VP JD Vance SLAMS Soviet-style censorship in Europe - "I worry about the threat from within"

FULL SPEECH - https://rumble.com/v6ktwgs-vice-president-jd-vance-speaks-at-munich-security-conference-full-feb-14-20.html?mref=1bxo9j&mc=69gy3

Vice President JD Vance speaks at the Munich Security Conference:

“For years, we’ve been told U.S. funding supports ‘democracy.’ But when European courts cancel elections and officials threaten to do the same, we should ask: Are we holding ourselves to the right standard?”

"In this single passage, JD Vance makes manifest the core lie driving US/EU foreign policy for decades: we claim everything we do is for "advancing democracy" when the goal is often the exact opposite."
Never imagined a senior US official saying this - Glenn Greenwald

In a speech to European leaders, Vice President JD Vance said the continent's recent censorship activities were a bigger threat to its existence than Russia.

"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," he said in an address at the Munich Security Conference.

"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 called out former European Commissioner Thierry Breton, who said in January that if the right wing German AfD party were to win elections in Germany, the results could go the way of Romania.

"These cavalier statements are shocking to American ears," said Vance.

"For years we've been told that everything we fund and support is in the name of our shared democratic values. Everything from our Ukraine policy to digital censorship is billed as a defense of democracy. But when we see European courts canceling elections and senior officials threatening to cancel others, we ought to ask whether we're holding ourselves to an appropriately high standard."

Romania annulled the results of its December presidential election, because President Klaus Iohannis declassified intelligence reports alleging a Russian influence campaign on social media to the benefit of Calin Georgescu, the dark horse candidate who won the most votes.

"You can believe it's wrong for Russia to buy social media advertisements to influence your elections. We certainly do. You can condemn it on the world stage, even. But if your democracy can be destroyed with a few hundred thousand dollars of digital advertising from a foreign country, then it wasn't very strong to begin with."

The vice president even called out the organizers of the Munich conference, who he said had "banned lawmakers representing populist parties on both the left and the right from participating in these conversations."

"To many of us on the other side of the Atlantic, it looks more and more like old entrenched interests hiding behind ugly Soviet-era words like 'misinformation' and ‘disinformation,’ who simply don't like the idea that somebody with an alternative viewpoint might express a different opinion or, God forbid, vote a different way, or even worse, win an election."

He then said Europe had forgotten the lessons of the Cold War and the Soviet Union's censorship policies.

"Within living memory of many of you in this room, the Cold War positioned defenders of democracy against much more tyrannical forces on this continent. And consider the side in that fight that censored dissidents, that closed churches, that canceled elections," Vance said.

"Unfortunately, when I look at Europe today, it's sometimes not so clear what happened to some of the Cold War's winners. I look to Brussels, where EU commissars warn citizens that they intend to shut down social media during times of civil unrest the moment they spot what they've judged to be ‘hateful content’ or to this very country where police have carried out raids against citizens suspected of posting anti-feminist comments online as part of ‘combating misogyny on the internet.’"

"Most concerning," according to Vance, is the United Kingdom.

"The backslide away from conscience rights has placed the basic liberties of religious Britons, in particular, in the crosshairs."