Dem Rep torches JD Vance for calling out European censorship

Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., condemned Vice President JD Vance’s recent remarks in Munich, claiming his defense of free speech was similar to German dictator Adolf Hitler’s rhetoric.

Vance attended the Munich Security Conference in Germany last week, where he criticized European allies for adopting a “Soviet”-style approach to censorship.

“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.”

While many praised Vance for the speech, demonstrating American leadership and defense of liberty, others condemned it as a bad look for American politicians on the world stage.

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When asked by MSNBC host Ali Vitali what the room was like where Vance delivered the speech, Moulton claimed that Americans were “totally embarrassed.”

“It was one of absolute shock, absolute shock among our European allies, among basically everyone in the audience. I think many of us Americans just felt totally embarrassed as VP Vance delivered really not a speech, but a condescending lecture about the fundamental tenets of democracy to our European allies.”

He went on to claim that the speech was hypocritical, saying, “he’s talked about respecting election results. He talked about not jailing your political opponents. And he talked about not censoring the media.”

“The problem,” he said, “is that this is coming from a man who himself won’t acknowledge the 2020 election results. This is a day after Trump said he should jail the opponents – sorry – the members of the January 6th committee, his political opponents. And this administration just kicked the AP out of the Pentagon, and is censoring dozens of words from government publications, keeping Americans in the dark while they take reams of data off the Internet.”

U.S. Vice President JD Vance gives a speech at the Munich Security Conference (MSC) in Munich, Germany on February 14, 2025. (REUTERS/Leah Millis)

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He went on to claim that in the audience of hundreds only about five people applauded. 

“I think four of them were Chinese,” he said. “It was only the Chinese and the Russians who liked the speech. The Russian foreign minister actually came out and praised the speech. That’s the only praise you’ve heard about what VP Vance had to say.”

Later in the same interview, he claimed that Vance’s rhetoric was like that used in Nazi Germany to “justify the Holocaust,” and claimed the right-wing German political party he visited, Alternative for Germany, were neo-Nazis.

“He was talking about the enemy within. This is some of the same language that Hitler used to justify the Holocaust,” Moulton claimed. “Just after the speech, Vice President Vance went to the old Nazi party headquarters in Munich to meet with the leader of the modern day neo-Nazi party in Germany. So what was bad at Munich could actually get worse. This is a very, very dangerous administration. I think our European allies are just coming to terms with it.”

During the same visit to Germany, JD Vance toured the Dachau concentration camp, a site that has become a powerful symbol of the atrocities committed by Nazi Germany against Jews and other minority groups during World War II.

“What happened here should never happen again,” Vance said to a group of dignitaries near the entrance to the camp.

US Vice President JD Vance visits the former Dachau concentration camp after his arrival in Bavaria to commemorate the victims and survivors of the Holocaust and the 80th anniversary of the camp’s liberation by American forces on April 29, 1945.  (Photo by Peter Kneffel/picture alliance via Getty Images)

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Fox News’ Caitlin McFall contributed to this report.