They're Coming Like the Russians. Steve Hilton Talks to Armstrong & Getty

Steve Hilton (host of the podcast California Rebel Base & the Fox News show "The Next Revolution") joins Jack Armstrong to share his perspective on the Russian invasion of Ukraine (through the lens of his Hungarian family) as well as why The United States remains the leader of the free world.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Armstrong and get A Show, Steve Hilton.
He's the host of the podcast California Rebel Bass or
maybe you see him on Fox regularly The Next Revolution
with Steve Hilton. Steve, Welcome back to the Armstrong and
Getty Show. Great to be back with you. Yeah. I
hope I'm not doing something I shouldn't do here and
cut me off if I am. But I was looking
over your Wikipedia page and some of your bio and

(00:21):
I and that's a lot of what do they call
it misinformation? There's a lot of misinformation on that. Yeah,
it's funny. We one time had we had somebody get
onto our page that I had once killed a man
just to see if we could do it. And I
have it by the way, and uh, it was on
our Wikipedia page for a long time. So yeah, Wikipedia

(00:42):
isn't always correct. But some of the stuff that I
found really really interesting as we were going to talk
about this, is that your parents fled to Hungary during
the nineteen fifty six revolution, fleeing the Russians the Soviet
Union and uh and went to England. And then the
other part of the story is um how you lived

(01:02):
early on in your childhood, not not a wealthy or
even middle class upbringing, which is a different thing I
want to talk about. But let's start with some of
your attitudes, and I'm sure your parents attitudes about Russians
and the Soviet Union. Well, it's I mean, it's even
more interesting actually in the in the context of Ukraine. Um.
I was talking to my mother's back in England. Now,

(01:24):
she's Hungarian. As you mentioned, my father who's no longer
with us, he's also Hungarian, and in fact my stepfather
is Hungarian as well, and he was a refuge. He
ran across the border running away from the Russians as
well in nineteen fifty six. So the whole family background
is there. Most of my family still live in Hungary,
in a small town on the south of the country.

(01:46):
But the thing that I was reminded of the other day,
and I hadn't really put these things together. I was
talking to my mother who's back in England, about what's
going on in Ukraine. And I always knew where, you know,
because I remember seeing on her passport when I was
a kid and looking at stuff and about I remember
the place where she was born was a town called Bedeksas,
which is a Hungarian name, and that's where she was born.

(02:08):
And she reminded me that actually that town is now
called Bedevo, and it's literally in Ukraine. That's where she
was born. It's right on the boarder. It's in a
Hungaria ethnically Hungarian part of Ukraine. All those borders will
have been sort of messed around with over the years century.
She told me a story that when she was a
little girl, she remembered incredibly clearly, um, her father, my grandfather,

(02:35):
suddenly rushing and bundling them into a car, her and
her brother, an old rickety car that they had and
just with with at a moment's notice, driving away because
and this is a phrase I heard all the time
when I was a kid growing up. Your neck mints
that in Hungarian means they're coming, like the Russians. And

(02:57):
literally she remembered this, rade, the Russians are coming, the rush,
We've got to get away. Because they had heard stories
of the atrocities that had been committed. This is in
the middle of the Second World World, so I think
in nineteen so you know a lot of bad things
happening across Europe at that time. But they had heard
about the atrocities committed by the Russians, and they were

(03:18):
they were they were running away. That was even before
the Communists takeover of Hungary. So all this is very
personal to me exactly as you say. That's really interesting
because we were talking to a Mike Lyons earlier, who
among other things, is a military historian, talking about the
culture of the Russian military, and these pictures were seeing
in videos of things that the Russian military is doing.

(03:40):
They are doing under Putin, they did under Stalin, they
did under the Tsars. And there are many areas of
that part of the world that probably have in their
language some sort of the Russians are coming, the Russians
are coming, saying that those back centuries because of the
Russians coming and just you know, raping, pillaging, murdering, doing
the things are doing now. Yeah, total brutality. It is

(04:02):
part of the mindset of the Russian military. Um. And then,
of course, you know, a few a few years after
that story that I mentioned, you had the situation in
fifty six where the that that it happened all over
again and you had a government the in in Hungary
that was trying to get free of the Communist rule.
And then the people, and then and finally enough the other.

