Fact Check: Shock Video Shows Euro Defense Leader Crying After JD Vance's Scolding - Is It Accurate?
Video circulating on social media indicates that Christoph Heusgen, chairman of the Munich Security Conference, broke into tears following remarks made by Vice President J.D. Vance at the event last week.
The truth is Huesgen — Germany’s former ambassador to the United Nations — became emotional when he spoke of his time as chairman of the conference was coming to an end. However, minutes earlier in those same remarks, he offered a harsh assessment of Vance’s speech.
The vice president highlighted the decline of free speech in many Western European nations.
Vance gave multiple examples but particularly chastised the United Kingdom for convicting a man for praying silently near an abortion clinic and forcing him to pay thousands of pounds.
“I wish I could say that this was a fluke, a one-off crazy example of a badly written law being enacted against a single person. But no… In Great Britain and across Europe, free speech, I fear, is in retreat,” he said.
German prosecutors told CBS’s “60 Minutes” in an episode that aired Sunday that people can be prosecuted for insulting others in public or online.
JUST IN: Vice President JD Vance rips European leaders to their faces at the Munich security conference, calls them out for criminalizing free speech.
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Vance specifically called out the United Kingdom for being the worst of them all.
“I wish I could say that this was a… pic.twitter.com/1bj9TKxP4q
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) February 14, 2025
“Europe faces many challenges, but the crisis this continent faces right now. The crisis I believe we all face together is one of our own making,” Vance added, referencing failing to heed citizens’ concerns in Europe about mass migration, Yahoo News reported.
“If you’re running in fear of your own voters, there is nothing America can do for you,” Vance said. “Nor for that matter is there anything you can do for the American people who elected me and elected President [Donald] Trump. You need democratic mandates to accomplish anything of value in the coming years.”
“But there is so much of value that can be accomplished with the kind of democratic mandate that I think will come from being more responsive to the voices of your citizens.”
Vance: If you’re running in fear of your own voters, there is nothing America can do for you nor is there anything you can do for the American people who elected me and President Trump. Thin mandates produce unstable results pic.twitter.com/J5v7YHZrsR
— Acyn (@Acyn) February 14, 2025
On Sunday, Heusgen, in his closing remarks for the Munich Conference, said, “This conference starting as a trans-Atlantice conference. After the speech of Vice President Vance on Friday, we have to fear that our common value base is not that common anymore.”
“I’m very grateful to all those European officials that spoke out and reaffirmed the values and principles that they are defending. No one did this better than President [Volodymyr] Zelenskyy, who has been fighting for these values, democracy, freedom, rule of law, for the past three years,” he added.
About four minutes later in his remarks, Heusgen said, “Let me conclude and this becomes difficult” and began to choke up, drawing applause from the room.
He then left the stage and hugged some of those seated in the front row before taking his seat.
Heusgen never completed his thought.
The castration of the West is nearly complete. It’s astounding. https://t.co/JUh9AF5Pf0
— Gad Saad (@GadSaad) February 17, 2025
So it’s not clear all the reasons Heusgen became so emotional, but perhaps the U.S. taking a more critical view of Western Europe is one.
He told German public broadcaster ZDF that the conference showed “this America under Trump lives on a different planet,” according to Yahoo News.
“We also noticed that even Republican senators are very cautious about speaking publicly because they are afraid of their president,” he added.
All the crying by Heusgen to the point of not even being able to finish his remarks does not seem a good look on the world stage.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping respect strength. Further, stating European values no longer align with those of the U.S. may only invite more aggression.
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