Vice President JD Vance tried to defend Elon Musk’s interference within the federal authorities by making a poorly acquired joke on the Munich Safety Convention in Munich, Germany, on Friday.
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“I say this with all humor, if American democracy can survive 10 years of Greta Thunberg’s scolding, you guys can survive a few months of Elon Musk,” Vance mentioned.
He then paused for laughter. However there was solely useless silence.
Apart from Vance’s horrible comedic expertise, the 2 conditions aren’t remotely comparable.
Musk is by far the wealthiest particular person on the planet. He owns one of many largest social media networks, has earned billions from authorities contracts, bankrolled the presidential marketing campaign of the present president, and repeatedly amplifies antisemites, racists, and misogynists.
Thunberg is an environmentalist and activist trying to cease the local weather disaster. She began her protests when she was in her teenage years, and he or she’s now 22. She has pushed for a discount in dangerous carbon gases, whereas Musk makes automobiles which are repeatedly recalled for issues of safety.
Musk is the pinnacle of a staff dismantling key parts of the U.S. authorities—whereas being profitable from that very same authorities.
Thunberg has repeatedly cited peer-reviewed scientific analysis about local weather change, which President Donald Trump has claimed is merely a “hoax” from China. By comparability, Trump, Musk, and Vance are continuously providing up simply checked falsehoods in lieu of a coherent argument.
The dangerous joke wasn’t the one Vance fumble in Europe.
Whereas masking for Musk on his journey, Vance boosted far-right extremists in Germany, assembly with the chief of Different for Germany, or AFD—a celebration the nation’s home intelligence service considers so excessive that it warrants surveillance. The celebration is well-known for its antisemitism, ethno-nationalism, and use of Nazi slogans.
Not solely did Vance meet with the chief of AfD, he additionally publicly argued it’s an eligible political accomplice.
“I can tell you plainly: There can be no security if you are afraid of the voices, the opinions, and the conscience that guide your very own people,” he mentioned in his speech on the Munich Safety Convention.
“[W]e don’t have to agree with everything or anything that people say. But when political leaders represent an important constituency, it is incumbent upon us to at least participate in dialogue with them,” he added.
Germany’s different political events have fashioned a consensus to not work with AfD.
“I don’t think it is right for foreigners, including those from friendly foreign countries, to interfere so intensively in an election campaign in the middle of an election period,” a spokesperson for the German authorities mentioned in response to Vance’s remarks.
Unsurprisingly, Musk has additionally made current overtures to AfD, which shares his and Vance’s opposition to immigrants. “Only the AfD can save Germany,” Musk wrote in a put up on X.
In the course of the current presidential marketing campaign, Vance earned a popularity for being “weird.” Regardless of protests from Republicans, his habits as vice chairman is simply boosting that notion.
