Mitch McConnell blasts GOP's "cult of personality" around Viktor Orban
Seems newsworthy!
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell took to the Senate floor on Wednesday to issue an extraordinary rebuke of his fellow Republicans who have formed a “cult of personality” around Hungarian authoritarian Viktor Orban — just two weeks after Donald Trump once again embraced Orban during his debate with Kamala Harris.
Here’s McConnell:
“I have spoken before about Hungary's decade-long drift into the orbit of the West's most determined adversaries. It is an alarming trend. And nobody--certainly not the American conservatives who increasingly form a cult of personality around Prime Minister Viktor Orban--can pretend not to see it. Hungary's leaders are cozying up to Moscow, Beijing, and Tehran in private. They are doing it publicly and vocally as well.”
McConnell went on to blast Orban’s admiration and assistance for Vladimir Putin, saying Orban “doesn’t just admire Putin, he helps him. His government runs interference for Moscow, gumming up European and trans-Atlantic efforts to combat Russia’s unlawful aggression at every turn.” McConnell added “Then there is Budapest’s relationship with the Islamic Republic of Iran. Hungary's Foreign Minister has bemoaned that ongoing international sanctions make it ‘really challenging to build effective economic and trade cooperation’ with the world's most active state sponsor of terror.”
After ridiculing “American conservatives who claimed shared values with Hungary's ruling party” as Orban’s “adoring fans,” McConnell concluded:
Hungary’s leaders have made no secret of their conviction that the future is one of American decline. The future is one of American decline--that is the Hungarian view. They are not hiding the ways they are preparing for American weakness and betting on our failure.
There is nothing tough about bowing to autocrats, and there is nothing for American leaders to gain by praising those who do. Subservience to revanchist powers is not an American value. But far more importantly, it is not in America's interests.
You can search long and hard without finding a more striking example of a prominent politician blasting his own party’s presidential nominee. McConnell isn’t some back-bencher nobody has ever heard of, or a grandstanding malcontent; he’s the architect of the modern Republican Party. Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump are, by a large margin, the two most significant Republicans of the past two decades, at least. McConnell taking to the Senate floor to denounce the Orban “cult of personality” led by Donald Trump — and JD Vance — is a remarkable development sure to draw significant media attention.
Or maybe not:
Yes, that’s right — the New York Times, whose publisher earlier this month penned a 4,000-word piece for the rival Washington Post about Orban inspiring Donald Trump hasn’t published a single word about Mitch McConnell’s rebuke of fellow conservatives like Trump for cozying up to Orban.1 (The Times did run an article this week about Joe Manchin criticizing Kamala Harris over her support for ending the filibuster. Priorities!)
Previously:
As I frequently do, I focus on the New York Times because it is the nation’s most important media company and because its failings are often representative of (and influence) those of the news media in general. The Washington Post hasn’t covered McConnell’s remarks about the Republican “cult of personality” around Orban, either.
This traitor is trying to salvage what he can of what history will say about his treachery before he steps down as Leader in January. Too little, too late.
Too late Mitch. You could have settled this Jan 7. That was the day. You missed it so the first impeachment was your next chance.
You missed that too and now that is your legacy.
Mealymouth Mitch