in Russia.
tucker carlson
Yes.
viktor orbán
Putin is out and no new guy who is coming in strong enough to keep together the country, the nuclear arsenal and the army control and so on.
So everybody was happy when they realized that after he had seen Putin come in and started to control the military and the Russian power as a leader.
Everybody was happy.
I do remember that.
So now Putin is in power for long, long years.
We forgot about how dangerous when there is no strong leadership or interregnum in Russia.
The interregnum is the worst case possible.
tucker carlson
But that is our goal.
That is the goal of the U.S. State Department.
viktor orbán
Yeah, but it's a mistake.
If this is the goal, it's a mistake.
tucker carlson
It sounds very dangerous.
viktor orbán
To sit in Washington, safe United States, is a different feeling than to sit here in Budapest.
Ukraine is next door country, you know.
So what's going on there could have an immediate impact in 24 hours here in Hungary and so on.
When I was very young, 86, if I remember well, there was an explosion of the nuclear power station in Ukraine by accident.
tucker carlson
Yes.
viktor orbán
And it infected immediately.
So if there is an escalation in Ukraine...
tucker carlson
Chernobyl polluted.
viktor orbán
Chernobyl, yeah.
That could have an impact on us immediately.
So Washington is far away.
Russia and Ukraine is close.
That's the Hungarian approach.
tucker carlson
So given the manpower imbalance between the Russian and Ukrainian armies and the attrition of the Ukrainian army, hundreds of thousands dead.
viktor orbán
Many Hungarians as well.
Nobody knows it.
But we have a minority, a strong minority, more than 150,000 people in the territory of Ukraine, which was earlier part of Hungary.
So it's a historical minority community living there.
They are part of the Ukrainian state and they are conscripted now to the army.
And they die.
They fight for Ukraine and Hungarian soldiers dying for Ukraine as Ukrainian citizens.
So we lost, I mean, Hungarian nation, we are losing lives daily also.
tucker carlson
At a certain point, they're going to need more men.
They're going to need more soldiers.
Where are they going to come from?
viktor orbán
So if any Western country would send any boots on the ground, that would mean a direct war between the West and Russia.
And we are in a third world war immediately.
So it's a very dangerous moment now.
tucker carlson
That's obvious to you?
viktor orbán
Absolutely.
Not for me.
Everybody on the street.
All the ordinary citizens are aware that we are living in a very dangerous moment.
So the third world war couldn't...
Knocking on our door.
So we have to be very, very careful.
And that's my message always to America as well at NATO summit.
Be careful with that.
tucker carlson
And what kind of response do you get when you say that?
viktor orbán
They are bigger, therefore they are more clever.
So that's always the case.
tucker carlson
So they don't listen to you.
viktor orbán
We can say in that way also, yeah.
tucker carlson
I have to ask you about Nord Stream.
So it seems very obvious that the Biden administration blew up Nord Stream, either directly or through proxies.
I've never heard anyone dispute that really.
How is Western Europe, and Germany in particular, the biggest NATO member in Europe, not saying anything about this?
It just crushed the German economy.
Why don't they say a word about it?
viktor orbán
So when it has happened, we commented it as a terrorist attack.
tucker carlson
Yes.
viktor orbán
It was rejected in Germany and in the West.
It was not a terrorist attack.
It was something.
You know?
So that's a kind of evidence of lack of sovereignty.
But it's the job of the Germans.
I would not like to criticize them.
What we Hungarians did immediately, we made clear that there is another pipeline, not just the Nordic stream, but there is a Southern stream.
Coming gas from Russia through the Southern corridor.
Turkey, Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary.
And together with the Serbian prime minister, president, we did very clear that if anybody would like to do the same thing with the southern corridor, as it was done with the northern one, we consider it as a reason for war, a terrorist attack, and we will immediately react.
So don't do that.
Probably you can do it with the Germans, but you can't do that with this region.
