Tucker Carlson accidentally discovers that “you’re not allowed to criticize China” — not in Hungary, anyway

Tucker Carlson’s embrace of European fascism last week has culminated in an almost comical, Orwellian moment: Carlson’s propaganda came into some conflict with the regime he was seeking to glorify — so the regime just omitted that part of the story from its own official record.

Carlson hosted his show from Budapest last week, praising the autocratic Prime Minister Viktor Órban as a champion of families and national borders in contrast to the “chaos and filth and crime” that Carlson observed in the United States.

During an interview with Órban, Carlson brought up President Joe Biden’s description last year of Hungary as one of the “totalitarian regimes” being supported by President Donald Trump. Biden may well have based this description on the long-reported decline of democracy in the country, which Órban has achieved by stifling political opposition, ruling by decree, and cracking down on freedom of speech through political control of media outlets.

“But it's a little strange,” Carlson said. “I don't think Joe Biden has ever referred to [China’s President] Xi Jinping, for example — who has murdered many of his political opponents famously — as a totalitarian thug.”

In fact, Biden has spoken on human rights abuses in China, and the administration has imposed sanctions against Chinese officials. For his part, Órban did not directly refer to the comparison with China in his answer, but instead touted the “success” of his government as “a real challenge for the liberal thinkers.”

The next day, New York Times reporter Benjamin Novak reported that Órban’s office sent out a transcript of the interview to reporters — omitting Carlson’s comment about Xi and the Chinese regime. The  tweet then prompted “officials to send out a second, real version of what was said,”  Politico’s Playbook reported Monday morning.

Video file

Citation From the August 5, 2021, edition of Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Tonight

The fact is, Órban’s regime has worked to cultivate closer ties with the Chinese government with actions that would have riled up conservatives in this country, such as the building of a Chinese university’s campus Budapest. Moreover, Hungary has blocked the European Union from pursuing unanimous action on China’s antidemocratic crackdowns and human rights abuses in Hong Kong.

To make this whole situation even more bizarre, while Carlson hosted his show from Budapest, the host also ran a segment earlier in the week spreading the idea that Dr. Anthony Fauci was responsible for the creation of the COVID-19 virus in a research laboratory in China and that media outlets had covered this up. The segment featured such chyrons as “Off Limits: You’re Not Allowed to Criticize China” as well as “Some Media Outlets Just a Shill for the Chinese.”

Video file

Citation From the August 3, 2021, edition of Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Tonight

If Carlson really wants to meet a “shill” for the Chinese government, perhaps he should have another sitdown with Órban.