Vance railed against censorship and mass migration in Europe at the Munich Security Conference while downplaying other threats such as those posed by Russia and China.
“The threat that I worry the most about vis-à-vis Europe is not Russia, it’s not China, it’s not any other external actor. And 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,” Vance said.
The vice president scolded European leaders for efforts to censor disinformation on social media, saying, “Unfortunately, when I look at Europe today, it’s sometimes not so clear what happened to some of the Cold War’s winners.” He specifically lambasted the United Kingdom for charging a man who silently prayed near an abortion clinic.
“In Britain and across Europe, free speech, I fear, is in retreat,” Vance said. “I will admit that sometimes the loudest voices for censorship have come not from within Europe, but from within my own country, where the prior administration threatened and bullied social media companies to censor so-called misinformation.”
He said that the Trump administration believes Europe must step up with burden-sharing in terms of defense spending, while he said “America focuses on areas of the world that are in great danger.”
Vance then complained about mass migration and pointed to an asylum-seeker who was suspected of ramming his car into a crowd in Munich yesterday.
“Of all the pressing challenges that the nations represented here face, I believe there is nothing more urgent than mass migration today,” he said. “We saw the horrors wrought by these decisions yesterday in this very city, and of course, I can’t bring it up again without thinking about the terrible victims who had a beautiful winter day in Munich ruined.”
“How many times must we suffer these appalling setbacks before we change course and take our shared civilization in a new direction?” he said. “No voter on this continent went to the ballot box to open the floodgates to millions of unvetted immigrants.”
Many of Vance’s remarks were met with mostly silence from the audience and little applause.