JD Vance has suggested that American support for NATO should be predicated on the European Union not regulating Elon Musk and his X social media platform, formerly known as Twitter.
The Republican vice presidential nominee and Ohio senator claimed in an interview with YouTuber Shawn Ryan that a top EU official had threatened to arrest the billionaire if he allowed former President Donald Trump back on X.
“The leader, I forget exactly which official it was within the European Union, but sent Elon this threatening letter that basically said, ‘We’re going to arrest you if you platform Donald Trump,’ who, by the way, is the likely next president of the United States,” Vance said in the interview published last week.
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This might be the dumbest thing a candidate in this race has said and that bar is pretty high considering Trump might think political asylum and insane asylums are the same thing.
So far today
Did you see the part where he questioned where Haitian people are from and said we would send them back to Venezuela? And his running mate said they are from Haitia?
This might be the dumbest thing a candidate in this race has said
I’ve given up trying to rank the stupidity level of the various claims and statements Trump and people connected to him have made.
It’s all just toxic garbage.
They are eating Dawgs!
This is why Europe must take control of its own defense. Europe doesn’t want to be a mere vassal of the US for precisely this reason.
Also parts of nato are not part of eu. Like the the UK.
And Canada. Also, some EU states are not in NATO.
Probably a better example as UK will apply as soon as they can. Unlike Norway who really likes to just pay EU and not have a voice or voting rights
Don’t see the UK getting back in the EU for a while…
I have a bit of schadenfreude around this. For years, people said Europe was fine, and didn’t need to invest more in their military. “No, you silly American, we are just fine with the military we have because we don’t go invading other countries.”
Now here we are. Thing is, I wasn’t even talking from the perspective of Europe becoming warmongers like us. I wanted Europe to be armed well enough to handle what the US has been doing, and the US can draw down its military. Then we could put that money into healthcare and schools and shit, but Europe would have to pick up the slack (and also Japan, S. Korea, Taiwan, and Australia). This is still a good idea.
Any excuse is good enough for Jorkin De Peanus to pull out of NATO.
I’m glad he is such a bad running mate. He doesn’t have a single redeeming quality… God help us if these people get the white house (again), but everyone involved seems to be trying their hardest to prevent that.
Apparently he’s Thiel’s pick and I’m pretty sure that ghoul will do anything he can to get JD in the white house
It’s an amazing thing to say you can abandon a military Alliance because a campaign donor ask you to.
“ask” he he he
That’s just how the Trumpies do business. “Give me what I want or I’m leaving” is how Trump claimed he renegotiated NAFTA and reworked the US / China trade relationship and was allegedly going to forge an Amazing Massive Incredibly Lucrative New Deal with the then-Brexit-ing UK.
Far more often than not, the renegotiation just involves bribing Trump and his immediate crony base of support in order to leave existing policies alone. That is, incidentally, how Trump left the back door to Mexico open for Chinese EV imports, despite claiming it was the bestest renegotiation of a trade deal in the history of ever.
If Vance is ever in a position of authority, there’s little doubt he’ll be at some NATO summit demanding everyone in Germany buy a copy of Hillbilly Elegy in order to get him to STFU about a pull out.
The fact checking in this article is perfect lol
“So what America should be saying is, if NATO wants us to continue supporting them and NATO wants us to continue to be a good participant in this military alliance, why don’t you respect American values and respect free speech?” Vance asked. “It’s insane that we would support a military alliance if that military alliance isn’t going to be pro-free speech. I think we can do both. But we’ve got to say American power comes with certain strings attached. One of those is respect free speech, especially in our European allies.”
Musk has been accused of banning several journalists since taking over Twitter, now X.
“I’m not going to go to some backwoods country and tell them how to live their lives,” Vance added. “But European countries should theoretically share American values, especially about some very basic things like free speech.”
The US ranked 26th in the world when it comes to free speech, with several members of the European Union higher up the list, according to the 2024 Global Expression Report.
I’m not going to go to some backwoods country and tell them how to live their lives
“Nah, we like your people oppressed”
The gall of saying, that entirely different culture that’s been around for longer than our country, they should have our same values, right after calling them backwoods countries. The extreme narcissist egoism is palpable and disgusting.
He didn’t call the Europeans “backwoods countries”. He called those other places that. He specifically says that European countries should be more like us, for all the
whiteright reasons…The insult is the implication. “I wouldn’t tell a backwoods country to be like us, [but we should]. So instead I will tell you that you are not like US [because I actually think that you are backwoods], and you should be like us to [so you aren’t like those backwoods countries anymore].”
See. stuff like this is how you get the threat to democracy “rhetoric”
That’s a bold move, Cotton, taking on the MIC, let’s see how this works out.
“I’m not going to go to some backwoods country and tell them how to live their lives,”
So he’s not just a weird couch fucker, he’s also totally ignorant of US foreign policy over the last hundred years.
He’s an isolationist… So this comment might be true. His stance is fuck every other country, I’ve got mine.
Just wait untill they find out many, many, many of their supply chains come from and/or run through countries kept stable only through pax americana. Doing an afghan style withdrawal on a global scale will not only fuck every other country… it will fuck them more.
But who are we kidding, this is just rhetoric. The moment this guy feels he has the power to tell other countries what to do, he absolutely will.
“I’m not going to go to some backwoods country and tell them how to live their lives,”
What a weird thing for someone who served* in Iraq to say.
*Vance served in Iraq the same way he fucks couches: from the rear.
He “served” in the PR office.
Trying to manipulate public opinion and distort facts has been his entire career.
While you can imagine “Tim Walz says US could support NATO if Europe tries to regulate Elon Musk’s platforms”.
Stop outing the populist fearmonger!
How can that be the populist fearmonger when Elon Musk needs to have his shit investigated and regulated?
If Trump becomes president we should embargo the US like Russia since he’s Putins lapdog
Sad loser thinks saying even dumber things will surely get people to like him this time!
I don’t understand why the symbol of the Democratic Party is the donkey when JD Vance is a jackass every time he opens his mouth.
Musk’s donations to the Trump campaign taking center stage.
I think it’s Musk’s backers, the Russians who helped fund the twitter acquisition, who are really taking center stage.
Lots of talk about Europe and NATO means they’re pushing hard for those talking points.
I think it’s Musk’s backers, the Russians
Given how heavily sanctioned the Russian domestic industries have been, it would be big news to discover they were doing direct business with any of Musk’s heavily-predicated-on-federal-contracts firms.
I would love to see some evidence to this effect, but it sounds like fantastic conjecture rather than reality.
it was the saudi’s not russians who backed the twitter accusation
“the twitter accusation”?
Did google translate barf on ya? Anyway, you’re both right: https://www.washingtonpost.com/documents/2a00ce74-6d58-4f8e-bc2c-1bb820ee4705.pdf?itid=lk_inline_manual_10
Plus those wiley Canadian banks and some douchebag named “Larry Ellison”
Nope, I just cannot spell
It’s just such a weird turn of events that the Saudies and Russians finance the platform that is touted as the true free speech platform (especially by republicans) - to further undermine the US and other democracies.
