Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) pressed Vice President Vance over the precepts of free speech, citing threats from the Trump administration as an example of its impediment.
“@JDVance, you lied to the world in Munich. If this administration believed in free speech as you claimed, its leaders wouldn’t be threatening members of Congress with criminal investigations for educating the public of their Constitutional rights,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote in a Tuesday post on social platform X.
“Look in the mirror.”
The New York representative quoted a post from Vance where he deflated claims of censorship over The Associated Press being barred from White House events due to its decision to refer to the Gulf of Mexico by its traditional name instead of the Gulf of America as ordered by President Trump.
She added a screenshot of a news story that noted “border czar” Tom Homan’s willingness to spur a criminal investigation into the lawmaker over a recent webinar that educated immigrants lacking permanent legal status on their rights.
Some criticized Vance for his address at the Munich Security Conference.
“To many of us on the other side of the Atlantic, it looks more and more like old, entrenched interests hiding behind Soviet-era words like ‘misinformation’ and ‘disinformation’ who simply don’t like the idea that somebody with an alternative viewpoint might express a different opinion or, God forbid, vote a different way or, even worse, win an election,” Vance said.
He also condemned European Union “commissars” for censoring “hateful content.”
“Speaking up and expressing opinions isn’t election interference. Even when people express views outside your own country and even when those people are very influential,” he added.
Ocasio-Cortez has been at the center of disagreements with the Trump administration over recent actions carried out by top officials. She’s cited the influx of new developments as an attempt to “overwhelm” citizens to usher in a “state of passivity” in comparison to an authoritarian regime.
