Vice President JD Vance defended his recent speech on government censorship in Europe, saying there have been “infringements on free speech” in Britain, while U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer sat a few feet away in the White House.
Two weeks ago, at the Munich Security Conference, Vance accused several European nations of violating free speech — a right that is constitutionally protected in the U.S. Addressing the press in the Oval Office on Thursday, the vice president stood by his remarks.
“I said what I said, which is that we do have, of course, a special relationship with our friends in the U.K. and also with some of our European allies,” Vance said when pressed by a reporter on the issue.
“But we also know that there have been infringements on free speech that actually affect not just the British, of course, what the British do in their own country is up to them,” he added, “but also affect American technology companies and, by extension, American citizens. So that is something that we’ll talk about today at lunch.”
After Vance concluded, Starmer offered his own rebuttal.
“We’ve had free speech for a very, very long time in in the United Kingdom, and it will last for a very, very long time,” the Labour Party leader said.
“Certainly, we wouldn’t want to reach across U.S. citizens, and we don’t, and that’s absolutely right,” Starmer told Vance. “But in relation to free speech in the U.K., I’m very proud of that — our history there.”
The awkward moment came during Starmer’s visit to the White House, where he and President Donald Trump discussed next steps to end the war between Ukraine and Russia. Starmer is the second European leader, after French President Emmanuel Macron, who met with Trump this week.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is scheduled to visit the White House on Friday to sign a deal that will give the U.S. access to Ukraine’s critical earth minerals in exchange for protecting the embattled country from Russia in the future. The deal will mark a major step forward for the peace negotiations to end the Ukraine war.
While delegates attending the Munich Security Conference expected Vance to reassure them that the U.S. is not abandoning Ukraine, the vice president instead used his platform to criticize repressive laws in Europe that target free speech.
“The threat that I worry most about vis-à-vis Europe is not Russia, not China, it’s not any other external actor. What I worry about is the threat from within, the retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values,” Vance said in a blistering speech. “When I look at Europe today, it’s not clear what happened to some of the Cold War’s winners.”
Among the many examples he cited was an incident in the U.K., where British Army veteran Adam Smith-Connor was convicted for committing a “thoughtcrime” by silently praying within the censorial “buffer zone” of an abortion clinic. The man was ordered to pay more than 9,000 pounds in prosecution costs.
“I wish I could say that this was a fluke —a one-off, crazy example of a badly written law being enacted against a single person,” Vance said of Smith-Connor’s case. “In Britain, and across Europe, free speech, I fear, is in retreat.”
Many European politicians denounced his comments. German diplomat Christoph Heugsen, in particular, cried over the “fear” that Vance’s speech instilled in the conference’s attendees.
Meanwhile, others reacted more favorably. For instance, Trump called Vance’s speech “brilliant” and “very well received.”