Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) criticized Vice President Vice President Vance for “lecting” European allies on “political tolerance” during his speech at the Munich Security Council on Friday.
At the meeting, Vance warned European leaders of “internal threats,” citing the area's massive migration and censorship.
“The Trump administration is very interested in European security and believes that it will be possible to reach a reasonable settlement between Russia and Ukraine, but I am not Russia that Europe is most concerned about, and China. Not that, it's not what other external actors are,” he continued. “What I'm worried about is the threat from within.”
In an interview with Pamela Brown on CNN on Friday As the media emphasizedConnolly denounced Vance and called for efforts to dismantle several federal agencies of President Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk, reduce the government's workforce and purge FBI staff.
“Imagine Europeans fearing their voters because employees think they are part of a deep state and are unreliable,” the lawmaker said.
“Are you going to lecture others about the political tolerance of freedom of speech?” Connolly continued. “That's a little.”
At the Munich Conference, Vance added that “free speech” is declining across the region.
“To many of us on the other side of the Atlantic, it looks like an old, entrenched interest hidden behind Soviet-era words like “misinformation” and “disinformation.” The perspective may express a different opinion, God may be forbidden and may vote in a different way or worse still win the election,” Vance said.
He also mentioned the incident in Munich a day before immigrants drove into the crowd as an example of the outcome of mass immigration.
“Voters on this continent never went to the ballot box and opened the locks to millions of uninhabited immigrants,” Vance said.
Vance met with Ukrainian President Voldymi Zelensky on the sidelines of the meeting, but he did not mention the ongoing Russian-Ukrain conflict in his official speech, prompting disappointment from another lawmaker .
“I didn't get the feeling that he came today. I'll talk about Ukraine. This is at the top of the list of everyone here, but freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, religion. Europe and the United States to comment on freedom, and such shared values,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said in an interview. As reported by Politico. “So it was a narrowly tailored speech and wasn't designed to address all the questions people have about American policy in this new administration.”
Updated at 4:59pm on EST
