(WASHINGTON, D.C.)—Representative Jamie Raskin (D-MD) joined Reps. Eliot L. Engel (D-NY), Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, and Marcy Kaptur (D-OH), Co-Chair of the Congressional Hungarian Caucus, in urging President Trump to cancel his planned meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. In a letter to the President, the members voiced their deep concern about Orbán’s crackdown on democracy, increased Russian and Chinese influence, and use of anti-Semitic and xenophobic language.

“Prime Minister Orbán represents so many things that are antithetical to core American values. He has overseen a rollback of democracy in his country, used anti-Semitic and xenophobic tropes in his political messaging, and cozied up to Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin.  He has also suppressed independent media and academic freedom in an effort to consolidate his increasingly autocratic rule. It troubles us to see the President of our country, which has historically supported the protection and promotion of democracy and human rights worldwide, meeting with a man who so regularly disregards these values,” they wrote.

The letter was also signed by Representatives David N. Cicilline (D-RI), Debbie Dingell (D-MI), Tom Malinowski (D-NJ), Steve Cohen (D-TN), Albio Sires (D-NJ), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), and Alcee Hastings (D-FL).

Full text of the letter can be found here.

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