JD Vance brought his lecturing of Germans into a second week Monday by slamming laws in the country meant to curb hate speech and the prosecutors who carry them out.
The vice president claimed Germany is “criminalizing speech” and warned that its restrictions on citizens might put “real strain” on the U.S. ally’s relations with the White House.
Vance, 40, shared his reaction on X after a clip from CBS News’ 60 Minutes went viral highlighting how strict Germany’s anti-hate crime laws are, including the possibility of prison for those who merely reshare a post that includes false or hateful speech.
“Insulting someone is not a crime, and criminalizing speech is going to put real strain on European-US relationships,” Vance posted on X. “This is Orwellian, and everyone in Europe and the US must reject this lunacy.”
Vance’s latest lashing comes just after he drew the ire of many Europeans with a speech at the Munich Security Conference. There, he scolded continental leaders for allegedly stifling dissent and free speech. He also claimed the NATO nations’ enemies were not Russia or China, but rather were the “enemy within.”
Critics slammed Vance for being so brazen in what was his first major speech on the international stage as VP. That outrage drummed up media attention stateside that brought new attention to what “free speech” looks like across the pond.
The German prosecutor Svenja Meininghaus defended his country’s laws on 60 Minutes when he was pressed by CBS’ Sharyn Alfonsi.
“Is it a crime to insult somebody in public?” Alfonsi asked, which received a simultaneous “yes” from the panel of prosecutors.
Alfonsi followed up by asking if the resharing of another’s illegal statement on social media—like hitting “share” on Facebook, retweeting on X, or “ReTruthing” on Donald Trump’s platform—would be a crime, too.
“In the case of reposting, it is a crime as well, because the reader can’t distinguish whether you just invented this or just reposted this,” Meininghaus explained. “That’s the same for us.”
Vance’s outrage with that interaction came a day after he snapped at the CBS News anchor Margaret Brennan for claiming—during an interview with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, where she discussed Vance’s Munich speech—that Nazis “weaponized” free speech to perpetrate the Holocaust.
“He was standing in a country where free speech was weaponized to conduct a genocide, and he met with the head of a political party that has far-right views and some historic ties to extreme groups,” she said of Vance on Face The Nation.
Rubio refuted her comment immediately. Once the clip made its rounds online, other Republicans, including Vance, chimed in to do the same.
“This is a crazy exchange,” he said. “Does the media really think the holocaust was caused by free speech?”
Vance critics, like the ex-MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan, pointed out that Vance was grilling NATO allies for supposedly suppressing free speech while his administration is actively denying White House access to Associated Press reporters because the wire service refuses to refer to the newly-renamed “Gulf of America” as such in its copy.
“Hey @JDVance, I know you’re busy lecturing the Europeans on free speech, but have you seen this?” Hasan posted, quoting an article about the AP’s freeze out.
Vance responded Monday: “Yes dummy. I think there’s a difference between not giving a reporter a seat in the WH press briefing room and jailing people for dissenting views. The latter is a threat to free speech, the former is not. Hope that helps!”
