and tucker carlson has done a week of shows and a special about hungary. - it's not my job to defend hungary, only to learn from it as an american and try and hold up the lessons for us to emulate. - cpac was even doing a special event in may from the capital budapest, and then invited conservatives from hungary to speak here in orlando. - you cannot make a country great or great again without freedom. - so why are conservatives so interested in a country that's been heading toward autocracy? one that's been penalized by the eu for its human rights record? does hungary hold the key to the future of american conservativism? i'm getting the hell out of orlando and going to hungary to find out. - ♪

- i landed in beautiful budapest, hungary. it's been home to everyone from composer franz liszt, to inventor erno rubik, creator of games for the world's loneliest children. it may be one country over from an active war zone, but hungary is a world capital of art, music and culture. and i was fitting right in. right now, they're also embracing right wing nationalism, which is why american conservatives are so enamored with hungary. when i arrived it was a national holiday. basically, hungary's version of july 4th, except with more fingers intact. today is the revolution day. it celebrates at 1848 when they pushed back against the hapsburg and i should have bought a guidebook instead of trying to watch "tenet" on the plane. what happens in "tenet" again? there was an election underway. so even though this was a national holiday, prime minister viktor orban was using the event

as a political rally. in the 12 years since he took power, viktor orban has reshaped the country's judiciary. built a fence along the southern border to keep out refugees. turn hungarian billionaire george soros into a boogie man and was even sanctioned by the eu for his treatment of the lgbtq community. it's no wonder steve bannon called viktor orban, trump before trump. and as my therapist, will tell you, i've been to a ton of trump rallies. so i brought along a trusty translator to see just how similar an orban rally is to a maga rally. first up, the merch table. do you have any orban pictures specifically with him shirtless, writing a velociraptor? tyrannosaurus rex? - just the flags that basically hungarian reference. - that have any profanity on it whatsoever. - no, it's just a-- - just a straight flag? - just a straightforward flag. - good luck with the sales today. you don't need to say that one. - merch, check.

lock her up. i thought i heard lock her up. okay, maybe some things are a little lost in translation, but still, chants, check. are there going to be any let's go, brandon chants here? do you know, let's go, brandon? i see signs. do you know let's go, brandon? okay, so people are chanting. it was at a nascar. do you know, nascar? - nascar. - nascar, it's like formula one. it's in a circle, it's more boring. they might shout different slogans. it's a way to disparage the president of united states. but some similarities with trump fans are universal, like blind devotion. what do you think of viktor orban? - the most exquisite of all of us. you sound like a trump supporter. they also had shadowy villains they could blame for everything. - there is somebody who's behind the scenes. i don't want to name names, he's in the u.s., somebody who's pulling the strings. - any chance that person who's pulling the strings? name rhymes with gorge borrows? - yes.

- that i understood. and unsurprisingly, orban and trump supporters were in lock step in one area. - lgbtq people are support or not support, but uh... - what's the opposite of support? - not the opposites. - somewhere... - it's a personal issue. you don't have to bring intimacy to politics. - it's a personal issue that should be agreed upon by the majority as to what those personal folks with their issues should be able to do. - yes. and i think if they don't like it here, they can travel to the other country where they can uh, marry each other and adopt children and so on and so on. - if you want equality, hit the road, jack.

- i think yes. - and if hungarians do want legal protections for the lgbtq, they need to gtfo because during viktor orban's time in office, he's barred gay families from adopting, passed a law prohibiting their depiction in children's books and tv, and even outlawed same sex marriage in hungary's constitution. so basically, they're fine with you being gay, as long as you live your life as a straight person. somewhere between the castles and bigotry, i'm starting to think budapest might be the orlando of europe. and nowhere is that more apparent than in their hatred of one old man. it amazes me we immediately get to sleepy joe here in [bleep] budapest. i got to say, i think when this thing airs in america, be ready. you're going to get calls and be speaking at the next cpac.

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and every kiss. - early in my hungarian trip, i had watched the intensity of fidesz supporters with just a hint of familiarity. - fa--joe biden? it made me feel right at home. but you can't always judge a country by its far right rallies. so i hit the streets. i want to talk to the people of budapest, the budapest or the buda pescatarians, who tend to be more progressive and support the opposition party and like actual pescatarians, they could smell that orban's power grab is a little bit fishy. - he is an autocrat. - orban is putin's guy. - as an academic and a student and a teacher. i feel myself a victim of this ruthless, illiberal regime as well. - what does your sign, say. this i get. orban is a dictator.

clean. all right. let me try my head at this. putin is-- pinchy... - why is orban putin's lapdog? - what is hungarian for ass-licking? shagnalo? we have shagnalo in america, too. so not only was there ass licking in hungary, there was even some dissent, but i didn't see any of this perspective reflected in the many, many political ads i saw around town. in fact, even though we were days away from a national election, i only saw one candidate in the streets and on tv, viktor orban. i talked to independent journalist szabolcs panyi, to find out why that is. - orban has lost two elections in 1994 and 2002 that he blamed on the media. when he came back to power in 2010, he changed the country's constitution. he enacted a new media law, media starts to broadcast pro orban propaganda.

