The U.S. military destroys a drug boat from Venezuela as a federal judge tries to block President Trump from using the National Guard for law enforcement in Los Angeles. A massive populist backlash against mass migration is fueling a historic political shift to the Right across Europe. The FDA restricts access to COVID vaccines for healthy Americans as President Trump demands Big Pharma release its data and questions his own Operation Warp Speed.
It’s Wednesday, September 3, 2025, and this is the news you need to know to start your day.
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<h2>U.S. Military Sinks Drug Boat, Judge Blocks Trump in L.A.</h2>
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Topline: The U.S. military destroyed a boat allegedly carrying drugs from Venezuela on Tuesday, the most dramatic move yet in the Trump administration&#8217;s war on cartels, as a federal judge in California ruled against the president&#8217;s use of the National Guard for domestic law enforcement. 
As part of an &#8220;enhanced counter narcotics operation,&#8221; the U.S. military has deployed at least eight warships to the Caribbean. &#8220;We just, over the last few minutes, shot out a drug-carrying boat,&#8221; President Trump announced Tuesday. &#8220;These came out of Venezuela.&#8221; The action follows the president&#8217;s designation of several large drug cartels as terror organizations, allowing for a more aggressive military approach. 
Meanwhile, a district judge in San Francisco ruled Tuesday that Trump’s deployment of the National Guard in Los Angeles to protect federal property and aid immigration enforcement was illegal. The judge, Charles Breyer, barred guardsmen from engaging in law enforcement activities. The Trump administration will appeal the ruling, which has been put on hold for ten days. A federal appeals court previously reversed a similar ruling from Breyer in June. 
In other administration news, the Pentagon will send up to 600 of its lawyers to the Justice Department to serve as temporary immigration judges, a move intended to clear a 3-million-person backlog and speed up deportations. President Trump also announced that the U.S. Space Command Headquarters will be relocated to Huntsville, Alabama, a move the White House says will save nearly half a billion dollars.
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<h2>Europe Sees Historic Shift to the Right Amid Migrant Backlash</h2>
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Topline: For the first time in modern history, right-wing populist parties are leading the polls in Europe&#8217;s three largest economies — France, Germany, and the United Kingdom — driven by a massive public backlash against mass migration. 
&#8220;Immigration is the number one factor driving all of these movements,&#8221; Alvino-Mario Fantini, editor-in-chief of the European Conservative, told Morning Wire. Since 2015, an estimated 25 to 30 million immigrants, primarily from Muslim countries, have entered Europe, leading to a culture clash and widespread anger over the high costs of housing and welfare for migrants. 
As a result, nationalist parties like Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, France’s National Rally, and Germany’s Alternative for Germany are now topping the polls in their respective countries. 
The establishment parties have responded with what many conservative analysts call &#8220;lawfare,&#8221; similar to tactics used against the MAGA movement in the U.S. In France, National Rally leader Marine Le Pen was convicted of misusing E.U. funds and banned from running for office for five years. In Germany, the country’s intelligence agency has classified the Alternative for Germany party as an “extremist” group, which could be used to ban its members from public office.
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<h2>FDA Restricts COVID Vax as Trump Questions Warp Speed</h2>
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Topline: The FDA has removed the emergency use authorization for COVID vaccines, restricting their availability for healthy Americans, as President Trump is now publicly questioning his own Operation Warp Speed and demanding that pharmaceutical companies release their data on the shots. 
The FDA has removed the &#8220;emergency use authorization&#8221; that allowed widespread access to COVID vaccines during the pandemic. While high-risk individuals can still get the vaccine, healthy people will now need a recommendation from a physician. FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary said the agency doesn&#8217;t &#8220;have data [on] healthy Americans, so we’re not recommending it for healthy Americans,&#8221; adding that the change makes future vaccine mandates &#8220;legally impossible.&#8221; 
The move comes as President Trump has taken a more critical tone on the vaccines. In a post on Truth Social, he demanded that companies like Pfizer &#8220;justify&#8221; the success of the drugs and release their data to the public. In a notable shift, he also questioned his own signature program, writing, “I hope OPERATION WARP SPEED was as ‘BRILLIANT’ as many say it was. If not, we all want to know about it, and why???” 
The policy changes follow a major shakeup at the CDC, where HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently fired the director, prompting several other top officials to resign and nine former directors to write an op-ed condemning Kennedy. NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya responded by noting that the former directors criticizing Kennedy were the same ones who &#8220;embraced politicized school closures and covid vaccine mandates.”

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Morning Brief: US Military Strikes Drug Boat, Rise Of European Populism & COVID Vax Pullback

COVID

COVID-19 Vaccine

Donald Trump

Drug Cartels

Europe

France

Germany

Global Politics

Operation Warp Speed

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

U.K.

