JD Vance: US Vice-President JD Vance sharply criticized European governments at the Munich Security Conference, claiming the biggest threat to the continent comes from within. He accused leaders of undermining free speech and ignoring voter concerns on migration. His remarks, expected to focus on Ukraine, instead sparked outrage, with German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius calling them "not acceptable."
#JDVance #MunichSecurityConference #FreeSpeech #MigrationCrisis #Europe #USPolitics #VanceSpeech #Geopolitics #EU #NATO #Germany #UK #Russia #China #Democracy #HumanRights #BorisPistorius #USForeignPolicy #PoliticalDebate #Diplomacy
~HT.318~ED.346~GR.121~
#JDVance #MunichSecurityConference #FreeSpeech #MigrationCrisis #Europe #USPolitics #VanceSpeech #Geopolitics #EU #NATO #Germany #UK #Russia #China #Democracy #HumanRights #BorisPistorius #USForeignPolicy #PoliticalDebate #Diplomacy
~HT.318~ED.346~GR.121~
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Mr. J.D. Vance who was here last year as senator and we are very happy that he
00:06has come back to Munich and we are very much looking forward to his speech.
00:12Please welcome Vice President J.D. Vance.
00:19Well thank you and thanks to all the gathered delegates and luminaries and
00:32media professionals and thanks especially to the host of the Munich
00:36Security Conference for being able to put on such an incredible event. We're of
00:41course thrilled to be here. We're happy to be here and you know one of the
00:45things that I wanted to talk about today is of course our shared values and
00:51you know it's great to be back in Germany as you heard earlier. I was
00:55here last year as United States Senator. I saw Foreign Minister, excuse me,
01:00Foreign Secretary David Lammy and joked that both of us last year had different
01:03jobs than we have now but now it's time for all of our countries, for all of us
01:07who have been fortunate enough to be given political power by our respective
01:12peoples to use it wisely to improve their lives and I want to say that you
01:17know I was fortunate in my time here to spend some time outside the walls of
01:22this conference over the last 24 hours and I've been so impressed by the
01:27hospitality of the people even as of course as they're reeling from
01:31yesterday's horrendous attack and the first time I was ever in Munich was with
01:35was with my wife actually who's here with me today on a personal trip and
01:41I've always loved the city of Munich and I've always loved its people and I
01:45just want to say that we're very moved and our thoughts and prayers are with
01:48Munich and everybody affected by the evil and inflicted on this beautiful
01:52community. We're thinking about you, we're praying for you and we will certainly be
01:57rooting for you in the days and weeks to come.
02:01I hope that's not the last bit of applause that I get but we we
02:10gather at this conference of course to discuss security and normally we mean
02:17threats to our external security. I see many great military leaders gathered
02:22here today but while the Trump administration is very concerned with
02:27European security and believes that we can come to a reasonable settlement
02:32between Russia and Ukraine and we also believe that it's important in the
02:36coming years for Europe to step up in a big way to provide for its own defense
02:40the threat that I worry the most about vis-a-vis Europe is not Russia, it's not
02:46China, it's not any other external actor and what I worry about is the threat
02:52from within. The retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values
02:58values shared with the United States of America. Now I was struck that a former
03:03European Commissioner went on television recently and sounded delighted
03:08that the Romanian government had just annulled an entire election. He warned
03:14that if things don't go to plan the very same thing could happen in Germany too.
03:20Now these cavalier statements are shocking to American ears. For years
03:25we've been told that everything we fund and support is in the name of our shared
03:31democratic values. Everything from our Ukraine policy to digital censorship is
03:37billed as a defense of democracy but when we see European courts cancelling
03:44elections and senior officials threatening to cancel others we ought to
03:49ask whether we're holding ourselves to an appropriately high standard and I say
03:54ourselves because I fundamentally believe that we are on the same team.
03:58We must do more than talk about democratic values, we must live them.
04:04Now within living memory of many of you in this room the Cold War positioned
04:08defenders of democracy against much more tyrannical forces on this continent and
04:14consider the side in that fight that censored dissidents, that closed churches,
04:21that cancelled elections. Were they the good guys? Certainly not and thank God
04:27they lost the Cold War. They lost because they neither valued nor
04:32respected all of the extraordinary blessings of Liberty. The freedom to
04:37surprise, to make mistakes, to invent, to build. As it turns out you can't mandate
04:43innovation or creativity just as you can't force people what to think, what to
04:49feel, or what to believe and we believe those things are certainly connected.
