Zakaria: Vance Is ‘Basically Right’ About Free Speech in Europe

On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” Washington Post columnist and CNN host Fareed Zakaria stated that Vice President JD Vance is “basically right” about speech restrictions in Europe, but it’s not the biggest threat facing the continent.

After host Bill Maher said that while he was shocked by Vance’s rhetoric about Germany’s election, he thought Vance was right about free speech in Europe, Zakaria responded, “So, I agree with you on the — that part of Vance’s speech, he’s basically right. It’s important to remember, European countries have never had the First Amendment-type protections that we have. Europe has always had a more regulated speech. As a journalist, I know it’s always easier to get sued in Britain, because, again, we have an amazing set of protections with the First Amendment. And the Germans have a particular history, you’re right, for example, Holocaust denial, which is allowed in the U.S., anyone can say whatever they want, it’s illegal in Germany because they are sensitive to the Nazi past.”

He continued, “But what I really thought was offensive about that speech was the premise of the speech was that this is the greatest danger facing Europe today, not Russian aggression, not Chinese — here you have a continent which is dealing with the largest land war since World War II, the biggest aggression, the tearing up of international norms, and he’s saying, because you guys don’t do speech exactly the way we do, that is your existential danger? I just think, again, JD Vance is so polemical, he’s using it to play to an audience at home. … That is not the greatest danger facing Europe.”

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