Mitt Romney Slams Tucker Carlson's Meeting With Hungary Strongman Viktor Orbán

Carlson visited Hungary to "extol" the hard-right leader, who censors the media, ignores voters and "amasses wealth for himself and cronies," the senator said.

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) bashed Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s meeting with Hungary’s power-grabbing prime minister, Viktor Orbán, in a speech Friday marking the 234th anniversary of the signing of the U.S. Constitution at Brigham Young University.

The senator didn’t called out Carlson by name in his remarks, but instead referred to him as a “prominent TV pundit” who visited Hungary to “extol” the prime minister “as a model for us to emulate.”

Last month, the Fox News host broadcast his show from Budapest, where he spoke at a right-wing conference. During an interview with Orbán, Carlson praised his leadership.

“Orbán censors the media in his country, ignores the will of the people in elections, amasses wealth for himself and his cronies,” Romney said. “Hungary is ranked as one of the least free, least democratic countries in the developed world. Hungary? A model for America?”

Romney brought up Carlson’s meeting with Orbán as he warned his audience that democracy was at risk in the United States. He also slammed the Capitol insurrection.

“Our resolve to follow the Constitution’s path, avoiding the perils of authoritarianism ... that’s wavering,” he said. “No more stunning evidence of that was the attempt to prevent the lawful and constitutional transfer of power on Jan. 6.”

The Capitol riot followed from then-President Donald Trump’s repeated claims “that the election had been stolen from him,” Romney said.

“His purported evidence spun from pillar to post, from counterfeit ballots imported from China, to stuffed ballot boxes, to dead voters, to voting machines manipulated from some far off place,” he added.

Romney was one of only seven GOP senators who voted to impeach Trump for his role in the Capitol riot. Trump “incited the insurrection against Congress” by urging his followers to march on the Capitol “despite the obvious and well-known threats of violence that day,” Romney said in a statement at the time.

Check out Romney’s full speech in the video up top. He refers to threats to democracy in the U.S. and then Carlson’s meeting with Orbán beginning at 13:19.

Popular in the Community

Close

What's Hot