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Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse said Monday that Hungary’s historic election ousting longtime leader and Donald Trump ally, Viktor Orbán, was a “strong vote in favor of democracy,” suggesting that the trend is also happening in the US.
Speaking at Semafor World Economy in Washington, DC, on Monday, the Democratic lawmaker pointed to the Cook Political Report shifting its assessment of four Senate races in favor of Democrats.
“Go take a look at how the Cook Political Report just moved Senate races, and they’re continuing to move. I think we end up taking the Senate at this rate.”
Orbán’s political party lost in a landslide, removing the leader from power after 16 years. US President Donald Trump had repeatedly urged Hungarians to reelect Orbán, and Vice President JD Vance visited Hungary to campaign for him.
Orbán was something of a thorn in the European establishment’s side, taking stances supportive of Russia and facing widespread accusations of authoritarianism.
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Whitehouse, a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, also said that he had predicted Trump’s firing of US Attorney General Pam Bondi’s and suggested that FBI Director Kash Patel is next on the chopping block.
“Of course I would not be, but were I to be considered for attorney general, I would go to whoever was involved in my nomination and confirmation process and say, ’That’s all fine, but I don’t need to be answerable for this creep Kash Patel,” Whitehouse said. “I don’t like the stupid private jets. I don’t like the partying and the boozing.”
Whitehouse and Patel traded social media barbs earlier this month.
Whitehouse also offered one more Justice Department prediction: Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche will be in power for a while longer.
“I think Blanche is competent and doesn’t create a drama in the Judiciary Committee for a considerable period of time,” he said, suggesting that some of his Republican colleagues would not be an automatic vote for Trump’s eventual nominee.
“I don’t think the White House, in the cavalcade of folly that they’re involved in right now, is all that interested in having a wildly contentious AG hearing,” he said.