Venezuela

World

Right-wing parties are simultaneously leading polls across Europe’s biggest economies in a first for the continent’s nationalist and populist movements.
In France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, known together as Europe’s “Big Three,” right-wing parties have surged in popularity on angst over lax immigration policies and high inflation, according to <a href="https://www.wsj.com/world/europe/right-wing-europe-dd4f1156?mod=hp_lead_pos10">The Wall Street Journal</a>.
The National Rally has led polls in France consistently for the past year, and National Rally’s presidential candidate would likely win the first round of voting. National Rally is led by Jordan Bardella, who took over the party after Marine Le Pen.
National Rally is already the largest single party in France’s National Assembly.
Reform UK, the newly founded British party led by Nigel Farage, has overtaken the ruling Labour Party in polls within the last six months. Farage founded the party partly out of frustration with the Conservative Party, which has dueled the Labour Party for control of government over the past century. Farage launched Reform after accusing Conservatives of abandoning their voters.
In Germany, Alternative for Germany, or AfD, has edged ahead of the ruling centrist Christian Democratic Union.
France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, like the rest of Europe, have experienced a period of high inflation after pandemic-era spending binges led to aggressively rising prices, which have left many goods at significantly higher price points than they were five years ago. Europe has also lagged behind the United States in economic growth, which could offset the impact of those higher prices.
The governments of the Big Three have also faced increasing grassroots pressure over permissive immigration policies.
In France, citizens have reacted against the country’s growing Muslim population which many see as a threat to French values. The slogan “Let’s block everything” has <a href="https://europeanconservative.com/articles/news/block-everything-france-braces-for-a-september-in-flames/">grown</a> popular on social media in France in reaction to unsustainable spending, in part on immigration that has little direct benefit for French citizens, that has led to austerity measures.
In Germany and the United Kingdom, both countries have experienced record waves of immigration in recent years. Germany’s foreign-born population has surged from 15% of its total population in 2017 to 22% last year.
The United Kingdom has seen raw immigration numbers comparable to the surge that swamped the United States immigration system under Biden within the same time frame. Unlike the United States, however, the United Kingdom’s population is about a fifth the size of the United States’.
Europe’s immigration policies have received attention and criticism from the United States, from high-profile figures such as Elon Musk to top officials in the White House.
“[G]overnment that puts foreigners above their own people is, by definition, TREASONOUS and ILLEGITIMATE!” Musk <a href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1962212945233895500">posted</a> on X on Sunday. “The people of Britain deserve a government that represents their interests, not those of shadowy foreign organizations!”
Musk has also <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/musk-backs-right-wing-german-party-after-christmas-terror-attack-the-only-hope-for-germany">voiced</a> support for AfD in Germany, while the Trump administration has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/european-nations-grapple-with-growing-free-speech-problem-under-trumps-gaze">criticized</a> European officials for restricting free speech across the continent, often to avoid upsetting foreign populations that have swelled within its borders, such as in Germany and the U.K.

Marine Le Pen, Nigel Farage

Right-Wing Parties Are Surging In Popularity Across Europe’s Biggest Players

Marine Le Pen

Nigel Farage

United Kingdom

Britain, France, and Germany — the E3 — plan to hit Iran with reimposed United Nations sanctions as early as Thursday.
Following high-level talks with Iranian officials on Tuesday, multiple European and Western diplomats <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/europeans-likely-initiate-un-sanctions-process-iran-thursday-sources-say-2025-08-27/">told Reuters</a> the E3 will trigger a “snapback” of sanctions this week, signaling a significant setback for Tehran amid ongoing nuclear and security concerns.
“The U.N. process takes 30 days before sanctions that would cover Iran&#8217;s financial, banking, hydrocarbons and defence sectors were restored,” Reuters noted, adding, “The E3 have offered to delay the snapback for as much as six months to enable serious negotiations if Iran resumes full U.N. inspections.”
“In a letter dated August 8, the E3 warned Iran it would proceed with ‘snapback’ if Tehran didn&#8217;t reach a ‘satisfactory solution’ to the nuclear issues. A deadline was set for August 31,” <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20250822-iran-european-powers-to-resume-nuclear-talks-as-snapback-sanctions-loom">France 24</a> noted, adding, “Under ‘snapback,’ any party to the deal can find Iran in noncompliance, reimposing the sanctions. After it expires, any sanctions effort could face a veto from UN Security Council members China and Russia, two nations that have provided some support to Iran in the past but stayed out of the June war.”
In July, a <a href="https://isc.independent.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Intelligence-and-Security-Committee-of-Parliament-Iran.pdf">report</a> from Great Britain’s Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament stated clearly that they saw Iran as a “significant threat to the UK.”
“The Iran threat should not be underestimated: it is persistent and  — crucially  — unpredictable,” the report — which was completed before the October 7 Hamas massacre of Israelis and subsequent events occurred — declared. “Iran has a high appetite for risk when conducting offensive activity, which means it poses a dynamic and erratic threat. &#8230; it can escalate action sharply with little warning. This was seen following the 2022 protests in Iran, when there was a significant increase in the threat of a physical attack to individuals in the UK and the Middle East whom Iran perceives to be a threat to the regime.”
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In June, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations nuclear watchdog, found that Iran had breached its non-proliferation obligations. It was the first time in almost two decades that the IAEA had taken that stance. The <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/china/west-plans-push-iaea-board-find-iran-breach-duties-diplomats-say-2025-05-30/">last time</a> the IAEA adopted that position was in September 2005, when clandestine nuclear activities in Iran were discovered.
“The Board of Governors&#8230; finds that Iran&#8217;s many failures to uphold its obligations since 2019 to provide the Agency with full and timely cooperation regarding undeclared nuclear material and activities at multiple undeclared locations in Iran &#8230; constitutes non-compliance with its obligations under its Safeguards Agreement with the Agency,” the resolution stated.

Israel Launches Strikes Against Iran

European Powers Poised To Reimpose U.N. Sanctions On Iran This Week

Britain

Iran

snapback sanctions

Germany <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/merz-germany-will-not-join-allies-initiative-recognise-palestinian-state-2025-08-26/">will not support</a> recognition of a Palestinian state at September’s United Nations General Assembly, Chancellor Friedrich Merz confirmed on Tuesday.
Speaking at a news conference with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who said in July that Canada would recognize such a state, Merz said bluntly, “The position of the federal government is clear, as far as the possible recognition of the state of Palestine is concerned. Canada knows this. We will not join this initiative. We don’t see the requirements met.”
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán recently <a href="https://www.hungarianconservative.com/articles/current/israeli-palestinian-conflict-mcc-feszt/">called</a> a two-state solution an “illusion.” Speaking on a YouTube show titled “Warriors’ Hour,” he said, “I think keeping the two-state solution on the agenda actually hinders the kinds of agreements that could otherwise be achieved. It means keeping an illusion alive, one that, under current circumstances, reduces or outright prevents cooperation.” He also suggested that if the percentage of Muslim voters in the country increases compared to that of Jewish voters, the government will become pro-Palestinian and pro-Islamic policy, and “the Jews will have to pack up and leave.”
Unlike Merz and Orban, leftist British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron have <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/map-shows-countries-do-not-recgonize-palestine-2105927">publicly called</a> for the establishment of a Palestinian state.
The arguments against recognizing a Palestinian state are many and varied. The criteria of statehood are reflected in the 1933 Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States, which require an effective and independent government, which does not exist, as the Palestinian Authority was created under the Oslo Accords as an interim solution, and is not effective, as it has spent millions of dollars inciting terror against Israel with  its “pay-to-slay program.”
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Additionally, the Palestinians have claimed sovereignty over all of the territories which Israel won in the 1967 war, including the city of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism.
As Israeli International Affairs Advisor Caroline Glick has stated bluntly, “Gaza was a sovereign Palestinian state from August 16, 2005-Oct.7, 2023. After October 7, support for a ‘two-state solution’ is nothing less than support for the annihilation of the Jewish state, the genocide of the Jews of Israel and the subjugation of Diaspora Jewry.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Gaza was a sovereign Palestinian state from August 16, 2005-Oct.7, 2023. 
After October 7, support for a &#8220;two-state solution&#8221; is nothing less than support for the annihilation of the Jewish state, the genocide of the Jews of Israel and the subjugation of Diaspora Jewry. <a href="https://t.co/PFG4tTDSx1">https://t.co/PFG4tTDSx1</a>
— Caroline Glick (@CarolineGlick) <a href="https://twitter.com/CarolineGlick/status/1832056792131748131?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 6, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Merz Receives Belgian Premier Bart De Wever

