Vice President J.D. Vance has warned that American taxpayers and military servicemen may not continue to underwrite Europe’s defense if European governments continue pushing censorship. Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Thursday, he said, “Think about this: Germany’s entire defense is subsidized by the American taxpayer. There are thousands upon thousands of American troops in Germany today. Do you think that the American taxpayer is going to stand for that if you get thrown in jail in Germany for posting a mean tweet? Of course they’re not.”
Referring to his recent speech at the Munich Security Conference in Germany, the Vice President explained that “the point that I tried to make to our European friends… is that [our] friendship is based on shared values. You do not have shared values if you’re jailing people for saying we should close down our border; you don’t have shared values if you cancel elections because you don’t like the result—and that happened in Romania—[and] you do not have shared values if you’re so afraid of your own people that you silence them and shut them up.”
“So, let’s have shared values. Let’s defend democracy; let’s have free expression, not just in the United States but all over the Western world. That is the path to strong alliances in Europe.” he concluded.
Vice President Vance made a similar point in an exclusive interview with Raheem Kassam, Editor-in-Chief of The National Pulse, on Wednesday, saying, “American troops do not sacrifice to protect censorship. They do not sacrifice in order to create a world where you get thrown in prison for posting an Internet meme. If you want American hard power to continue to support the so-called rules-based order, then you actually have to respect the values of the people who are sacrificing for that hard power.”
