I'm John Baxter, the Vice President goes to Europe, and wow.

Joseph Sternberg, editorial board of the Wall Street Journal, recently returned from Germany,

and the Munich Security Conference of these last days, featured a speech by the new

vice president of the United States, former the speech by the new vice president of

United States, former senator from Ohio, former book bestseller, author, former Marine,

J.D. Vance. And the presentation he made seemed very straightforward to Americans who live

with the First Amendment. Freedom of speech. However, Joseph, does this surprise you that Germany

is reacting so badly to the vice president pointing out that they've got illiberal policies?

Is that a shock? Well, I mean, so the European reaction to J.D. Vance's speech in Munich

has been negative. And some of that response I have sympathy for and much of it, I don't. So I think that one of the points he was making is that if the U.S. is going to continue subsidizing defense for Europe for the sake of defending democracy and democratic values, then Europe needs to be more

recognizably democratic.

So I think that he did perform a public service for Europe by pointing out some instances

where this has not been the case, I think a tendency to prosecute people for what in America we would view is exercising free speech

rights and the like.

But, you know, I think in Germany, he really stumbled into some bear traps there that Americans

have to be wary of.

So he included in his speech, a failed reference to how other parties shouldn't be shutting

the AFD,

the alternative for Germany, out of the mainstream political discourse in Germany.

I mean, certainly parties need to find better ways of speaking to the voters who are inclined

to support the AFD right now.

But there are very good reasons in the German context why other parties do not want to

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