Germany Stands With Israel, Rejects Push To Recognize Palestinian State

Hungary

Palestinian State

Politics

Two-state solution

United Nations

A German-language daily newspaper that caught heat for publishing a birthday tribute to Clint Eastwood that included decades-old quotes has issued a statement after it was accused of being fake news. 
The controversy kicked off earlier this week when Eastwood, 95, referred to the article in Kurier as false. The actor released a statement to <a href="https://deadline.com/2025/06/clint-eastwood-assails-austrian-interview-in-austrian-kurier-entirely-phony-1236420771/">Deadline</a> to “set the record straight” and asserted that he “never gave an interview to an Austrian publication called Kurier, or any other writer in recent weeks, and that the interview is entirely phony.”
In the statement, the outlet noted that the writer they contracted for the piece, Elisabeth Sereda, used old quotes from Eastwood that created the perception that she had just interviewed the iconic film legend. In reality, Sereda used a mashup of quotes from Eastwood lifted from different interviews dating back to 1976.  
“There was no immediate reason to doubt that she had interviewed Eastwood,” a translated version of the Kurier statement <a href="https://kurier.at/kultur/medien/clint-eastwood-interview-hollywood-kurier-in-eigener-sache/403047088">said</a>. Outlet reps noted how Sereda had a long history of interviewing celebrities and was a member of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.
The statement went on to note that Sereda had spoken to Eastwood 18 times during roundtable discussions and that none of the quotes were altered. However, the outlet admitted that framing the article as an interview rather than a tribute did mislead audiences. 
“Even though no quote is fabricated, the interviews are documented, and the allegation of falsification can be refuted, we will no longer work with the author in the future because transparency and our strict editorial standards are paramount to us,” the statement concluded.
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The outlet has since removed the interview from its website. 
Sereda defended her actions in a statement to <a href="https://variety.com/2025/film/news/is-clint-eastwood-interview-real-old-quotes-1236417323/">Variety</a>, again claiming it was enough that only real quotes were used.
“Quotes from Mr. Eastwood cited in the story are culled from several of those 14 press conferences I attended and covered,” Sereda told the outlet.
The original birthday tribute, which appeared on Kurier, got the most attention for being critical of remakes and franchises. 
“I long for the good old days when screenwriters wrote movies like ‘Casablanca’ in small bungalows on the studio lot. When everyone had a new idea,” Eastwood is quoted as saying. “We live in an era of remakes and franchises. I’ve shot sequels three times, but I haven’t been interested in that for a long while. My philosophy is: do something new or stay at home.”
Variety noted that this particular quote might have come from the mid-1980s. 
Eastwood is also quoted as saying he didn’t plan on retiring “for a long time,” despite being five years shy of triple digits.
Eastwood has established a reputation in Hollywood as a conservative and supporter of GOP politicians, including presidential candidates Mitt Romney and the late John McCain. In 2012, he made an appearance at the Republican National Convention, where he made headlines for addressing an empty chair that represented then-President Barack Obama.

