david salvo, your thoughts? guest: i think there is a big reason why you see this sector of american conservatives courting him and how he has been able to manipulate laws to entrench his party rule. this segment of the american conservative electorate understands it is in the minority. it does not have a groundswell of organic popular support. if it could learn how to manipulate democracy to serve its own ends, they ought to learn from the masters of that. . or bond is one of them -- viktor orban is one of them. host: a headline. embrace for viktor orban deepens among conservatives. fresno, california, mark, on the independent line. caller: the caller said the gentleman made racist comments. everything cannot be racist when you throw that out there for true racism. i will not say a cuss word on the air. but that is kind of his beliefs. as far as being neutral, he said he was neutral. obviously, he is not neutral. [indiscernible] thank you. host: david, i think you said your organization, foundation for defensiv

david salvo, your thoughts?think there is a big reason why you see this sector of american conservatives courting him and how he has been able to manipulate laws to entrench his party rule. this segment of the american conservative electorate understands it is in the minority. it does not have a groundswell of organic popular support. if it could learn how to manipulate democracy to serve its own ends, they ought to learn from the masters of that. . or bond is one of them -- viktor orban is one of them. host: a headline. embrace for viktor orban deepens among conservatives. fresno, california, mark, on the independent line. caller: the caller said the gentleman made racist comments. everything cannot be racist when you throw that out there for true racism. i will not say a cuss word on the air. but that is kind of his beliefs. as far as being neutral, he said he was neutral. obviously, he is not neutral. [indiscernible] thank you. host: david, i think you said your organization, foundation for defensive democrac

joining me now is david salvo. he is former department official. thanks for joining us.hings that's surprising to some degree is how public everything has been when it comes to the dynamics that are at ply right now. including what a potential deal might be. how likely do you think it is that something will come to an agreement over the course of the next several days, weeks, months? >> i would say the negotiation is over a rock and a hard place. it's hard for things to be out in the open like this. the kremlin understands that the biden administration is under pressure, and all of society to bring britteny and paul home. >> i think one of the questions the administration doesn't want brittney griner back, they want paul whelan back, that's been there for significantly longer. it's made clear they have offered viktor bout, the former arms dealer. bout has been an objective of the kremlin for a long time. do you see that being possible? or is the u.s. going to consider someone else? >> viktor bout is a huge arms trafficker. he had the language in jail. but the russians wa

host: david salvo is with us. he is the deputy director at the alliance for securing democracy. he is with us to talk about viktor orban, the prime minister of hungary. he's on to talk about his speech and presence in the united states. on your organization, what is your mission? guest: our mission is to study autocratic threats to democratic institutions across the world. by this we mean information threats, cyber