CNN’s Jake Tapper Warns VP Vance On Free Speech After White House Bans AP Reporter: ‘Be Careful!’
CNN anchor Jake Tapper slammed Vice President JD Vance for expressing support for free speech during remarks in Munich this week, warning the VP the comments are a “slippery slope.”
An Associated Press reporter and photographer were “indefinitely” barred from pressers at the White House briefing room and aboard Air Force One this week for refusing to use “Gulf of America” in place of “Gulf of Mexico” in the outlet’s reporting, despite the United States government officially adopting the change at the direction of President Donald Trump.
During remarks at the Munich Security Conference this week, Vance brought up the topic of free speech and censorship, saying that the previous administration “threatened and bullied social media companies to censor so-called misinformation.” Vance was clearly referring to how the White House under former president Joe Biden worked with Twitter and Facebook, among others, to try to suppress stories and posts about Hunter Biden and other topics.
On Friday’s The Lead on CNN, Tapper took exception to Vance’s comments, suggesting the AP reporter being banned is contrary to the sentiment Vance was expressing in the brief clip. After playing it, Tapper did not comment on what Vance said about the Biden White House, but instead stated as fact that the current administration is “waging a battle against free speech.”
The anchor said the move is “questionable legally” and that “without question” it’s “contrary to freedom of speech.”
“Vice President Vance, look at the foundation on which you’re standing with your free speech proclamations,” Tapper concluded. “You are standing on a slippery slope. Be careful!”
TAPPER: Vice President J.D. Vance sounded quite like a free speech advocate in Munich today, especially with this comment.
VANCE (CLIP): Free speech, I fear, is in retreat. And in the interests of comity, my friends, but also in the interest of truth, I will admit that sometimes the loudest voices for censorship have come not from within Europe, but from within my own country, where the prior administration threatened and bullied social media companies to censor so-called misinformation.
TAPPER: Speaking of the interest of truth, that position Vice President Vance is espousing would be a lot easier to stand behind if the Trump White House, the Trump-Vance White House weren’t currently waging a battle against free speech, which the Trump White House itself is labeling “misinformation.” Around the same time that Vance was saying that the Trump White House announced that it is barring reporters from the Associated Press, one of the biggest news outlets in the world, from the Oval Office and from Air Force One indefinitely.
The reason for this? Associated Press editors are not abiding by the president’s renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. The US is the only country calling this body of water the Gulf of America. And the AP is right all over the world, so its editors say they’re going to use the name Gulf of Mexico while also acknowledging Trump’s renaming.
This move by the White House is questionably – is questionable legally. It may fall under rules preventing the White House from engaging in, quote, viewpoint discrimination. But beyond that, it’s without question this move to ban the AP from the Oval and Air Force One – without question, this is contrary to freedom of speech. This is the most powerful people in the world punishing a legitimate, important news organization for not abiding by its language edicts in the way they want them to.
Vice President Vance, look at the foundation on which you’re standing with your free speech proclamations. You are standing on a slippery slope. Be careful!
Watch the clip above via CNN.