Clint Eastwood

Clint Eastwood Calls Out ‘Entirely Phony’ Article About Him; Writer Responds

Clint Eastwood Calls Out 'Entirely Phony' Article About Him; Writer Responds

Celebrities

Journalism

Earlier this month, we celebrated the 80th anniversary of V-E Day, “Victory in Europe,” which marked the end of the European Theater’s part in the Second World War. It is a date certainly worth commemorating as it closed one of the darkest chapters in European history, which was the rise and fall of Hitler’s Third Reich.
For the countries in what today we call Western Europe that languished for years under the jackboot of Nazi oppression — France, Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg, Denmark, Norway, Greece — the Allied victory truly represented liberation.
<div id="attachment_925633" style="width: 875px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-925633" class="size-large wp-image-925633" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/GettyImages-3093644-865x576.jpg" alt="Ecstatic crowds celebrating VE Day in London's Piccadilly, at the end of World War II, 8th May 1945. Original Publication: Picture Post - 1991 - This Was VE Day in London - pub. 1945 (Photo by Picture Post/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)" width="865" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/GettyImages-3093644-865x576.jpg 865w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/GettyImages-3093644-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/GettyImages-3093644-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/GettyImages-3093644.jpg 1024w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 865px) 100vw, 865px" />Picture Post/Hulton Archive/Getty Images</div>
But there was another side to V-E Day that seems to get glossed over. And that is the less happy fate of the Eastern European nations who were not liberated by the Anglo-Americans rolling in from the west, but rather the Red Army coming in from the east. And for those nations — Poland, Hungary, then-Czechoslovakia, the Baltic states — V-E Day merely meant trading one brutal oppressor for another. Indeed, as the Allies were closing in from both sides, the dark joke in Germany was “Optimists are learning English, pessimists are learning Russian.”
We have been conditioned for over 80 years to viscerally recoil at the very mention of the Führer’s name. Just say “Hitler” and the mind conjures up images of the Holocaust and mass murder of millions of innocents carried out by robotic, goose-stepping stormtroopers wearing their signature coal scuttle helmets.
Yet, when we utter the name “Stalin,” no such dark imagery materializes in the collective mind. And yet, in terms of pure numbers, it can be argued that the Soviet “Man of Steel” had more blood on his hands than even Hitler. Why the indifferent reaction?
It could perhaps be attributed to a curious media/academic tendency of apologetics towards communism. As polls consistently show, both of these institutions lean very much to the left. And Stalinism is the ultimate expression of their collective leftist ideology come to fruition in all its destructive inevitability. During the 1930s, for example, dispatches from Moscow-based New York Times correspondent Walter Duranty were shamefully obsequious towards Stalin, offering up for his readers images of a prosperous, happy communist USSR workers’ paradise.
No matter that the Soviet dictator was coldly stripping Ukraine of food and inducing a famine in 1932-1933 (called the “Holodomor”) during which anywhere from 3.5 to 5 million Ukrainians died of starvation — atrocities Duranty labeled as a “big scare” and “exaggeration.”
Then there was Stalin’s 1929-1933 genocide against the Kulaks (wealthy peasants who resisted his policies) to facilitate the expropriation of farmland. In one directive, the Soviet leader declared, “We must smash the Kulaks, liquidate them as a class.” Millions died.
And what of the estimated 700,000 to 6 million who died in Stalin’s Gulag, the far-flung network of concentration camps where he sent his enemies, whom the hyper-paranoid dictator saw all around him. (Figures vary widely; the latter number comes from dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who was imprisoned for eight years.)
Starting in 1936, Stalin wiped out his political and military adversaries in a series of show trials called “The Great Purge.” Stalin’s biographer Oleg V. Khlevniuk estimates that 1.6 million were arrested, with 700,000 shot; no one knows how many died of torture.
<div id="attachment_925699" style="width: 883px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-925699" class="size-large wp-image-925699" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/GettyImages-104408516-873x576.jpg" alt="RUSSIA - JANUARY 01: Joseph STALIN, the supreme ruler of the USSR, working in his garden around 1935 to 1936 while Lavrenti BERIA, the chief of the Soviet secret police, poses with STALIN'S daughter, SVETLANA, on his knees. (Photo by Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images)" width="873" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/GettyImages-104408516-873x576.jpg 873w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/GettyImages-104408516-300x198.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/GettyImages-104408516-768x507.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/GettyImages-104408516.jpg 1024w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 873px) 100vw, 873px" />Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images</div>
During the Second World War on the Eastern Front, Stalin was so profligate with the lives of his people that by the time the red banner of the USSR was flying over the Reichstag in the conquered Berlin, some 27 million Soviets lay dead. Many as a result of combat and German atrocities, of course, but also due to Stalin’s unimaginative strategies that callously offered up both his soldiers and civilians before the guns of the Wehrmacht as fodder.
Whereas Hitler’s policies were driven by twisted racial hatred, delusions of grandeur, a sense of grievance on behalf of a nation he felt was ill-treated at Versailles, and, by the end, drug-addled bona fide madness, Stalin in some ways is even more disturbing as there was a cold, calculating, and ruthless nature to his machinations.
Stalin will also go down as one of the most treacherous characters in history. It should be remembered that until Hitler turned on him and attacked Russia in June 1941, Stalin and the German dictator were allies. Hitler only felt secure enough to invade Poland and trigger the Second World War because Berlin and Moscow had just entered into a non-aggression pact the month before. In fact, people often forget that in September 1939, Poland was not just invaded by the Wehrmacht but also by the Red Army. After which, Stalin’s NKVD promptly rounded up 22,000 members of Poland’s military and intelligentsia, marched them to the Katyn Forest, and shot them all dead.
<div id="attachment_925683" style="width: 949px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-925683" class="size-large wp-image-925683" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/GettyImages-875641680-939x576.jpg" alt="9/28/39: Russo -German Pact Molotov signing pact directly behind is J. Von Ribbentrop on the right is Josef Stalin. (Photo by Bettmann/Corbis/Getty Images)" width="939" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/GettyImages-875641680-939x576.jpg 939w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/GettyImages-875641680-300x184.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/GettyImages-875641680-768x471.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/GettyImages-875641680.jpg 1024w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 939px) 100vw, 939px" />Bettmann/Corbis/Getty Images</div>
Says historian Victor Davis Hanson: “Of the six major belligerents of World War II, on the Axis side, Italy, Japan, and Germany, and the United States, Russia, and Britain, Stalin made a deal with every one of them at one time or another, and he honored the ones with the Axis better than he did us.”
But, unlike Hitler, Stalin’s image during the war was softened by the Roosevelt administration and pliant media due to the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. FDR, especially, was hopelessly naïve about the duplicitous nature of the man whose military he was now supplying through Lend-Lease. As far as he saw it, the Russians were now our allies after all. And, frankly, we needed the Red Army to kill as many Germans as possible before we invaded France. The mass murderer of Moscow was thus re-christened “Uncle Joe” Stalin. And as it was his Red Army more than any other that destroyed the Wehrmacht, what he did to his own people and those in Eastern Europe were swept under the rug until the Cold War commenced in the late 1940s. After all, as the saying goes, “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”
<div id="attachment_925619" style="width: 762px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-925619" class="size-large wp-image-925619" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/GettyImages-186649926-752x576.jpg" alt="Russian leader Marshal Josef Stalin and President Franklin Roosevelt confer in the Soviet Embassy during the Tehran Conference, Tehran, Iran, December 7, 1943. (Photo by Underwood Archives/Getty Images)" width="752" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/GettyImages-186649926-752x576.jpg 752w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/GettyImages-186649926-300x230.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/GettyImages-186649926-768x588.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/GettyImages-186649926.jpg 1024w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 752px) 100vw, 752px" />Underwood Archives/Getty Images</div>
80 years after the war in Europe ended, modern Germany is still horrified by, and ashamed of, their Nazi past. But to this day, even in a post-Cold War Russia in which information regarding the horrific crimes carried out by the Bolsheviks is now widely accessible, Stalin is revered by the Russian people. A 2021 poll by the Levada Center found that 70% of Russians held a mostly or very favorable view of Stalin.
And that same lack of revulsion over Stalin’s decades-long reign of terror carries over into the West today as a misguided affinity for Marxism slithers its insidious way through the halls of so-called higher education. A poll by the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation found that millennials, particularly younger ones, displayed a dreadful ignorance of communism and even support for it. Almost half of Americans between the ages of 16 and 20 “said they would vote for a socialist, while 21% would go so far as to back a Communist.” Even more shocking was that a “third of millennials say they believe more people were killed under George W. Bush than Joseph Stalin.” This is criminal negligence on the part of academia — and dangerous.
I have a shirt that reads “Communism killed 100 million people and all I got was this lousy t-shirt.” Though gallows humor, the message is also a searing indictment of a left-leaning academic and media establishment that are utterly dismissive of the crimes perpetrated by the founding fathers of their own defunct and cruel ideologies. The verdict of history should have condemned Soviet communism to the ashbin of history decades ago. But a fatal attraction for this defunct ideology that invariably leads to mass murder is alive and well in the West today. This is a tragedy — and dangerous.
* * *
Brad Schaeffer is a commodities fund manager, author, and columnist whose articles have appeared on the pages of The Daily Wire, The Wall Street Journal, NY Post, NY Daily News, National Review, The Hill, The Federalist, Zerohedge, and other outlets. He is the author of three <a href="https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B07MQJBJSD?ccs_id=55112527-86f6-4c89-b82e-a96d6869abed" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B07MQJBJSD?ccs_id%3D55112527-86f6-4c89-b82e-a96d6869abed&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1736518135479000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3K_WhJtiUZw7LF1PwSIHtH">books</a>. Follow him on <a href="https://x.com/bschaeffer123" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://x.com/bschaeffer123&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1736518135479000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0P6pRoAqcBhUQ1W0qwN5rH">X/Twitter</a>.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
This article originally appeared on the author&#8217;s <a href="https://bradschaeffer.substack.com/p/for-eastern-europe-v-e-day-commemorates">Substack.</a>

