J.D. Vance called out this foreign leader straight to their face
Vice President J.D. Vance is making his mark in the first months of the Trump administration.
Suddenly, Vance found himself put on the spot.
And then J.D. Vance called out this foreign leader straight to their face.
Vice President Vance made his debut on the world stage at the Munich Security Conference.
In his speech, Vance called out European countries for restricting free speech and attacking long-held democratic values.
Vance cited the case of Adam Smith-Connor, who police arrested, and a court later fined 9,000 pounds for praying outside of an abortion clinic.
“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 stated. “In Britain, and across Europe, free speech, I fear, is in retreat.”
When British Prime Minister Keir Starmer visited the White House, Vice President Vance was among those who attended an Oval Office meeting with Starmer and President Trump.
A reporter asked President Trump about Vance’s remarks about Great Britain and other European countries abandoning free speech.
Trump said the reporter should just ask Vance since he made the comments.
Vance looked at Starmer and stood by what he said and expanded his criticisms of the British government’s assault on free speech by including their recent encroachment on iPhone users’ privacy.
“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,” Vance declared “but also affect American technology companies and, by extension, American citizens. So that is something that we’ll talk about today at lunch.”
Under pressure from the government, Apple recently ended end-to-end encryption on iPhones in Great Britain.
“Advanced Data Protection, an optional feature that extends end-to-end encryption to a wide range of user data, is no longer available in the UK for new users and current UK users will eventually need to disable this security feature,” the New York Post reported.
The government can now spy on the text messages of anyone in Britain – including those of Americans traveling abroad.
“The loss of end-to-end encryption for iCloud backup means Apple would be able in some instances to read user data such as iMessages that would otherwise be protected and pass it on to authorities if legally compelled. In contrast, if a user has end-to-end encryption, Apple cannot read the data under any circumstances,” the Post also reported.
Starmer couldn’t believe he got called out on the carpet in public and falsely tried to claim his government protected free speech.
“We’ve had free speech for a very, very long time in the United Kingdom, and it will last for a very, very long time,” Starmer began.
“Certainly, we wouldn’t want to reach across [and US citizens, and we don’t, and that’s absolutely right,” Starmer added. “But in relation to free speech in the UK, I’m really proud of that — our history there.”
But Starmer’s government has been under fire for some time and his approval rating is 40 points underwater as Britain’s attack on free speech included arresting 30 Britons last summer for the “crime” of posting negatively about Islam on social media.
