Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson said on Thursday that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) wants a "hot war" with Russia that would "destroy" the United States.
During an episode of his show, which was released online on Thursday by the Tucker Carlson Network and is currently behind a paywall, Carlson discussed NATO with Balázs Orbán, an adviser to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
Balázs Orbán opined that Hungary could "end up in a heated war between NATO and Russia," a prospect that he described as "the worst thing possible," per Russia's state-run news agency Tass.
"And no one, no one wants to do it, but no one is strong enough to stop it," Balázs Orbán, who is no relation of the Hungarian prime minister, added.
Chiming in, Carlson said: "But everything they're doing shows they want a hot war with Russia, which will destroy the United States and possibly Hungary, too."
NATO has been a key supporter of Kyiv during the war that Russian President Vladimir Putin launched on Ukraine in February 2022. Along with public messages from NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg that affirm the alliance stands with Kyiv, numerous members of the military alliance have been the biggest providers of aid to Ukraine.
In a statement released on Thursday, the alliance said that "NATO Allies are deeply concerned about recent malign activities on Allied territory, including those resulting in the investigation and charging of multiple individuals in connection with hostile state activity affecting Czechia, Estonia, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and the United Kingdom."
NATO added that the alleged activities that have raised its concern "are part of an intensifying campaign of activities which Russia continues to carry out across the Euro-Atlantic area, including on Alliance territory and through proxies.
"This includes sabotage, acts of violence, cyber and electronic interference, disinformation campaigns, and other hybrid operations. NATO Allies express their deep concern over Russia's hybrid actions, which constitute a threat to Allied security."
Newsweek has contacted representatives of NATO and the Kremlin via email for comment.
Last month, Prime Minister Orbán said that Western leaders are "one step away" from sending soldiers to fight in Ukraine.
"We are one step away from the West sending troops to Ukraine. This is a military whirlpool that can drag Europe to the bottom. Brussels [the site of NATO headquarters] is playing with fire," he said at a campaign event for his Fidesz political party, according to Hungarian broadcaster Hír TV.
The Hungarian prime minister is among the few NATO leaders who have been sympathetic to Putin. The Hungarian leader has also consistently tried to block aid to Ukraine from the European Union (EU) and has spoken out against Ukraine becoming a member of NATO.
In NATO's statement this week, the alliance said that it "will act individually and collectively to address these actions, and will continue to coordinate closely."
It added: "We will continue to boost our resilience and to apply and enhance the tools at our disposal to counter and contest Russian hybrid actions and will ensure that the Alliance and Allies are prepared to deter and defend against hybrid actions or attacks."
In conclusion, the statement condemned Russia and called on the country "to uphold its international obligations, as Allies do theirs," before adding that "Russia's actions will not deter Allies from continuing to support Ukraine."
Carlson's interview with Balázs Orbán comes after the host was criticized over his choice of Russian interviewee in ultranationalist ideologue Alexander Dugin.
In the interview, released on April 29, Dugin, a close ally to Putin and considered by some to be his ideological "brain," railed against what he called "Anglo-Saxon" individualism and said Western liberal values would destroy "human identity."
Back in February, Carlson interviewed Putin in Moscow, marking the Russian leader's first sit-down with a Western journalist since Russia began its military invasion of Ukraine. Carlson faced widespread backlash over the interview, which was dominated by the Russian leader's historical revisionism.
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