Stalin In Moscow

From Reich To Red: Why Stalin Still Haunts Us 80 Years After V-E Day

Adolf Hitler

Communism

History

Josef Stalin

Leftism

Russia

World War II

Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel allegedly covered up a report from her country&#8217;s foreign intelligence service that concluded that the likelihood that the coronavirus pandemic originated from a Chinese lab was overwhelming.
The Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), German&#8217;s version of the CIA, conducted an intelligence gathering operation dubbed “Saaremaa” that concluded that there was an 80%-95% likelihood that the pandemic originated during a lab accident at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
The findings were contained in a report from a joint investigation by two German newspapers, Süddeutsche Zeitung and Die Zeit, that alleged Merkel decided to keep the bombshell that she learned about in 2020 “under lock and key.”
Merkel likely made the decision to keep the explosive report secret at least in-part because she did not want to help President Donald Trump&#8217;s re-election prospects in 2020 when much of the world resisted his well-founded claims that China was responsible for what happened.
The report and its coverup by Merkel are likely to sink her approval numbers even lower as she grapples with facing intense backlash over her disastrous policies that have wreaked havoc on her country and Europe.
The backlash against Merkel hit new levels after she wrote a new memoir hoping to “secure her crumbling legacy,” The Wall Street Journal <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/angela-merkel-german-people-to-blame-for-the-problems-millions-of-refugees-are-causing">reported</a>, which noted that “the effort is backfiring.”
The more than 700-page book was “riling up even some of her most ardent supporters” because she does not believe that any of her failed policies were bad for the country — including allowing millions of Muslim refugees from the Middle East to be resettled in Germany.
Powerful German state broadcaster ARD titled the headline of their report on her book: “Much pride, little self-reflection.”
Merkel’s Christian Democratic Party blame her directly for the problems that the country is facing and they say that her memoir is making things even worse.
“The publication of this unrepentant, self-righteous book at a time of economic and political turmoil like this is hurting [her political party],” said former senior Merkel official Nico Lange.
The report said that her approval rating has plummeted from her time as a popular elected official to someone that the German public has turned against. Her allies overseas have abandoned support for her, the report said.
The most shocking part of the report focused specifically on her retelling of why she allowed millions of Muslim refugees into Germany.
Merkel said that it was “fully irrelevant whether they had a right to stay in Germany or not” when she let them enter the country.
She then blamed the German people for the problems that the refugees have caused:
<blockquote>The consequences—failed integration, ballooning welfare spending, rising crime, political polarization—can be partly blamed, she writes, on Germans’ lack of “will to change.”
In the decade since she instituted her open-door policy, immigration has changed the face of Germany and its political dynamics. An average of around 400,000 immigrants—the population of a large German city—have entered each year, and Germany now spends as much on refugees as it does on defense.</blockquote>
The report noted that the phrase that Merkel repeatedly used to justify her failed policies — that she had “no alternative” but to do what she did — served as the inspiration for the Alternative for Germany, or AfD.

