![](https://cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/210804170448-carlson-orban-twitter-super-tease.jpeg)
I am just as tired of writing about Tucker Carlson as I am sure you are of reading about him. But what he is doing this week, broadcasting his show in Budapest while casting Hungarian autocrat Viktor Orbán in a positive light, matters. It cannot be ignored.
“What makes this alliance especially chilling is that Hungary is the model of democratic backsliding that has loomed largest in their imaginations of internationalist thinkers,” Chait added. “Orbán’s corruption of a former democracy occurred step by step.”
Which is to say that the democratic backsliding wasn’t the culmination of a sudden revolution or single appreciable event. Instead, it slowly occurred — in gradual steps — over a period of time. Sound familiar? Well, if it doesn’t, Chait spelled it out in black and white for you: “If America ceases to be a democracy,” Chait wrote, “it will likely follow a path similar to Orbán’s.”
“Opening the Overton window”
“Tucker’s travels are only news outside of his echo-chamber,” Avlon explained, “because they aspire to celebrate and normalize a sustained assault on democracy from a position of aggressive defensiveness…”
Carlson’s latest comments
On his show Wednesday night, Carlson again played up Orbán, this time praising his hardline immigration policies. Carlson said he went down to the Hungarian border and saw “order and clarity,” declaring that Orbán’s wall “works.” Carlson said when talking to Hungarian officials on the border, he found it “embarrassing to be an American.” And he implored the US to follow Orbán’s lead on immigration, all while mocking those critical of him…
Meanwhile, he is noticeably not pointing this out
Kasparov’s take
For his “Reality Check” piece, Avlon reached out to Garry Kasparov, founder of the Renew Democracy Initiative. “Unsatisfied with Trump’s attacks on democracy in the United States, Carlson went looking for a more successful model in Orbán’s Hungary,” Kasparov bluntly told him. “I’m sure Tucker can pick up some useful tips there to bring home about crushing an independent judiciary, attacking the free press, and hijacking elections…”