Munich, GermanyCNN —
US Vice President
JD Vance vented at European leaders Friday, telling them that the biggest threat to their security was “from within,” rather than China and Russia.
Vance used his first major speech as vice president to lambast European politicians for suppressing free speech, losing control of immigration and refusing to work with hard-right parties in government.
The audience at the Munich Security Conference was expecting to hear about the Trump administration’s
plans to end the war in Ukraine, but instead were treated to a bombastic rejection of liberal orthodoxies that have prevailed in Western Europe since the Second World War, in a speech that downplayed the threats to the continent posed by Russia and China.
“The threat that I worry most about vis-a-vis Europe is not Russia, not China, it’s not any other external actor. What I worry about is the threat from within, the retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values,” Vance told a stone-faced audience.
The vice president — due to meet Ukraine’s President
Volodymyr Zelensky shortly at the conference — said “shutting down” unorthodox viewpoints is the “most surefire way to destroy democracy,” and called on European leaders – who have been elected by their respective peoples – to “embrace what your people tell you.”
“If American democracy can survive 10 years of Greta Thunberg scolding, you guys can survive a few months of Elon Musk,” he said.