in america you have fox news, here it's basically the state itself that's broadcasting right wing propaganda and i guess that's that's a big appeal to lots of conservatives. - so you turn on the tv you're mostly going to see essentially just a wall to wall tucker carlson's. - yeah but like cheap eastern european editions. yeah. - is there a samir akenesh in the bunch. - sorry? - a samir akenesh? small grumpy cnn guy? - no, i don't think so. - so how does having a samir akenesh list media landscape, impact the political system? for answers, i went to the leader of the opposition party, peter marki-zay. marki-zay, how's it going? jordan klepper. - being good, doing good and trevor didn't come. so that's my disappointment. - is a traditional hungarian greeting, you nag the person as soon as you meet them? -probably. - when we met, peter marki-zay was challenging orban for the primeministership, which was not an easy task. - state media is 100% controlled by orban to the extent that the entire opposition only gets 5 minutes live airtime

on state media in four years. then i got the 5 minutes as the prime minister candidate of the entire opposition wednesday morning, 8 a.m.. - that's prime time? that's dry time? - absolutely, so you cannot complain, right? - you got morning show time. gayle king makes the best use of that a time. - a few minutes before, a few minutes after, orban was speaking, you know, and he was lying about us. and i get 5 minutes in 4 years. - you got to know how to use that time efficiently. if you had to boil your ideas down to one sexy sound bite, what would that be? - state media, they own all regional daily newspapers. they own all fm radios in this country and they are spreading fake news and smear campaigns, allegations, hate campaigns. - that's good. that's still worthy. so how do you fight back when the odds are so stacked against you? - only chance for us to believe in european values, in the rule of law, in justice is to band together. and we are very diverse it's a very big coalition. - katalin cseh is the leader of the momentum movement, which is not a revamped cable company, but rather a youth party in marki-zay's coalition,

which also includes leftists and even a party that has neo-nazis in it. - used to have neo-nazis in it. - the party used to have neo-nazis. they're no longer neo-nazis. - no. - how ex are the neo-nazis? - interestingly enough, they are a party i used to protest against. and now we are working together because we believe in the basic foundations of a country based on democracy and rule of law. - this really feels like we're at the apocalyptic goal line. whoever can get on board, let's get on board. - well, the stakes are too high. - it's like suicide squad. did you see suicide squad? - of course i did. - actually i didn't. is it like suicide squad? - no. - no? shit. but even with six parties reliant on campaign coverage that could fit into a single tiktok video, is a hard obstacle to overcome. still, there are independent journalists like szabolcs in hungary, and they're trying to get the truth out. - i mostly try to scrutinize orban's relationship to vladimir putin. - so business is booming. - yeah.

- while i was investigating his russian ties back in 2019, i was under surveillance. my phone was infected with an israeli spyware. it's called pegasus, and i was surveilled for a seven month period. - pegasus? - pegasus. - this all sounds like bond villainry. is everything in eastern europe just sort of feel like you're in the middle of an act to a decent bond movie, like one of the daniel craig ones and not one of those bullshit brosnan ones. - that's a good conversion. yeah. - so the government used israeli software to surveil you, but it's just you. it's not the people you were in contact with. - well, they were not after me. they wanted to find my sources. - but do they know the difference between, like, an informant and a source? just like... friendly celebrity from out of town? - no. the problem is that this software can even hack your encrypted communication, like whatsapp, signal, telegram, everything. - so the government knows all your contacts. - and has access to all my messages.

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- he used the proceeds to buy missiles from iran. - but another thing orban shares with trump is a weird love for vladimir putin. orban welcome nuclear projects. russian banks, said putin was making russia great again and met with putin in moscow as recently as february. but just days before i landed in hungary, putin invaded ukraine. and started slaughtering its people. surely this would be the moment when orban and his supporters would reexamine the relationship between their two countries. who's to blame for the situation in ukraine? - that's a difficult question. - is it? - yeah. - who's to blame for the situation in ukraine? - the usa is to blame in this situation. because, you-- - no, no, i was asking about ukraine. - yeah. what they're saying that the for the situation to emerge, the ukrainian situation, the usa, is to blame. - no shit, he said that? - because-- - what's happened there, it's not putin's fault.