GERMANY-POLITICS-VOTE-MERKEL

Angela Merkel Covered Up Explosive German Intel Report Blaming Chinese Lab For Pandemic

Angela Merkel

Wuhan Institute of Virology

A suspect is in custody after ramming their car into a crowded market in Mannheim, Germany, on Monday.
No information about the suspect has been released so far, but eyewitnesses <a href="https://www.mannheimer-morgen.de/orte/mannheim_artikel,-mannheim-auto-rast-offenbar-durch-mannheimer-innenstadt-mindestens-ein-toter-_arid,2289139.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> the Mannheimer Morgen newspaper that the suspect drove from a water tower near the market to the parade ground, ramming into multiple people.
&#8220;As part of the search measures that were immediately initiated, a suspect was identified and arrested. No further, reliable information can currently be released beyond the information published so far,&#8221; Mannheim Police said, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/suspected-car-ramming-mannheim-germany-rcna194469" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according to NBC News</a>.
Police didn’t provide further information on the number of people injured or the severity of their injuries.
The attack took place at a carnival market that opened on Thursday. Attendees were enjoying food stalls, rides, and games when the attack occurred. None of the vendors or employees of the carnival were injured in the attack, according to initial information from the Morgen.
One eyewitness told the outlet that the driver rammed into barricades and hit multiple people. One person was found dead among those barricades.
“It is terrible here, nobody knows what happened, you only see injured people and the dead, and you don’t know what to do,” one employee told the outlet.
The attack comes just two weeks after an Afghan national rammed his vehicle into a crowd in Munich, Germany, killing two people — including a small child — and injuring dozens more, The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/dozens-injured-after-afghan-national-plows-car-into-crowd-in-germany-police" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> at the time.
“The suspect is a 24-year-old man of Afghan nationality,” Munich Police said in a statement after the incident. “He drove a car into a gathering in the Seidlstrasse area from behind.&#8221;
The suspect in that case was believed to have an extremist background and was “known to the police for drug and theft offenses,” according to the German publication Bild.
Bavarian Minister-President Markus Söder said at the time that the ramming was being treated as “an attack.”
“The attack shows that something has to change in Germany – and quickly!” he said.
Less than two months before the Munich attack, a Saudi national killed at least six people and injured more than 200 others after ramming his car into a Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany. As The Daily Wire reported, Saudi Arabia had repeatedly warned Germany that the man had extremist views, providing their first warning back in 2007, one year after the man entered Germany. In 2007 and 2008, Saudi Arabia requested that the man be extradited to his home country, but Germany didn’t oblige.

Attack in Mannheim, Germany

1 Dead, Several Injured In Latest Car Ramming Attack In Germany

Crime

Now I know that many of you are feeling happy about the work the Trump administration has been doing so far. And I can understand that. They’ve accomplished some great things. They’ve rendered the lies of the news media as irrelevant as the maunderings of a mentally deranged man wandering the sidewalks shouting his paranoid delusions into the empty air until suddenly you think to yourself, ”Oh hey, look, that’s Brain Stelter.” They’ve protected girls from hulking predators who think they’re women instead of what they are, which is hulking predators who think they’re women instead of what they are. They’ve begun to ferret out government waste and fraud causing Democrats to pour into the streets crying “Give us back our waste and fraud!” which is even funnier to watch than that time Joe Biden fell down a flight of stairs and the news media told us this was the best and sharpest Joe Biden ever, which might have actually been true, which is part of what made it so funny, but still not as funny as watching Democrats protest the end of waste and fraud. Just in general, the Trump administration has fought back against the vast leftist conspiracy to dismantle western freedoms, so leftists can get back to doing fun leftist things, like in the sixties when they sang rock songs and used drugs and celebrated free sex until they realized, &#8220;Oh no, we’re in the Manson cult.&#8221; Those were the good old days, for leftists.
And yes, many of Trump’s actions have made ordinary Americans watch the news at night and then dance around their bedrooms in their underwear as if they were in some Chippendale revival of Riverdance or an underwear version of some big Broadway musical production number where everyone forms a kickline and sings about the brotherhood of man until your wife tells you knock it off and come to bed before you wake up the kids and anyway you look like an idiot.
But still, even in these moments of celebration, it’s important we note the times when the administration oversteps its mandate and does something we can’t approve of. Like the other day, for instance, when Vice President JD Vance gave a mean speech in Munich and made the Germans cry.
That’s not nice. After all, the Germans are our allies when they’re not trying to lay waste to human civilization, and here JD Vance was hectoring them about how they should stop censoring speech, and stop threatening to annul elections and stop letting millions of Islamists into their country to do jobs Germans have historically been able to do for themselves, like hating Jews and murdering people.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/the-andrew-klavan-show">WATCH: The Andrew Klavan Show</a></h3>
And after the vice president’s speech, the German chair of the conference, Adolf von Shmendrick — or whatever his name was, I didn’t check because I thought we’d gotten rid of the Germans already, but apparently they’re back for some reason. Anyway, this Adolf von Shmendrick guy got up to speak and started choking back tears and saying it just wasn’t fair, the way America kept getting in Germany’s way every time Germany started to work up a really good head of steam. 
Between snuffles and sniffles and occasional sneezles and even a quiet boo hoo hoo, Chairman von Shmendrick said, “In World War One, Americans ruined our brilliant plan to wage trench warfare over fifteen feet of lifeless French mud for the rest of history. In World War Two, Americans reduced our nation to rubble after we had raised it to the very heights of barbarism. And now, when we finally figure out how to destroy Europe without firing a shot, you turn up again and lecture us about western values like free speech. Let me remind you, it was the German people of the 1920s who used hate speech laws to shut down Nazi rhetoric and prevent Hitler from making appearances, and that worked out great.”
So remember, my fellow Americans, as happy as we may be with the Trump administration’s efforts to restore American greatness, we must always maintain a concerned expression on our faces when we think of our sad European allies while we’re Riverdancing in our underwear.
* * *
This excerpt is taken from the opening satirical monologue of “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/the-andrew-klavan-show" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Andrew Klavan Show</a>.”
Andrew Klavan is the host of “The Andrew Klavan Show” at The Daily Wire. He is the bestselling author of the Cameron Winter Mystery series. The fourth installment, “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1613165536?ref_=dbs_m_mng_rwt_calw_thcv_3&amp;storeType=ebooks" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A WOMAN UNDERGROUND</a>,” is now available. Follow him on X: @andrewklavan
The views expressed in this satirical article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

