Vice President Vance in Munich: Trump is the 'new sheriff in town'

Vice President J.D. Vance asserted Friday that, with Donald Trump in the White House, there is a new sheriff in Washington. He made the comments in a speech at the Munich Security Conference.

"In Washington, there is a new sheriff in town. Under Donald Trump's leadership, we may disagree with your views, but we will fight to defend your right to offer them in the public square — agree or disagree," Vance said.

Similarly, Vance defended democracy and argued that believing in it is "is to understand that each of our citizens has wisdom and a voice. And if we refuse to listen to that voice, even our most successful fights will secure very little."

"I fundamentally believe that we are on the same team. We must do more than talk about democratic values. We must live them," Vance added.

In addition, Vance explained that "Europe must strengthen its own defense," to allow Washington to focus on localized threats elsewhere on the planet.

On the other hand, Vance criticized that there are European leaders who seek to curtail people's freedom. "It looks more and more like old, entrenched interests, hiding behind ugly, 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.

In that regard, he indicated that "when we see European courts canceling elections and senior officials threatening to cancel others, we need to ask whether we’re holding ourselves to an appropriately high standard."

The vice president also drew parallels between today's crackdown on free speech and the autocracies of the 20th century.

"Within living memory of many of you in this room, the Cold War positioned defenders of democracy against much more tyrannical forces on this continent," Vance pointed out.

"Consider the side in that fight that censored dissidents, that closed churches, that canceled elections. Were they the good guys? Certainly not. And thank God, they lost the Cold War. They lost because they neither valued nor respected all of the extraordinary blessings of liberty," he added.

He argued that people cannot be forced to think, feel or believe what politicians want. "Unfortunately, when I look at Europe today, it’s sometimes not so clear what happened to some of the Cold War’s winners," he said.