(04:24):
The other thing that I learned through all of this,
you know, you go back and study history, that the
revolution in Hungary was started by a group of students
in the town where my family now lives. So get
a small town down Gregg spent moment many years my
childhood there. We used to go back there all the time,
and that's where the fifty six revolutions started. And within
week with you know, I think it's just over a
week actually spread to the whole country. And then very

(04:48):
rapidly with they didn't even let it get going for
a month. The Russians came back in again, the tanks
were sent in. That you go around budapesture today, the
capital city, and all over the country, all over the place,
you see the bullet mark still in the buildings. Um
you see people and talk to people who have all
those stories of of of the of the again the
same thing that the terror that is imposed by the

(05:11):
Russians now fortunately in the sense of loss of life
and and all these are trust is the Hungarian uprising
that I'm afraid they crushed it very quickly, so in
a sense there wasn't time for them to to do
the kind of barbaric extended um, you know, terrorizing of
a country that you're seeing happen now in Ukraine. But

(05:32):
this is part of the Russian military story that's exactly
right and has been for centuries. We have some breaking
news here, Steve Hilton that I'm sure we'll be welcomed
you as it is to me. I can't believe it
actually happened. The u n has actually voted to kick
Russia out of the Human Rights Council. That's somewhat of
a miracle. It is laughable. I understand why you're laughing.

(05:55):
I understand why you laugh. The fact that they are
on the Human Rights Council and had a vote over
the last six weeks is freaking amazing. But they have
been suspended now from being able to participate in that,
thank god. Yes, I mean the Human Rights Council is
a I mean, well, look, the whole of the u
n UM is a joke that it's completely ineffective on

(06:17):
anything that really matters. And of course it's a vast
corrupt bureaucracy, and I've I've pointed out the various details
of that many times, and the people are very aware
of it. But look, we should be what's the phrase
thankful for small mer that's that's something of course. Um So,
so finding out your background this makes this question even
better because I was going to just use the fact

(06:38):
that you're from England, but the fact that your parents
were even closer to Russian dealt with what they dealt
with we are, Uh, you live in the United States. Now,
we are so fortunate, those of us in the United
States that you know, we've had the protection we've had
all these years. But it gives us a different mindset.
I mean, I tell my kids all the time because
they get worried. See the news sometime and I think
there's zero chance some countries going to come into our town.

(07:01):
All right, that's never gonna happen, and it isn't. We
were actually don't have to worry about it in the
way that practically every other country on earth has had
to worry about it, um including in recent years. So
how much different it is it for whether it's Brits
or the French or the Germans or the closer you
get to the border, the more it matters, how how
different it is for them and their politics. Well, it

(07:23):
feels there. I mean, one thing that's that's true is
the geographic proximity does make a difference, and you're seeing
that even within NATO. So one of the things that's
really interesting if you look at what's happening over the
last few weeks, people say, oh, it's the great to
see you know, the West is sort of rallied around
Biden's rallied native rallidy. That's completely false, um and the

(07:46):
and there's there's many different ways in which it's false.
Number one, Biden hasn't done anything to rally anyone. The
person that's in a sense rallied the West is puting
it's in response to putin Zan. Bind's been behind the
curve on all of the every single step of the way,
and and and hasn't led in any sense to make

(08:07):
that make this response real. But even within NATO, what's
interesting is there isn't unanimity. There is not a kind
of single, clear, consistent point of view, because what you're
seeing within NATO is the countries that are closer to
the Russian threat and those who really have vividly experienced it,
especially in the last century or so, and where you

(08:29):
have people who can still remember what happened in the
Second World War. So the Baltic States for example, Poland
for example, they and checkers, and the Czech Republic for example.
I think it's just been sending tanks and armored vehicles,
you know, be much more forward leaning in standing up
to the threat than the ones further way, like like
the French for example. And so I think even within

(08:52):
NATO you have you have a difference. Then it's the
proximity that that makes a difference. I should point out
by the way that I'm not just live here now.
I'm made who I can't remember who discussed this before.
I'm actually now an American. I got my citizenship last year,
which I was absolutely proud to do. So I'm a
proud American now. And one of the things I think
is really interesting is that throughout history, certainly in the

(09:14):
last in the last century or so, in the end,
it has been American leadership. Despite the fact, as you
say that America itself is not under threat, it has
been American leadership that has faced down some of these
threats around the world. And as an America has been
in the lead. And that's the argument I've been making

(09:34):
all along, which is actually the reason that America is
the world's leading nation, the reason that we have the
world's highest standard living, all these things that that we
are so fortunate to have that I feel especially fortunate
to benefit from. Theres a new citizen. All of these
things stem from the fact that America has led on everything.