MixCollage-21-Feb-2025-09-09-AM-1961

Mean JD Vance Makes Germans Cry

Andrew Klavan

Humor

JD Vance

Nazi Germany

President Trump

Satire

Margaret Brennan, the host of “Face the Nation,” must have skipped basic World War II history wherever she went to school. It’s hard to fathom any other explanation for the indefensible <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/news/cbs-host-blasted-bonkers-claim-110009274.html?guccounter=1&amp;guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&amp;guce_referrer_sig=AQAAADK89IUcImGk1CrzoyQDLZccqWrRkEJnE-20e6ra9rUwvHv7TEmGpUUphNaxHdos_ma3LvO08Gduee51bRmZKYJYQ7_PZ0PuTmHtNcxxWvGu7RxIoSUVdaVfiDCadd_qpzOyTz7iDto-xOE9Sjx2I5Qv6rFXbe9v486BIckLtmF5" target="_blank" rel="noopener">claim</a> she made about freedom of speech while she was debating—sorry, “interviewing”—Secretary of State Marco Rubio about Vice President Vance’s deserved chastisement of European governments for their censorship regimes.
Brennan’s claim that free speech in Europe is dangerous because in Nazi Germany it “was weaponized to conduct a genocide” is so historically wrong as to be laughable.
Brennan believes that free speech existed in Nazi Germany? Really? I know that’s untrue not only from history, but from the experiences of my own mother and grandmother, who filled my youth with stories of the government oppression they saw and experienced in the 1930s in Nazi Germany.
Secretary Rubio quickly hit back, correctly observing that “free speech wasn’t used to conduct genocide. The genocide was conducted by an authoritarian Nazi regime.”
Brennan obviously does not seem to understand the difference between censorship and propaganda. Free speech swiftly disappeared in Germany after the Nazi Party took control of the country, and propaganda—not free speech—began spewing out of the government as well as the newspapers, radio stations, and “journalists” that the Nazi Party controlled under its new “Reich Ministry of Enlightenment and Propaganda.”
Perhaps CBS should give Brennan an all-expense-paid trip to the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. As their <a href="https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/nazi-propaganda-and-censorship" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Holocaust Encyclopedia</a> explains:
“When the Nazis came to power in 1933, the German constitution guaranteed freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Through decrees and laws, the Nazis abolished these civil rights…. Starting in 1934, it was illegal to criticize the Nazi government.”
The Nazis closed down or took over anti-Nazi newspapers. In another move to control communications, the Nazis passed the Schriftleitergesetz (also known as the Editorial Control Act) in 1933, a law that required all journalists to be licensed by the government to practice their profession. As the <a href="https://arolsen-archives.org/en/news/nazi-germanys-schriftleitergesetz-the-end-of-freedom-of-the-press/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Arolsen Archives</a> at the International Center on Nazi Persecution explains, anyone expressing anti-Nazi views would not be licensed and those who received licenses were “directly subordinate to the Ministry of Propaganda and accountable to the Ministry—instead of their publishers.”
The censorship regime didn’t just apply to the media of the time, newspapers and radio stations. It applied to ordinary Germans, too. Germans like my grandparents quickly learned that any criticism of the regime, any disagreement with the propaganda being taught to students in the public schools—even just a joke about Hitler—could lead to swift arrest and punishment.
Brennan apparently is unaware that the first German concentration camps were not set up when World War II started; they were opened almost as soon as Hitler and his party took over in the 1930s. Dachau, the <a href="https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/concentration-camps-1933-39" target="_blank" rel="noopener">first</a> such camp for political prisoners and anyone else who criticized or opposed the government, Hitler, or the Nazi Party, opened on March 22, 1933.
Dachau and the other camps <a href="https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/concentration-camps-1933-39" target="_blank" rel="noopener">were used</a> to “imprison and intimidate the leaders of political, social, and cultural movements that the Nazis perceived to be a threat to the survival of the regime.”
Freedom of speech used to “weaponize genocide”? Wrong! Freedom of speech disappeared into Dachau and the <a href="https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/concentration-camps-1933-39" target="_blank" rel="noopener">numerous</a> other camps set up throughout Germany.
In fact, these camps, whose purpose was to suppress free speech and all opposition to the Nazi’s hideous regime, “became the model for the Nazi concentration camp system” during the war that was used to murder millions of Jews and others whom the Nazis considered “subhumans,” and to imprison Nazi opponents like Lutheran Minister Martin Niemöller.
Niemöller famously <a href="https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/martin-niemoeller-biography#:~:text=Then%20they%20came%20for%20me,imprisoned%20for%20opposing%20Hitler's%20regime." target="_blank" rel="noopener">criticized</a> himself and others for not speaking out sooner about the suppression of the Nazi regime, including its censorship, saying, “Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.”
What JD Vance did at the Munich Security Conference was to speak up for those Europeans whose freedom of speech is being violated today and for the vital importance of preserving that right. He was dead-on in criticizing countries like Germany and the United Kingdom, using specific <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2025/02/18/vance-speech-munich-full-text-read-transcript-europe/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">examples</a> such as the German government going after individuals who post “anti-feminist” commentary online or the British government convicting an Army veteran of the “heinous crime” of silently praying close to an abortion clinic, if you can call 50 meters close.
Or the Swedish judge who commented on the recent criminal conviction of a Christian activist, saying that the country’s laws protecting free speech don’t extend to speech that risks “offending the group that holds that belief.” That is a perilous view that short circuits the ability of anyone to say anything critical about any belief because it might “offend” someone who holds that belief.
Vance admitted, “in the interest of truth,” that this was happening in our country, too. The Biden administration “threatened and bullied social media companies to censor so-called misinformation,” opinions that our own government disagreed with or didn’t like. But then Margaret Brennan probably sees nothing wrong with that either, since she believes freedom of speech can be weaponized if it allows unwoke, politically unacceptable opinions to be expressed.
Probably the most disappointing aspect of this whole affair—other than Margaret Brennan’s profound ignorance and apparent disdain for the First Amendment—is the hostile reception of European leaders to Vance justifiably calling them out.
The most important part of his presentation was the offer he made to cooperate with them in order to stop this type of misbehavior. “Just as the Biden administration seemed desperate to silence people for speaking their minds,” he said, “so the Trump administration will do precisely the opposite, and I hope we can work together on that.”
“We may disagree with your view, but we will fight to defend your right to offer it in the public square, agree or disagree,” said Vance.
For the citizens of Europe, including the members of my extended family who are still there, I can only hope that these EU governments finally start taking the same attitude as JD Vance towards their own citizens and stop raiding, arresting, investigating, and punishing them for expressing views that those governments disagree with or don’t like.
* * *
Hans von Spakovsky is a Senior Legal Fellow in the Meese Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at The Heritage Foundation.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Margaret Brennan