04:54And unfortunately when I look at Europe today it's sometimes not so clear what
04:59happened to some of the Cold War's winners. I look to Brussels where EU
05:05commission commissars warn citizens that they intend to shut down social media
05:10during times of civil unrest the moment they spot what they've judged to be
05:15quote hateful content. Or to this very country where police have carried out
05:21raids against citizens suspected of posting anti-feminist comments online as
05:26part of quote combating misogyny on the internet a day of action. I look to
05:32Sweden where two weeks ago the government convicted a Christian
05:36activist for participating in Koran burnings that resulted in his friend's
05:41murder. And as the judge in his case chillingly noted Sweden's laws to
05:47supposedly protect free expression do not in fact grant and I'm quoting a free
05:54pass to do or say anything without risking offending the group that holds
05:59that belief. And perhaps most concerningly I look to our very dear
06:05friends the United Kingdom where the backslide away from conscience rights
06:09has placed the basic liberties of religious Britons in particular in the
06:13crosshairs. A little over two years ago the British government charged Adam
06:17Smith-Connor a 51 year old physiotherapist and an army veteran
06:22with the heinous crime of standing 50 meters from an abortion clinic and
06:28silently praying for three minutes. Not obstructing anyone not interacting with
06:34anyone just silently praying on his own. After British law enforcement spotted
06:40him and demanded to know what he was praying for Adam replied simply it was
06:45on behalf of the unborn son he and his former girlfriend had aborted years
06:50before. Now the officers were not moved Adam was found guilty of breaking the
06:57government's new buffer zones law which criminalizes silent prayer and other
07:00actions that could influence a person's decision within 200 meters of an
07:05abortion facility. He was sentenced to pay thousands of pounds in legal costs
07:10to the prosecution. Now I wish I could say that this was a fluke a one-off
07:14crazy example of a badly written law being enacted against a single person
07:20but no this last October just a few months ago the Scottish government began
07:24distributing letters to citizens whose houses lay within so-called safe access
07:29zones. Warning them that even private prayer within their own homes may amount
07:35to breaking the law. Naturally the government urged readers to report any
07:40fellow citizens suspected guilty of thought crime. In Britain and across
07:46Europe free speech I fear is in retreat. And in the interest of comedy my friends
07:53but also in the interest of truth I will admit that sometimes the loudest voices
07:57for censorship have come not from within Europe but from within my own country.
08:02Where the prior administration threatened and bullied social media
08:06companies to censor so-called misinformation. Misinformation like for
08:11example the idea that coronavirus had likely leaped from leaked from a
08:16laboratory in China. Our own government encouraged private companies to silence
08:22people who dared to utter what turned out to be an obvious truth. So I come
08:28here today not just with an observation but with an offer. And just as the Biden
08:33administration seemed desperate to silence people for speaking their minds
08:37so the Trump administration will do precisely the opposite and I hope that
08:42we can work together on that. In Washington there is a new sheriff in
08:47town and under Donald Trump's leadership we may disagree with your views but we
08:52will fight to defend your right to offer it in the public square agree or disagree.
08:58Applause
09:03Now we're at the point of course that the situation has gotten so bad that
09:07this December Romania straight-up canceled the results of a
09:12presidential election based on the flimsy suspicions of an intelligence
09:17agency and enormous pressure from its continental neighbors. Now as I
09:21understand it the argument was that Russian disinformation had infected the
09:27Romanian elections. But I'd ask my European friends to have some
09:32perspective. You can believe it's wrong for Russia to buy social media
09:36advertisements to influence your elections. We certainly do. You can
09:40condemn it on the world stage even. But if your democracy can be destroyed with
09:45a few hundred thousand dollars of digital advertising from a foreign
09:49country then it wasn't very strong to begin with.
09:56Now the good news is that I happen to think your democracies are substantially
10:01less brittle than many people apparently fear. And I really do believe that
10:06allowing our citizens to speak their mind will make them stronger still. Which
10:11of course brings us back to Munich where the organizers of this very conference
10:16have banned lawmakers representing populist parties on both the left and
10:20the right from participating in these conversations. Now again we don't have to
10:25agree with everything or anything that people say. But when people represent,
10:31when political leaders represent an important constituency, it is incumbent
10:36upon us to at least participate in dialogue with them. Now to many of us on
10:42the other side of the Atlantic it looks more and more like old entrenched
10:46interests hiding behind ugly Soviet-era words like misinformation and
10:51disinformation who simply don't like the idea that somebody with an alternative
10:56viewpoint might express a different opinion or God forbid vote a different
11:02way or even worse win an election. Now this is a security conference and I'm
11:09sure you all came here prepared to talk about how exactly you intend to increase
11:14defense spending over the next few years in line with some new target. And
11:18that's great because as President Trump has made abundantly clear he believes
11:23that our European friends must play a bigger role in the future of this
11:28continent. We don't think you hear this term burden sharing but we think it's an
11:33important part of being in a shared alliance together that the Europeans
11:36step up while America focuses on areas of the world that are in great danger.
