During his speech at the Munich Security Conference, Vice President JD Vance scolded European leaders for allowing free speech rights to erode.
The vice president referred to a suspected terror attack in Munich on Thursday, in which an Afghan citizen allegedly rammed a car into a crowd of union members in a demonstration. About 30 people were injured, including some children. Two people were seriously injured.
‘We must do more than talk about democratic values; we must live them.’
Vance then pivoted toward what he said was a great threat to democracy around the world, but especially in Europe.
“The threat that I worry the most about vis-a-vis Europe is not Russia. It’s not China. It’s not any other external actor,” said Vance.
“What I worry about is the threat from within, the retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values, values shared with the United States of America,” he added. “Now I was struck that a former European commissioner went on television recently and sounded delighted that the Romanian government had just annulled an entire election. He warned that if things don’t go to plan, the very same thing could happen in Germany too.”
Vance was referring to comments from former EU Commissioner Thierry Breton, who said the election results in Romania were annulled because of foreign interference from Russia.
“Now these cavalier statements are shocking to American ears. For years we’ve been told that everything we fund and support is in the name of our shared democratic values. Everything from our Ukraine policy to digital censorship is billed as a defense of democracy, but when we see European courts canceling elections and senior officials threatening to cancel others, we ought to ask whether we’re holding ourselves to an appropriately high standard. And I say ‘ourselves’ because I fundamentally believe that we are on the same team,” he added.
“We must do more than talk about democratic values. We must live them,” Vance said.
He went on to cite the Cold War struggle against the Soviet Union and claimed that those who engage in censorship are on the wrong side of history.
“Thank God they lost the the Cold War,” he continued. “They lost because they neither valued nor respected all of the extraordinary blessings of liberty — the freedom to surprise, to make mistakes, to invent, to build.”
He also cited numerous examples of various countries shutting down free speech, including shutting down anti-feminist comments online and the conviction of a Christian activist for burning a Quran. And in Britain, a Christian man was arrested for silently praying in front of an abortion clinic.
“So I come here today not just with an observation but with an offer,” said Vance.
“Just as the Biden administration seemed desperate to silence people for speaking their minds, so the Trump administration will do precisely the opposite, and I hope that we can work together on that,” he concluded. “In Washington there is a new sheriff in town, and under [President] Donald Trump’s leadership, we may disagree with your views, but we will fight to defend your right to offer it in the public square, agree or disagree.”
Vance received some muted applause at that point from the audience of global leaders.
He also lambasted the leaders for allowing the scale of mass immigration and the results of lax asylum laws. Here he cited the attack on German citizens that police are still investigating.
“How many times must we suffer these appalling setbacks before we change course and take our shared civilization in a new direction?” he asked rhetorically. “No voter on this continent went to the ballot box to open the floodgates to millions of unvetted immigrants.”
Vance concluded the speech by admonishing leaders to listen to the wisdom of their individual constituents and praising their shared democratic values.
The Trump administration is in talks with Russia, seeking to end the Ukraine war, at the time of Vance’s comments in Europe.
Here’s video of the speech from the White House:
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