Fact-Check For Margaret Brennan: Free Speech Did Not Exist In Nazi Germany

CBS News

Marco Rubio

Vice President JD Vance doubled down on the tone of his Munich speech while at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Thursday, saying that while he believed many European nations to be friends, that friendship was dependent on &#8220;shared values.&#8221;
Vance got mixed reviews from world leaders when he challenged European leaders to abandon recent efforts to suppress the political expressions of their own people, saying in part, &#8220;If you are running in fear of your own voters, there is nothing America can do for you.&#8221;
After CPAC attendees gave Vance a loud — if a week late — standing ovation for his Munich remarks, he took a similar tone when talking about the United States&#8217; relationship with European nations moving forward.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/VP?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@VP</a> Vance: &quot;The strength of those alliances with Europe depend on whether we take our societies in the right direction. That friendship is based on shared values. You do not have shared values if you&#39;re jailing people for saying we should close down our borders.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/ADCA8lWKKc">pic.twitter.com/ADCA8lWKKc</a>
&mdash; TheBlaze (@theblaze) <a href="https://twitter.com/theblaze/status/1892602977044627725?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 20, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Moderator Mercedes Schlapp asked Vance to elaborate on the relationship between Europe and the United States, and he laid it out in blunt fashion.
&#8220;Obviously we&#8217;re going to continue to have important alliances with Europe, but I really do think the strength of those alliances is going to depend on whether we take our societies in the right direction.&#8221;
Vance went on to say that American troops stationed in Germany helped to keep that nation safe on the taxpayers&#8217; dime, adding, &#8220;Do you think that the American taxpayer is going to stand for that if you get thrown in jail in Germany for posting a mean tweet? Of course, they&#8217;re not!&#8221;
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&#8220;So the point that I tried to make to our European friends — and I think that they&#8217;re our friends, I believe that, I know President Trump does — is that friendship is based on shared values,&#8221; Vance continued. &#8220;You do not have shared values if you&#8217;re jailing people for saying we should close down our border. You don&#8217;t have shared values if you cancel elections because you don&#8217;t like the result, and that happened in Romania. You don&#8217;t have — you do not have shared values if you&#8217;re so afraid of your own people that you silence them and shut them up.&#8221;
&#8220;So let&#8217;s have shared values,&#8221; he concluded. &#8220;Let&#8217;s defend democracy, let&#8217;s have free expression, not just in the United States but all over the Western world. That is the path to strong alliances in Europe.&#8221;
Shortly after Vance&#8217;s speech last week, CBS News ran a &#8220;60 Minutes&#8221; broadcast that highlighted Germany&#8217;s efforts to curtail &#8220;<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/guest-on-60-minutes-claims-german-citizens-have-free-speech-but-there-are-limits" target="_blank" rel="noopener">hate speech</a>&#8221; on the internet — and network anchor Margaret Brennan accused Vance directly of irritating American allies, claiming that &#8220;<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/cbs-claims-free-speech-caused-the-holocaust" target="_blank" rel="noopener">free speech was weaponized</a>&#8221; to cause the Holocaust.

Key Speakers At Day One Of The Conservative Political Action Conference

Vance Doubles Down On Munich Speech: ‘Friendship Is Based On Shared Values’

Vance Doubles Down On Munich Speech: 'Friendship Is Based On Shared Values'

Free Speech

Vice President JD Vance got a standing ovation at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Thursday for a speech he actually gave a week earlier in Munich, Germany, about the importance of pushing back against government censorship.
Moderator Mercedes Schlapp, the former White House Director of Strategic Communications, mentioned the speech, prompting applause from the audience. &#8220;I think they really liked it,&#8221; she said.
&#8220;I&#8217;m glad you guys liked it, not everybody liked it,&#8221; Vance said, referencing the outcry from liberals in the United States and abroad who had accused him of driving a wedge between the United States and its allies. &#8220;You guys liked it, not everybody liked it.&#8221;
What followed then was a standing ovation:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
JD Vance gets a standing ovation at CPAC for his epic Munich speech last week. <a href="https://t.co/T36nFp9P9s">pic.twitter.com/T36nFp9P9s</a>
&mdash; Libby Emmons (@libbyemmons) <a href="https://twitter.com/libbyemmons/status/1892601576633897287?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 20, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
As the audience members got to their feet, Vance smiled and thanked them, adding, &#8220;I&#8217;ll take a standing ovation for a speech I already gave. It&#8217;s like two for the price of one.&#8221;
&#8220;Here&#8217;s your speech, just say it again,&#8221; Schlapp joked.
Vance&#8217;s speech warned Europeans of a threat within their own borders — one posed by the very governments they represented.
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&#8220;If you are running in fear of your own voters, there is nothing America can do for you,&#8221; he told European leaders while citing examples of efforts to suppress the political expressions of their own people.
Referencing the European nations that had been on the winning side during the Cold War, Vance added, &#8220;Consider the side in that fight that censored dissidents, that closed churches, that canceled elections. Were they the good guys? Certainly not. And thank God, they lost the Cold War. They lost because they neither valued nor respected all of the extraordinary blessings of liberty.&#8221;
&#8220;What no democracy — American, German, or European — will survive, is telling millions of voters that their thoughts and concerns, their aspirations, their pleas for relief, are invalid and unworthy of even being considered. Democracy rests on the sacred principle that the voice of the people matters. There’s no room for firewalls,&#8221; he concluded.

61st Munich Security Conference

Vance Gets Standing Ovation For Speech He Gave Last Week: ‘Two For The Price Of One!’

Vance Gets Standing Ovation For Speech He Gave Last Week: 'Two For The Price Of One!'

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