(09:56):
And I think there's a real connection between standing up
to threats to freedom around the world and our economic
leadership and are because it all goes together in this
notion of America leading. America is the leading nation because
America leads, and I think that's what you're really missing
here in terms of the Biden regime, which I don't

(10:18):
think has led nearly as clearly as we would have liked.
He a complete switch of directions that cut my attention
at one more point on this because if we leave,
if there's another really important part of this Ukraine story,
I think that that is not discussed enough. And it's
another example of where I think the Biden people are
just completely failing, which is the fact that this whole

(10:40):
the barbarism, the atrocities, everything we're seeing from it's enabled
by China. That's it would this could be closed down
immediately with one phone call from si Jing Ping. He
is absolutely behind this, he's supporting this. So we see
all of this outrage about what we're seeing, and of
course that's justified. And you've got Corporate America and we're
even Rushwick pulling up. They're still doing business with China.

(11:03):
They're still sucking up to Shi Jing Pink, as is
the Biden regime. And so unless we get serious about
the China component of this, nothing's really going to change. So, um,
I got two minutes, and this is a complex question,
but I want to hear your answers. So I'm reading
over your Wikipedia bio, and uh, it looks like there
was some struggle early in your life. Your parents separated,

(11:25):
your mom's working at a shoe store, dependent on state benefits, etcetera, etcetera.
You lived in a cold, damp basement apartment. I'm always
interested in how people come to their political worldview. So
a lot of people who come out of a background
like you end up being and that's why I believe
in big government and big safety nets and more money

(11:46):
for the poor and all that sort of stuff. How
did you come out of that background with your more
right leaning political view. Well, it's interesting because as well
as as that my stepfather, who I mentioned earlier, was
when Garin was also know he was a refugee from Hungary,
ended up in a refugee camp in the north of England.
And then in fact he came from a rural part

(12:07):
of Hungry, hadn't really had a formal education so and
certainly didn't speak English, and so he ended up working
on a construction site and then you know, made some
money and ended up with a small um you know
self he was a self employed construction worker, had a
little business and so on. And I just remember growing
up so clearly in our house, and it was the

(12:28):
time of Margaret Statue, was the nine eighties. And there's
this really I think I've written about this in one
of my books, but there's this really really simple phrase
that that stuck with me that my stepfather would say
where he would talk about the political party. They weren't
particularly political, they weren't obsessed about politics, but there was
something that he would they loved He loved Margaret Thatcher

(12:50):
and the idea and so did my mother. And the
idea was it was very simple, which is that Mrs
Thatcher is for people who worked hard and wanted to
get on and that's self identified as did my mother.
You work, right, you you try and do the best
you can for your family, and they made a lot
of sacrifices for me and for my education and my
ability to to get where I am today. But I

(13:12):
never forget where I came from, so I could. That's
what the other point I'm making earlier people, I sometimes
talking about myself as a you know, in sympathy with
some of the populist arguments and condemning the elite and
so on, and so why you're in the elite? Look
at you now, you know, like on TV, and you're
all this kind of life you if that's exactly right.
But I always remember where I came from, and it's

(13:32):
this idea of working hard and supporting people who work hard.
And I remember also my stepfather saying the Labor Party
as it was the equivalent the Democrats in the UK
back then, Um, the labor but there for the layabouts,
there's this friend this phrase that I always remember growing
up as a kid, the lay about people who just
lay about and expect the government to um, you know,
give them money instead of working. And that was just

(13:54):
a strong, hard working culture that I grew up in,
and so I'm of time. I'm glad I asked, and
I'm glad I got that answer because always wonder how
you know, people come to their worldview and that's yours
and we have the same haircut. So that's Steve Hilton
who has the podcast California Rebel Base and you can
see him The Next Revolution with Steve Hilton on Fox regularly.
Thanks for your time today, appreciate it. Great to be

(14:16):
with you frequently on the A One More Thing podcast. Jack.
This is roughly the equivalent of carrying around two hundred
and twenty four slices of bacon in your body. Well wait,
wait a minute, regular, what bacon ways of majurement that
we all use? The Armstrong and Getting podcast. Here it

(14:36):
on the I Heart app wherever you listen to podcasts.