That was very much clear.
tucker carlson
Do you think people understand that?
You were not speaking to the Russians when you said that.
viktor orbán
On that subject.
tucker carlson
Yes.
viktor orbán
It's a Hungarian issue.
It's not a Russian issue.
tucker carlson
Right.
But when you said to the world, don't commit an act of terror against this pipeline, you weren't speaking...
viktor orbán
It was not addressed to Moscow, no.
tucker carlson
No, it was not.
Right.
So if you were in charge of NATO, if you were, say, Joe Biden, what would your next move be in the war in Ukraine?
What would you do?
viktor orbán
Peace.
Immediately.
Call back Trump.
That's the only way out.
tucker carlson
Call back Trump.
viktor orbán
Call back Trump.
Because, you know, you can criticize him for many reasons.
I understand all the discussion.
But, you know, the best foreign policy of the recent several decades belonged to him.
He did not initiate any new war.
tucker carlson
Yes.
viktor orbán
He treated...
Nicely, the North Koreans and Russia, even the Chinese, you know.
He delivered a policy which was the best one for Middle East, Abrahamic codes.
tucker carlson
Yes.
viktor orbán
So that was a very good foreign policy.
You know, he's criticized that he's not educated enough to understand the word.
But this is not the case.
Fact counts.
And his foreign policy was the best one for the word.
In the last several decades I have seen.
And if he would have been the president at the moment of the Russian invasion started, it would be not possible to do that by the Russians.
So Trump is the man who can save the Western world and probably the human beings in the globe as well.
That's my personal conviction.
tucker carlson
Can I ask you just to skip around for one second about the Russian invasion of Ukraine?
Days before that invasion at the Munich Security Conference, the Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris, said to Zelensky at a press briefing, we would like Ukraine to join NATO.
Now, Ukraine joining NATO obviously cannot, you know, is a...
viktor orbán
It's a long story.
When the idea of membership of Ukraine, NATO, was raised, it was in the summit of NATO, Bukharest, 2007 or 2008. Russia was not strong enough to stop it.
So there was a real chance at that time to integrate the Ukrainians into NATO. But it was rejected.
There was no agreement among the big Western countries to do so, so it was postponed.
But after two or three years later, the Russians became stronger and stronger and stronger.
And now they are even stronger.
So we missed the historical opportunity to do so.
And this window of opportunity is not open anymore.
So we can't do that.
So we can't afford to have that long borderline between Russia and Ukraine who belongs to NATO. That would mean immediate war danger to all of us, even in Washington.
So it's dangerous even for the United States.
It's not as dangerous for the region, but even for you, for the families.
unidentified
Because it could provoke a nuclear change.
viktor orbán
So it's not a realistic proposal at this moment.
So forget about it.
We should say just the opposite.
tucker carlson
We should make a deal with the Russians on the new security architecture to provide security, sovereignty for Ukraine, but not membership in NATO. So why, and I think your view is shared by many sober people who watch this, so why would the vice president say something like that at a moment when there were Russian troops massed on the Ukrainian border?
viktor orbán
You know, it's difficult to follow the mindset of a big power like you are.
So it's a different approach to everything than the approach of 10 million people of Hungary with historical experience, knowing the Russians better than you know.
You always think that you know better because of the Cold War, but it's not the case.
tucker carlson
They never occupied Washington.
viktor orbán
Yeah, you should ask us.
How does it work?
What is the way of thinking?
What is the cultural context?
tucker carlson
So back to the piece, if you were in charge or if Trump were to win in 2024, how would you approach that?
What would it look like, the settlement?
viktor orbán
First, you should admit, probably publicly acknowledging, that the key is in your hand.
So if United States would like to have a peace, next morning there is a peace.
Because it's obvious that the Ukrainians, the poor Ukrainians on their own, they are not competitive in this war.
So if there is no money and there is no equipment from the West End, especially from the United States, the war is over.
tucker carlson
Yes.
viktor orbán
The solution is in your hand.
