Vance’s Munich address marked as ‘Churchillian’ moment for free speech

Constitutional scholar Jonathan Turley praised Vice President JD Vance for criticizing German censorship laws during his speech to the Munich Security Conference, where the vice president called out organizers for banning both far-left and far-right wing parties. Turley also reacted on “America’s Newsroom,” Tuesday to a CBS host blaming the Holocaust on free-speech.

VANCE IS RIGHT ABOUT FREE SPEECH. THAT’S WHAT MAKES EU AND US LEFTISTS SO MAD

JONATHAN TURLEY: It was a historic speech by Vice President Vance. In 1963, John F. Kennedy went to Berlin to say, I’m a Berliner, to say that he was going to stand with the rights of free speech and other rights of those behind the Iron Curtain. Vance went, in this case, to Munich and said, I am an American, and as an American, I will fight for free speech. He confronted our allies and saying, you can’t claim to be defending democracy when you are eviscerating the very right that defines us. I wrote a book called ‘The Indispensable Right’ and it talks about Germany, the United Kingdom and our other allies where free speech is in free fall, and so this was a very welcome speech for the free speech community, not just the United States, but in Europe. And I’m hearing from a lot of my colleagues in Europe saying that this was a true Churchillian moment for the free speech community.

Vice President JD Vance in debate/Christoph Heusgen, former Director of the Munich Security Conference (CBS News/Getty Images)

Vance 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.”

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.”

The VP continued, “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 JOKES ABOUT GRETA THUNBERG AS HE GOES SCORCHED EARTH ON EUROPEAN CENSORSHIP

CBS host Margaret Brennan then made what many called an “incredibly dumb” and “deeply ignorant” statement claiming Nazi Germany “weaponized free speech” during her show on Sunday.

The “Face the Nation” host clashed with Secretary of State Marco Rubio over Vance’s speech at the Munich Security Conference in Germany last week. After Vance criticized European allies for adopting a “Soviet”-style approach to censorship, Brennan implied free speech likely led to the Holocaust.

Turley, a George Washington University law professor, said he “almost spit out [his] coffee” when he saw Brennan’s statement.

TURLEY: Because, of course, the first thing that the Nazis did was to crack down on free speech, to deny it. Censorship is the harbinger of authoritarianism, and I’m not too sure what point she was making, but the Nazis knew free speech was the enemy of totalitarian rule. So the idea that somehow free speech invites fascism is an old saw used by the anti-free speech movement, particularly in Germany. But take a look at Germany: they’ve had a robust censorship system since World War Two. The neo-Nazi movement is flourishing, but a recent poll shows that only 17% of Germans feel comfortable stating their views in public. They’re silencing the wrong people.