VP Vance Warns Europe Against Censorship During Munich Security Conference Speech

EXCERPT:

VANCE: “This last October, just a few months ago, the Scottish government began distributing letters to citizens whose houses lay within so-called 'safe access zones,' warning them that even private prayer within their homes may amount to breaking the law. Naturally, the government urged readers to report any fellow citizens suspected guilty of thought crime. In Britain and across Europe, free speech, I fear, is in retreat. And in the interests of comedy, my friends, but also in the interests of truth, 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. Misinformation like, for example, the idea that Coronavirus had likely leaked from a laboratory in China. Our own government encouraged private companies to silence people who dared to utter what turned out to be an obvious truth. So I come here today, not just with an observation, but with an offer. Just as the Biden Administration seemed desperate to silence people for speaking their minds, so the Trump Administration will do precisely the opposite, and I hope that we can work together on that. In Washington, there is a new sheriff in town, and under Donald Trump’s leadership we may disagree with your views, but we will fight to defend your right to offer it in the public square, agree or disagree."