It's in the hand of your president.
The present one or the future one.
But you will solve it.
The United States can do it.
Nobody else.
It's not the solution for the Ukrainians.
Of course, it's about Ukrainians.
They cannot be neglected.
They must be involved.
But the real factor is not Ukraine.
The real factor is intention of the United States.
tucker carlson
Yes.
So, policymakers in the United States have been talking recently about taking Crimea, including the Russian port, away from the Russians.
Is that a realistic goal?
And what would happen if we tried?
viktor orbán
It's totally unrealistic.
No way.
tucker carlson
That's not a wise...
viktor orbán
It's not wise.
It's not realistic.
It's out of question.
tucker carlson
Last night we stood here and you had fireworks over the city to celebrate the founding of the city, of this nation, St. Stephen's Day.
And you had about 10% of your entire population standing outside, cheering.
And they all seem to be happy to be Hungarian.
How do you get a country that's grateful to be Hungarian and identifies?
viktor orbán
You know, it's an ancient nation first.
The country was established.
1,100 years ago.
So we are a historical nation.
Using the same language, no relatives, nobody speaks the same language around us.
Germans and Slavic, no Hungarians.
So therefore, to maintain the language, to maintain the culture for this country is a big achievement by itself.
So we celebrated, even yesterday, that we did it for more than 1,000 years, that we are still Hungarians.
And to be Hungarians, we are very proud of it.
We love the nation, we love the country, and we are proud of it.
It's not very much mainstream thinking, political thinking of today's Western societies, but in Hungary we are still very patriotic and Christian and committed to that values.
Not in an ideological level, but on the streets every day.
tucker carlson
Do you think that's why you're so unpopular among the leadership of the United States and the West?
viktor orbán
I'm not the favorite politicians of the liberals, unfortunately.
But nobody is perfect, you know?
tucker carlson
But why do you think that is?
The country seems to be thriving.
That's usually the measure we use.
viktor orbán
It's more about our civilization.
I mean, the Western Christian civilization.
Now, the main division line is not according to...
Ideologies.
It's deeper.
It has an anthropological character.
So on one side, in Europe and probably in your country, but in Europe definitely, there are groups of people who think that the most important thing of the world is their ego.
Themselves.
Me.
This is the center of the world.
The other camp of the people, the other part of the society thinks that it's not true.
Because there are certain things which are more important than me, than my ego.
Family, nation, God.
And because they are more important than me, I have to serve these higher-level things.
So this society has a majority here in Hungary.
And the other society, which is concentrating only on me, only dealing with myself, it's more westernized, dominating factor of the political life.
And the governments of the West more belong to the first group of the people.
I belong to the second one, and Hungary belongs to the second one.
Our constitution is concentrating on the "we", how we are linked together: family, nation, God, what is common.
So we, the Hungarian nation, that's how we speak on that.
It's totally out of fashion now in the Western European societies.
tucker carlson
But why would that be so provocative?
To certain people in the West.
I mean, different countries have different traditions.
Mongolia has its own religions, language.
But that's not offensive.
But something about what you said is very offensive.
viktor orbán
Because in the Western societies, politics very often led by intellectuals.
And the intellectuals like to be ideologists.
A special approach from the ideological point of view.
And you know, ideology is a very difficult thing because it has an exclusivity.
So when the liberal says that this is the interpretation of society, it means that this is the only way to interpret a society.
If you do differently, you cannot be a good man.
So we have another interpretation.
We have a Christian and national, more traditional interpretation of human beings and society.
But they can't accept it because it's different.
So we are plural.
They are hegemonistic.
That's the problem.
tucker carlson
So the intolerance is baked in.
It's part of...
viktor orbán
It's coming from the...
tucker carlson
The ideology.
viktor orbán
Absolutely.
The liberal ideology, basically.
You know, liberal originally meant freedom.
But now in Europe, liberal means that you are enemy of the freedom.
