J.D. Vance’s first international trip as vice president has taken him and his family to Europe. This week, the Vances – including their three young children – met with foreign leaders in France in advance of making their way to Germany.
Vance and his wife Usha spent time with a 97-year-old Holocaust survivor as they toured the Dachau Concentration Camp memorial on Thursday, before the vice president addressed a crowd of European leaders at the Munich Security Conference on Friday.
He did not mince words when warning against what he sees as the biggest threat facing Europe: censorship and a lack of free speech. On Friday’s show, Megyn was joined by Jason Calacanis and Chamath Palihapitiya, co-hosts of the All-In Podcast, to discuss Vance’s remarks and what they reveal about the world today.
Vance’s Warning
Vance will be meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during his time in Munich, but his 20-minute speech made it clear that he does not view Russia or even China as the biggest threat to Europe. Instead, he admonished the continent’s ongoing censorship efforts.
“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. “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 explicitly called out the crackdown on populist political parties in countries like Romania and Germany and asserted the “backslide away from conscience rights” in the United Kingdom “has placed the basic liberties of religious Britons, in particular, in the crosshairs.” He also took aim at Sweden for imprisoning a Danish activist for burning copies of the Quran.
He spoke of the need for freedom of expression, especially as it relates to political discourse:
VANCE: …Speaking up and expressing opinions isn’t election interference, even when people express views outside your own country and even when those people are very influential. And trust me, I say this with all humor, if American democracy can survive 10 years of Greta Thunberg’s scolding, you guys can survive a few months of Elon Musk… What no democracy – American, German, or European – will survive is telling millions of voters that their thoughts and concerns, their aspirations, their pleas for relief are invalid or unworthy of even being considered…
And he also suggested that peace between Russia and Ukraine or a stronger NATO alliance cannot necessarily save Europe from the threat that lies within:
VANCE: …You’ve heard a lot about what you need to defend yourselves from. And of course, that’s important. But what has seemed a little bit less clear to me – and certainly I think to many of the citizens of Europe – is what exactly it is that you’re defending yourselves for. What is the positive vision that animates this shared security compact that we all believe is so important? And I believe, deeply, that there is no security if you are afraid of the voices, the opinions, and the conscience that guide your very own people. Europe faces many challenges, but the crisis this continent faces right now – the crisis I believe we all face together – is one of our own making.
“If you’re running in fear of your own voters, there is nothing America can do for you,” Vance concluded. “Nor, for that matter, is there anything that you can do for the American people who elected me and elected President Trump.”
The ‘Truth Bomb’
The speech was a marked difference from what attendees had apparently expected to hear given Trump’s recent talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin and the administration’s position on defense spending.
“J.D. Vance [had] a truth bomb in front of the Europeans – who were reportedly just stunned in their seats, uncomfortable shuffling – when it comes to free speech, which is Europe has just been absolutely abysmal,” Megyn said. “It is a reminder of why we left England and why, as Americans, the most important thing to us – amendment number one – is free speech… It is all but dead in Europe.”
As Palihapitiya explained, European countries have over-regulated themselves to the point where they are virtually irrelevant on the global stage. And people who point that out, he said, are shouted down. “It all goes back to the root cause that J.D. is identifying,” he noted. “If you can’t say it, you can’t fix it, and so they have to decide what page they are on.”
In Calacanis’ view, the world needs more speech, not less. “I don’t know… how we got onto this weird side quest that we had to police speech,” he said. “I always love the fact that these idiot, racist lunatics would out themselves… Why silence people? I don’t understand what the point is. It basically says to me you can’t win the argument where you’re not willing to engage the argument.”
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Calacanis and Palihapitiya by tuning in to episode 1,008 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.