Controversial Comments by Tucker Carlson at Budapest Festival inc Calling on US Ambassador Pressman to Leave Hungary

  • 24 Aug 2023 9:28 AM
  • Hungary Matters
Controversial Comments by Tucker Carlson at Budapest Festival inc Calling on US Ambassador Pressman to Leave Hungary
“We must admit that we do not know everything, and we will be wiser than [US President Joe] Biden, his government, or Ambassador Pressman,” American television host and commentator Tucker Carlson said at a talk with Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s political director in Budapest.

Referring to David Pressman, Carlson said the US ambassador to Hungary did not understand Hungary or Hungarians: “You don’t know anything about [Hungary], you don’t speak Hungarian. Leave!”

During the talk with Balázs Orbán, who also heads the board of the organiser Mathias Corvinus Collegium, Carlson also insisted that the US had sabotaged Germany’s energy supplies.

“The Biden administration blew up NordStream … and the Germans won’t say anything about it.” Carlson said NATO was on the brink of collapse, according to a report on the website mandiner.hu.

Meanwhile, Carlson said Hungary was inspiring for the US as it “knows who it is, knows its own culture” and was trying to preserve it. Hungary, he added, was a central topic in US think-tanks.

While “many are trying to stop Hungary,” Hungarian politics remains moderate, he said.

“No one seems on the verge on killing anybody else … [Hungarian politics] doesn’t seem super-heated and crazy, it doesn’t seem revolutionary,” he said.

He praised Hungary for remaining Western and a NATO member while communicating: “We’ve got our own thing going on here … maybe just leave us alone”.

Hungary is a model of how “you can preserve your dignity and have a pro-human society without killing anybody, without screaming and without blowing up what you already have,” he said.

Carlson also urged young people to read “paper books” as opposed to electronic devices.

“Schools come and go and their purpose changes over time … modern universities are now anti-God … but books don’t change, and they help people to discern between good and bad,” he said.

"I have to start by apologizing for the American ambassador, because his behaviour is disgusting and unacceptable!”, Carlson started by saying in his monologue about Pressman.

"I grew up as the child of a diplomat, so I have some insight into diplomatic customs. Diplomacy is the art of trying to convince the other party, without violence, to come to our position", he continued his speech. 

"Two countries have different cultures and backgrounds, which are often difficult to understand, which is precisely why we hire people who understand the other culture or speak the other language. We don't take it up in order to push the other country into a situation it doesn't want to be in, and then point the finger at it," emphasised Carlson.

"For me, Pressman is not a diplomat, but a political activist, and he wants to educate the Hungarians," he said, adding,

 "This also harms the interests of the Americans, and the ambassador disgusts and infuriates me!" He continued, "Its task is not to criticize the culture of the other country, but to help the two sides communicate".

According to Carlson, under normal circumstances, the US Ambassador should be fired immediately.

"I'm ashamed to be born in the same country," Carlson concluded by saying.

MCC Feszt After, organized jointly by Mathias Corvinus Collegium and Mandiner, hosted Tucker Carlson, one of the world's most influential media personalities, on August 22 at Millenáris Park in Budapest. The event was free of charge and open to the public with Hungarian translation provided.

Featured photo via PM Orbán’s Facebook page

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