Because you are hegemonistic request on society, on values, and the concept of human being as well.
So liberals are against freedom.
That's how we see them.
tucker carlson
I've noticed.
I mean, I don't live in Hungary.
I can't assess it.
I can assess your media landscape, which is much freer than ours.
Much freer.
Much more diversity.
viktor orbán
I have to fight every day.
tucker carlson
In the United States, right.
The people who run our country don't.
Virtually every media outlet is on their side, reflexively.
And yet they describe you in the United States and the media as a fascist.
And the Biden administration seems to believe, the State Department anyway.
The U.S. is the biggest, most powerful country in the world.
Are you worried about being crushed by the United States?
viktor orbán
It's dangerous, may I say.
So we should not neglect the importance of that fact.
When the United States administration does not like you or consider you as an enemy or having a backtrack.
It's dangerous in international politics, you know.
So you are powerful, still number one power of the world.
So if you criticize somebody, we have to be very cautious how to deal with that.
And now the Democratic administration does it regularly.
So we have to be clear here that this is not the voice of America.
It's the voice of the administration of the United States.
Not all Americans.
It has the same approach as the government, like the Republicans, who are far closer on a value basis to us.
The previous president is a friend of Hungary on a value basis, historically and wholeheartedly, so it's a real friend.
So don't make a mistake to consider the United States equal to the United States administration.
unidentified
Yes.
viktor orbán
And I think that difference is important because you have competition, political system based on competition, and hopefully Trump will come back or Republicans will come back and the relationship will be again very good.
But now it's absurd.
Can you imagine?
Can you imagine that the United States government deleted the agreement between Hungary and the United States on double taxation?
But they still have the agreement between Russia and the United States.
tucker carlson
And that means that American citizens, for those who don't know what this is, American citizens who live and work in Hungary have to pay Hungarian taxes to your government, but also full federal taxes to the United States.
viktor orbán
But the attitude as such, we are a member of NATO, we are ally to the United States, and we are worse treated than the Russians, you know.
What's that about?
tucker carlson
What is it about?
It's what you just said.
So it might be helpful to say it out loud.
Now, the Biden administration spent U.S. tax dollars to campaign against you in your last election.
They didn't succeed.
You won in a fair election.
viktor orbán
Big money.
tucker carlson
Big money.
I don't think most Americans understand that their tax dollars went to defeat you in Hungary.
viktor orbán
Yeah, exactly.
tucker carlson
But that's not, I mean, if you respect democracy, don't you let countries govern themselves?
viktor orbán
It's definitely against all the principles, we confess.
tucker carlson
Yes, it is.
Are you worried about American control over Hungarian debt?
viktor orbán
Debt?
tucker carlson
Debt.
Yeah, debt.
I mean, are you worried that the Biden administration could potentially hurt Hungary economically?
No.
viktor orbán
Ten years ago, probably that could have been the case, but today we are strong enough.
No, no.
It's not easy.
It's far easier to cooperate with the United States government.
It's far nicer horizon to have a good relation.
But even without that, we can stand.
And we can survive and we can grow.
Even we can grow.
Not just finance, but we can grow.
tucker carlson
So in the American media, you have been dismissed as a puppet of Russia, a friend of Putin's.
I want to put on the screen a picture of you being arrested by Soviet-backed police as a young man.
This country was occupied by the Soviets, by the Russians, for 40 years.
So given that, are you a bootlicker of Putin?
Are you a puppet of Putin?
What's your view on Putin?
viktor orbán
When I first met him, come back as prime minister, we said very clearly, don't touch upon history.
Because the history between Russia and Hungary is rather sad.
One of the main heroic attempts of the Hungarian nation to get freedom, It was launched against the Habsburgs in the middle of the 19th century, crushed by the army of the Tsar of Russia.
They helped the Austrians because we were in the winning position.
And the Russians were invited by the Habsburgs and they crushed the freedom fight here in Hungary.
That's first.
Then they occupied us in the Second World War.
And then when we tried to get rid of their yoke...
In 1956 they crushed us again.
So history is, you know, if you ask anybody on the street that any Hungarian leader who is elected freely can be a puppet of Putin or the Russians, they say it's a joke.
It's impossible.
Because we are a sovereign country and even to the Russians we deliver many times that we are sovereign.
So I don't take seriously that kind of accusation.
But of course I try to have a...
A rational relationship with the Russians, especially on the economy and energy.
And my personal point is that without involving the Russians into a security architecture of Europe, we cannot provide a safe life to the citizens of Europe.
But now everything is going against it, unfortunately.
tucker carlson
Well, Russia is hardly integrated into the security architecture of Europe.
NATO is against, I mean, NATO is at war with Russia.
viktor orbán
What NATO does is rather strange.
Because if you look at the official position of NATO as an institution, as an alliance, they're exactly saying what we said.
So no involvement and we should do as much as we can for peace.
That's the official position of NATO. But at the same time NATO says that...
Member states of NATO should do their best to support the Ukrainians.
So we should clarify that what's going on, like United States foreign policy to support and finance the Ukrainians, it's not the policy of NATO. It's the policy of the United States.
That's a big difference.
tucker carlson
But, I mean, NATO countries now border over 1,500 miles of Russia.
So it seems like the point, if you take a step back, the point of NATO is to provoke war with Russia.
I mean, that's what it seems like.
viktor orbán
What is the point of NATO? The point of NATO is that we are stronger than the Russians are.
That's very important to make clear.
Okay, there is the nuclear argument, which must be balanced, but on conventional weapon context, we, NATO, are far stronger than the Russians are.
The Russians are not strong enough even to beat the Ukrainians just now.
tucker carlson
Yes.
viktor orbán
So therefore, if somebody is belonging to NATO, member of NATO, it's obvious that we are in a secure position.
Russia is not able to threat our security.
It's out of question because we are so strong.
That's the number one point.
The second is that some leaders of NATO, some member state leaders like your president, they had a strategy.
To crush the Russians somehow.
And the strategy was that the Ukrainian soldiers will fight and some member states of NATO will finance this fight by money and by military technical equipments.
And this is the way how militarily we can beat the Russians.
We Hungarians said very clear at the very first point, this strategy will never work.
So this is a bad strategy.
And now we have one and a half year of the war and it's obvious that this is I'll just ask you one last question about Trump, since you brought him up a couple of times.
tucker carlson
You were just in an election that I know your staff was worried you might lose.
There was an open question.
You won pretty sizably.
But it was a real election.
viktor orbán
Oh, it was.
tucker carlson
Did you consider at any point just indicting your challenger on fake documents charges and trying to throw him in jail?
Wouldn't that have been easier?
viktor orbán
You mean against me?
tucker carlson
Yeah.
viktor orbán
Okay, we have some bad chapters of our history.
But that kind of civilian war, cold civilian war, was not part of our culture.
So we can beat each other, we can argue against each other, but, you know, to do what's going on now in some countries, and even in your country, you know, to use the...
The justice system against the political opponents.
In Hungary, I think it's impossible to imagine.
You know, that was done by the communists.
It's a very communist methodology to do that.
So in Hungary, we are all aware that we are...
Okay, we disagree on many things.
Ideology, values, vision on the future, even practices of politics.
But, you know, we belong to the same nation.
Okay, we are rivaling.
But what is the final sense of this argument and competition?
To unite the nation, yeah?
To provide a better future.
You can't say that I will kill you or I will send you to the prison.
If you follow that track, no chance to unify the nation.
If the nation is not unified, you can't run for big purposes.
So competition is okay, but it must be fair, legally perfect.
unidentified
Otherwise...
viktor orbán
You can sacrifice your country and the future of your country for your personal success, which is not acceptable, at least not in Hungary.
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