- if it's not putin's fault, is it biden's fault? - this makes me feel at home. i got to say. but was this evasive take on russian war crimes, the official government position? i wanted to know. so i reached out to the office of the prime minister for an interview and for some reason they responded. they sent viktor orban's official spokesperson, zoltan kovacs, who, judging by his name and his policy on outsiders, is a 15th century vampire. i sat down with him to clarify hungary's relationship with russia. - you have to have a reasonable and pragmatic relationship with the leader of the russian federation. - is it regretful that it's got a little cozy that viktor orban has been applauding vladimir putin. - yeah, but by all-- - made russia great again. - took a proper look by all comparison. mr. orban's relationship with mr. putin is in no way outstanding. if you take a look at the businesses that have been

done actually between germany and france and russia and other western european countries. - so we're looking elsewhere. i mean, this is good whataboutism. - this is left over from the soviets? - no double standards here. not even in terms of personal meetings it would stand out, actually. and certainly we have nothing to do with the war between ukraine and russia. the causes, the reasons behind that are still to be understood. - who's to blame for the war? - and that's that's exactly the the thing we are not going into. - you're not going to-- - we're not playing the blame game. we recognize and we know that russia was the aggressor, and that is russia attacked the ukraine. - but right now, a country invades a sovereign nation. now is not the time to point fingers. - again, it's too early. and we certainly is not-- we certainly are not in possession of the truth as we see, as we see, there's a disinformation campaign going on and waging actually, on both sides. - both sides? that's catnip to the american conservative.

you know, who does want them to pick a side? this guy. - so why are trump at orban both refusing to condemn putin? probably because he's an even more invincible autocrat than they are. and because he probably does have a stable of velociraptors that he rides. but luckily for ukrainian refugees, not all hungarians share orban's love for putin. and many of them are stepping up to help. - right now, i'm quartering a family of four. a single lady whose husband is still in ukraine with her three kids. - is this the first family you've had stay with you? - no, that's the fifth one. this is andras hajos. hungarians know him as a musician and a late night tv personality. - [speaking hungarian] - but like many hungarians, he's put his work aside and headed to budapest's main railway station to help the ukrainian refugees,

who have been arriving by the thousands, daily. - this is the place of first contact. - of first contact. and then they find the volunteers so they can get. - yes, they can get tea, sandwiches. i stand here and somebody comes to me, can you take me there? everybody helps everybody. even though different ngos. - i've helped people to get agents or meetings with managers. so i've i've done my part. volunteers were providing rides, sim cards, shelter. even office space. - now we ordinary people meet other ordinary people. when you see a young girl having the same shoes like your daughter, that gives a message that this is us. - it's inspiring to see the hungarian people reach out and do this. i'd like to think if americans were in a similar situation, we had people on our border fleeing violent situations that we would reach out and help. - i'm sure the key is, i think, to let ordinary people meet ordinary people.

- i'm saying i'd like to say because i-i would like to say that, i don't know if i can though. it was remarkable how many hungarians were embracing ukrainian refugees, especially when you consider how the country handled the last refugee crisis. in 2015 when syrians escaping war attempted to enter the country. the orban government gutted hungary's asylum system, built a fence on their southern border and actually passed legislation criminalizing the act of helping migrants. it seems like a double standard. i went back to the hungarian government to have them explain. i guess americans look at it and they see hungary welcoming ukrainian refugees and think back to what happened with syrian refugees. what's different now? - there are huge differences between illegal migrants who are basically taking the services of human traffickers, don't follow the rules, don't carry papers, and certainly they are no immediate danger because this is not the first safe country they are entering. if you're looking for refuge just go to the country next door. - this is the fundamental principle which is guiding

the the international agreements on on migrants. refugees, are entitled for refuge and protection, the first safe country they enter. - so jews who were fleeing germany during world war two, they should have gone to poland for safety. - as it happened, or rather they were-- - france? - russia. again, in europe, it certainly looks a little bit more complicated than in the united states. it's a cultural issue. - but for some people, these issues aren't so complicated. - [bleep] putin.

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currently fighting for its very existence. what orban achieved in hungary is a us conservative's dream. but he did things that americans wouldn't stand for. he refashioned the media into pure nationalist propaganda. he kept up a relationship with the world's worst autocrat, and he rolled back the rights of minorities and the lgbtiq community. fortunately, this is not going to happen in the united states any time before november. it's a political problem. i'm not sure i can solve without a drink. so what are we drinking? - we are drinking unicum. - unicum? - unicum. - unicum. but the good news is people aren't going to give up. - we keep on fighting. we are fighting an uphill battle. but we are fighting for this because we believe that our country could be so much better that our country deserves to be in the european fold. that we deserve equal rights. we deserve freedom. - we just have to keep doing what we are doing. fortunately, we are still inside the eu,

so there are still limits to orban's desires. - [foreign language] - may the future be still there when we get there. - thank you. - oh, awful. - awful. i told you. - yeah. - ♪ - ♪ - ♪ what do you want? oh, i've had everything on the menu. uh, surprise me. neil. neil. oh. i am sorry. i am supposed to meet my boyfriend here.

he looks just like you. -really? -yeah. -like me? -uh-huh. sorry. [george chuckles] like me? but how? here's your halibut omelet. surprised? yes. yes, i am.