Fox News host Tucker Carlson spent a week in Hungary fawning over autocratic leader Viktor Orbán. Home and abroad, Carlson was attacked for glorifying a leader known for censoring journalists, attacking immigrants, and promoting right-wing nationalism.
"Night after night, he's promoted rhetoric that was once on the fringes, or at least should be on the fringes, to millions of viewers," said Hannah Gais, a researcher at the Southern Poverty Law Center. "Tucker has already carried water for Orbán's anti-immigration policies and his attacks on philanthropist George Soros — now he's further whitewashing this authoritarian government for an American audience."
According to his critics, Carlson gave Orbán the American airwaves to promote right-wing populism so Fox News viewers could see how such a movement could be the future of the United States.
Carlson even did his own report on the coverage he was getting from Hungary, saying that the mainstream media was mischaracterizing the country. Carlson claimed that they aren't as repressive as the media is making them out to be.
Yet, when Carlson asked his new idol about China, Orbán not only dodged the question, the interview ended up being censored by Hungarian authorities.
But Carlson's own
Fox News hasn't been supportive of Xi Jinping or China. Carlson, in particular, has spent months attempting to link Democrats to China and communism. Right-wing firebrands like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) consistently attack Democrats as supportive of the Chinese Communist Party.
It was too much for those online, who couldn't help but notice the humorous paradox.
See their ridicule below: