Vice President JD Vance on Sunday defended his controversial speech from last week, during which he said the biggest threat facing Europe wasn’t from US adversaries like Russia and China, but “from within.”
Vance also raised eyebrows on Friday over his decision to meet with Alice Weidel, the co-chair of the far-right Alternative for Germany party, following his address before the Munich Security Conference which had already spread alarm and anger among European officials.
Margaret Brennan, the moderator of CBS’ Face the Nation on Sunday interviewed US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, asking the Trump official to explain what was accomplished by Vance’s words and actions, beside irking America’s allies on the continent.
“Why would our allies or anybody be irritated by free speech and by someone giving their opinion?” Rubio asked.
Brennan pushed back, noting that Vance delivered those remarks in Germany — “a country where free speech was weaponized to conduct a genocide,” in reference to the Holocaust. The CBS host added that Weidel represents a party with ties to extremism.
“Free speech was not used to conduct a genocide,” Rubio replied. “The genocide was conducted by an authoritarian Nazi regime that happened to also be genocidal because they hated Jews and they hated minorities.”
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Vance doubled down, suggesting his embrace of the far-right amounted to exercising “free speech,” while appearing to scold Brennan’s line of questioning.
“Does the media really think the holocaust was caused by free speech?” Vance asked.
During Friday’s speech, Vance had harsh words for Europe, while sharing no criticism of U.S. foes in Beijing and the Kremlin.
“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,” Vance said. “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 also appeared to criticise European countries for isolating extremist parties, seeming to point the finger at Germany, even though he didn’t explicitly reference the AfD.
“Shutting people out of the political process protects nothing,” he said.
The AfD, which has also been promoted by Trump ally Elon Musk, has been scrutinized by the country’s intelligence service for years over its ties to extremists. The party, which is now mainly running on an anti-immigration platform, is still expected to have a strong showing at Sunday’s election, with polls predicting it will finish second behind the Christian Democrats.