Way back in February of 2025, Secretary of State Marco Rubio had one of his best television moments, as he utterly demolished woke CBS News personality Margaret Brennan when he appeared on her show “Face the Nation” and trashed her for claims that she made about free speech.
The incident was sparked by Vice President JD Vance appearing in Munich, Germany, for a conference and commenting on the threat of tyranny that lurks within the West, as shown by European nations cracking down so severely on what they deem to be “hate speech”, but many MAGA Americans see as simply being common-sense truth-telling. That speech from Vance sparked an uproar, and Brennan tried to use it as a bludgeon against the administration.
Doing so when Rubio appeared for his interview on her program, she said, “I want to ask you about what happened in Munich, Germany, at the Security Conference. Vice President Vance gave a speech, and he told U.S. allies that the threat he worries about the most is not Russia. It is not China. He called it the threat from within, and he lectured about what he described as censorship, mainly focusing, though, on including more views from the right.”
Continuing, she insisted that Vance meeting with a mainstream, popular party in Germany was him championing “Extremism”, saying, “He also met with the leader of a far-right party known as the AfD, which, as you know, is under investigation and monitoring by German intelligence because of extremism. What did all of this accomplish, other than irritating our allies?”
Rubio fired back by noting how absurd the whole thing was. He said, “Why would our allies or anybody be irritated by free speech and by someone giving their opinion? We are, after all, democracies. The Munich – Munich Security Conference is largely a conference of democracies, in which one of the things that we cherish and value is the ability to speak freely and provide your opinions.”
Continuing, he noted that those who are upset about a defense of free speech are exactly the problems he is speaking about, saying, “And so I think if anyone’s angry about his words, they don’t have to agree with him, but to be angry about it, I think, actually makes his point. I thought it was actually a pretty historic speech.”
Adding to that, he noted that free speech at least used to be a core value of the West, and so America will continue to stand by it, saying, “Whether you agree with him or not, I think the valid points he’s making to Europe is, we are concerned that the true values that we share, the values that bind us together with Europe are things like free speech and democracy and our shared history in winning two World Wars and defeating Soviet communism and the like.”
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He further explained, on that same point about Western values like free speech and how absurd it is that the Europeans are now treating such things as extremism, “These are the values that we shared in common. And, in that Cold War, we fought against things like censorship and oppression and so forth.”
And, noting that the hysteria surrounding the speech was ridiculous, Rubio argued, “And when you see backsliding, and you raise that, that’s a very valid concern. We can’t tell them how to run their countries. We are – he simply expressed in a speech his view of it, which a lot of people, frankly, share. And I thought he said a lot of things in that speech that needed to be said. And, honestly, I don’t know why anybody would be upset about it.”
That is when things got really ridiculous, as Margaret Brennan insisted that free speech is what led to the Holocaust. She said, “Well, he was standing in a country where free speech was weaponized to conduct a genocide. And he met with the head of a political party that has far right views and some historic ties to extreme groups. The context of that was changing the tone of it. And you know that, that the censorship was specifically about the right.”
Rubio shut her and her lies down promptly, totally calling her out for ridiculous claims. He snapped, “Well, I have to disagree with you. No, I have – I have to disagree with you. Free speech was not used to conduct a genocide. The genocide was conducted by an authoritarian Nazi regime that happened to also be genocidal because they hated Jews and they hated minorities and they hated those that they – they had a list of people they hated, but primarily the Jews. There was no free speech in Nazi Germany. There was none.”
Continuing with that point, he said, showing how her claims were false, “There was also no opposition in Nazi Germany. They were a sole and only party that governed that country. So that’s not an accurate reflection of history. I also think it’s wrong – again, I go back to the point of his speech. The point of his speech was basically that there is an erosion in free speech and intolerance for opposing points of view within Europe, and that’s of concern, because that is eroding. That’s not an erosion of your military capabilities. That’s not an erosion of your economic standing”
He then said, “That’s an erosion of the actual values that bind us together in this transatlantic union that everybody talks about. And I think allies and friends and partners that have worked together now for 80 years should be able to speak frankly to one another in open forums without being offended, insulted, or upset.”
And, a bit later, he concluded by arguing, “So, again, at the end of the day, I think that, you know, people give all – – that is a forum in which you’re supposed to be inviting people to give speeches, not basically a chorus where everyone is saying the exact same thing. That’s not always going to be the case when it’s a collection of democracies where leaders have the right and the privilege to speak their minds in forums such as these.”
Brennan, left speechless, then ended the interview. Watch him here:
NEW: Secretary of State Marco Rubio smacks down CBS News’ Margaret Brennan after she bizarrely claimed the Holocaust happened because of too much free speech.
Brennan verbally struggled as she tried relating JD Vance’s comments on free speech to Nazis.
Brennan: “[Vance] was… pic.twitter.com/9n1TdcRy1i
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) February 16, 2025
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video