Vance gets standing ovation at CPAC for Munich speech: ‘Glad you guys liked it’

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — Vice President Vance received a standing ovation during his speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Thursday for remarks he delivered last week at the Munich Security Conference.

“I will take a standing ovation for a speech I already gave,” Vance quipped to the crowd of cheering attendees. 

“Glad you guys liked it,]. Not everyone liked it,” he added. 

Vance had been asked by CPAC senior fellow Mercedes Schlapp about his remarks to the conference during his first overseas trip as vice president. 

Vance stunned many European leaders with his address last week to the Munich Security Conference, in which he criticized European nations for their stances on mass migration and free speech. The vice president’s remarks notably did not mention the ongoing war in Ukraine, a major security issue for Europe. Instead, Vance accused European leaders of using laws meant to minimize misinformation and disinformation to marginalize populist voices and voters.

“The greatest threat in Europe, and I would say it was the greatest threat in the U.S. until about 30 days ago, is that you’ve had the leaders of the West decide that they should send millions and millions of unvetted foreign migrants into their country,” Vance told CPAC attendees Thursday. 

“The point that I try to make to our European friends — and I think that they’re our friends, I believe that. I know that President Trump does,” he continued. “That friendship is based on shared values. You do not have shared values if you’re jailing people for saying we should close down our border. You don’t have shared values if you cancel elections because you don’t like the results, and that happened in Romania. You do not have shared values if you’re so afraid of you’re own people that you silence them and shut them up.” 

“So, let’s have shared values,” he added. 

A number of conservative European political figures, including former U.K. Prime Minister Liz Truss and British Parliament member Nigel Farage are slated to speak at CPAC this week.