11:42But let me also ask you how will you even begin to think through the kinds of
11:47budgeting questions if we don't know what it is that we are defending in the
11:53first place? I've heard a lot already in my conversations and I've had many many
11:58great conversations with many people gathered here in this room. I've heard a
12:02lot about what you need to defend yourselves from and of course that's
12:06important but what it seemed a little bit less clear to me and certainly I
12:10think to many of the citizens of Europe is what exactly it is that you're
12:15defending yourselves for. What is the positive vision that animates this
12:20shared security compact that we all believe is so important? And I believe
12:26deeply that there is no security if you are afraid of the voices, the opinions
12:32and the conscience that guide your very own people. Europe faces many challenges
12:39but the crisis this continent faces right now the crisis I believe we all
12:44face together is one of our own making. If you're running in fear of your own
12:51voters there is nothing America can do for you nor for that matter is there
12:56anything that you can do for the American people who elected me and
13:00elected President Trump. You need democratic mandates to accomplish
13:05anything of value in the coming years have we learned nothing that thin
13:09mandates produce unstable results but there is so much of value that can be
13:16accomplished with the kind of democratic mandate that I think will come from
13:20being more responsive to the voices of your citizens. If you're going to enjoy
13:25competitive economies, if you're going to enjoy affordable energy and secure
13:30supply chains then you need mandates to govern because you have to make
13:36difficult choices to enjoy all of these things and of course we know that very
13:40well in America. You cannot win a democratic mandate by censoring your
13:44opponents or putting them in jail whether that's the leader of the
13:48opposition, a humble Christian praying in her own home or a journalist trying to
13:53report the news. Nor can you win one by disregarding your basic electorate on
13:58questions like who gets to be a part of our shared society and of all the
14:04pressings challenges that the nations represented here face I believe there is
14:08nothing more urgent than mass migration. Today almost one in five people living
14:16in this country moved here from abroad that is of course an all-time high. It's
14:21a similar number by the way in the United States also an all-time high. The
14:25number of immigrants who entered the EU from non EU countries doubled between
14:292021 and 2022 alone and of course it's gotten much higher since and we know the
14:36situation it didn't materialize in a vacuum. It's the result of a series of
14:41conscious decisions made by politicians all over the continent and others across
14:47the world over the span of a decade. We saw the horrors wrought by these
14:53decisions yesterday in this very city and of course I can't bring it up again
14:59without thinking about the terrible victims who had a beautiful winter day
15:05in Munich ruined. Our thoughts and prayers are with them and will remain
15:09with them but why did this happen in the first place? It's a terrible story but
15:14it's one we've heard way too many times in Europe and unfortunately too many
15:18times in the United States as well. An asylum seeker often a young man in his
15:24mid-20s already known to police rams a car into a crowd and shatters a
15:29community. How many times must we suffer these appalling setbacks before we
15:36change course and take our shared civilization in a new direction? No voter
15:43on this continent went to the ballot box to open the floodgates to millions of
15:48unvetted immigrants but you know what they did vote for? In England they voted
15:54for Brexit and agree or disagree they voted for it and more and more all over
15:59Europe they're voting for political leaders who promise to put an end to
16:02out-of-control migration. Now I happen to agree with a lot of these concerns but
16:07you don't have to agree with me I just think that people care about their homes
16:12they care about their dreams they care about their safety and their capacity to
16:17provide for themselves and their children and they're smart. I think this
16:22is one of the most important things I've learned in my brief time in politics
16:26contrary to what you might hear a couple mountains over in Davos the citizens of
16:31all of our nations don't generally think of themselves as educated animals or as
16:36interchangeable cogs of a global economy and it's hardly surprising that they
16:42don't want to be shuffled about or relentlessly ignored by their leaders.
16:45It is the business of democracy to adjudicate these big questions at the
16:51ballot box. I believe that dismissing people dismissing their concerns or
16:56worse yet shutting down media shutting down elections or shutting people out of
17:02the political process protects nothing. In fact it is the most surefire way to
17:09destroy democracy and speaking up and expressing opinions isn't election
17:15interference even when people express views outside your own country and even
17:20when those people are very influential and trust me I say this with all humor
17:26if American democracy can survive ten years of Greta Thunberg scolding you
17:31guys can survive a few months of Elon Musk but what German democracy what no
17:39democracy American German or European will survive is telling millions of
17:44voters that their thoughts and concerns their aspirations they're pleased for
17:48relief are invalid or unworthy of even being considered democracy rests on the
17:56sacred principle that the voice of the people matters there's no room for
18:02firewalls you either uphold the principle or you don't Europeans the
18:09people have a voice European leaders have a choice and my strong belief is
18:16that we do not need to be afraid of the future you can embrace what your people
18:21tell you even when it's surprising even when you don't agree and if you do so
18:27you can face the future with certainty and with confidence knowing that the
18:31nation stands behind each of you and that to me is the great magic of
18:36democracy it's not in these stone buildings or beautiful hotels it's not
18:41even in the great institutions that we have built together as a shared society
18:46to believe in democracy is to understand that each of our citizens has wisdom and
18:52has a voice and if we refuse to listen to that voice even our most successful
18:59fights will secure very little as Pope John Paul the second in my view one of
19:05the most extraordinary champions of democracy on this continent or any other
19:10once said do not be afraid we shouldn't be afraid of our people even when they
19:16express views that disagree with their leadership thank you all good luck to
19:21all of you God bless you
19:26don't miss out log on to one India comm for more updates