John McCain’s comments on Orbán and his own domestic political legacy

Senator John McCain was a towering figure of American politics, a warrior, a complex man with remarkable intellect and deep political insight. His political enemies, including President Trump, often attacked him by questioning his heroism in the Vietnam War.

András Göllner paid his respects to the late Senator in a piece entitled “Thank you, Senator John McCain.” (Read here.) I agree with him that McCain correctly saw the rise of autocrats in Europe and stood up for democracy. He deserves praise for that.

At the same time, McCain was a temperamental and controversial Republican. He opposed minimum wage laws, supported the Iraq War and opposed Roe v. Wade. In fact McCain said that he would work to overturn it if elected. Even his own wife opposed his views on the abortion issue; Cindy McCain backed the 1973 Supreme Court ruling that permitted women to seek abortions in the US.

I was truly shocked when in 2008 McCain selected a rightwing populist, Sarah Palin, as his running mate and was not surprised that he suffered a landslide loss against Barack Obama. The majority of Americans, among them the writer of this article, rejected McCain and what he stood for.

Having said that I agreed with him when in December 2014 he draw attention to the undemocratic policies of the Hungarian government. McCain described Prime Minister Viktor Orbán as a “neo-fascist dictator.” (See video here.)

Hungary has vigorously rejected this characterization. McCain knew Orbán; he visited Budapest earlier in the same year and had talks with him. In a news conference he assured the Hungarian people that the United States would remain a committed ally and friend and added that there were serious concerns over the state of democracy in Orbán’s Hungary.

Mr. Eugene Megyesy, Senator McCain and PM Orbán in Budapest.

The Senator was also concerned that the country’s leadership was moving closer to Russia. He considered Russian President Vladimir Putin “an evil man” and despised those, among them Viktor Orbán, who cozied up to the Russian strongman. As a staunch ally of Ukraine he urged the US to provide weapons to Kiev to defend against the increasing Russian threat.

It seems that Budapest tried “to soften” McCain’s powerful criticism by giving hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Arizona-based McCain Institute (e.g. $161,000 for “leadership training” in 2014). Also McCain Institute director Kurt Volker was elected to the board of the Hungarian Initiatives Foundation. This Foundation was established with Hungarian taxpayer money by Orbán confidant Mr. Tamás Fellegi, an ex-minister.

Kurt Volker of the McCain Institute and Ms. Anna Smith Lacey (nee. Stumpf) of the Hungarian Initiatives Foundation.

McCain was a relentless critic of President Trump and vigorously objected his “disgraceful” meeting with Putin which he considered a “tragic mistake.” Orbán on the other hand welcomed Trump’s Putin policies and was the first European leader to endorse his presidential candidacy.

During his 2014 visit to Budapest the Senator also met Eugene Megyesy (Megyesy Jenő), a US lawyer and senior advisor to PM Orbán. I find it ironic that two years later, in 2016, Mr. Megyesy held meetings in Budapest with Mr. Carter Page, the Trump campaign’s foreign policy advisor. Mr. Page was under FBI surveillance and the agency now believes “that Page has been collaborating and conspiring with the Russian government.”

The Senator long suspected that Hungary has slipped under Putin’s sphere of influence and I wouldn’t be surprised if the ongoing Mueller investigation would turn up evidence that Budapest played a supporting role in the suspected collusion between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin.

Senator McCain will be greatly missed.

György Lázár

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