JD Vance could have attempted a “charm offensive” when he spoke at the Munich Security Conference on Friday.

Instead, the vice president chose to emphasize the “offensive” by claiming that the greatest threat facing America’s European allies wasn’t from Russia and China but “from within.”

Vance also downplayed the threat of election interference from those countries. “You can believe it’s wrong for Russia to buy social media advertisements to influence your elections ... but if your democracy can be destroyed with a few hundred thousand dollars of digital advertising from a foreign country, then it wasn’t very strong to begin with,” he said at one point.

Later, Vance said “expressing opinions isn’t election interference even when people express views outside your own country and even when those people are very influential.”

He added that “if American democracy can survive 10 years of Greta Thunberg’s scolding, you guys can survive a few months of Elon Musk.”

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius later called Vance’s remarks “unacceptable.”

“If I understood him correctly, he is comparing conditions in parts of Europe with those in authoritarian regimes,” Pistorius said, according to The Associated Press. “That is unacceptable, and it is not the Europe and not the democracy in which I live and am currently campaigning.”

Vance also said that “if you’re running in fear of your own voters, there is nothing America can do for you,” The AP reported.

Pistorius may have found Vance’s comments especially problematic since the far-right anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party is in second place ahead of a national election scheduled for Feb. 23.

AfD is supported by 20% of Germans even though members of mainstream parties have vowed not to work with the party ― a stance AP says is known as “a firewall.”

During his speech, The AP reported, Vance insisted that “Democracy rests on the sacred principle that the voice of the people matters,” while adding, “There’s no room for firewalls.”

Vance’s speech was brutally mocked on various social media platforms ― and many people noted the tepid reaction he got from his fellow conference attendees.