Munich, Germany
CNN
—
US Vice President JD Vance has come out swinging against European allies – not for how they manage their national security or for not enough defense spending, but for not listening to their citizens and suppressing voices they disagree with.
“Whether that’s the leader of the opposition, a humble Christian praying in her own home or a journalist trying to report the news,” Vance said Friday in a speech at the Munich Security Conference.
Vance singled out migration as Europe’s most critical issue and highlighted the attack on Thursday in Munich allegedly carried out by an Afghan migrant.
He took jabs at Sweden, Romania, the UK and the host nation of the conference, Germany.
“If you are running in fear of your own voters there is nothing America can do for you,” Vance told conference attendees, most of whom sat stone-faced with only scattered applause.
Vance dismissed disinformation and misinformation as “Soviet-era words” and blasted efforts including, he said, by the Biden Administration, to stifle speech on social media.
“There is no room for firewalls,” he said, adding that there is either free speech or not.
Vance barely touched on the issue of Ukraine and a potential settlement of Russia which has been the main subject here at the conference for the past few years.
Earlier Vance told the Wall Street Journal that the Trump administration is keeping all options on the table, including using economic and military “tools of leverage” to get Russia to negotiate.