Vice President J.D. Vance fired back at a reporter on Monday who accused him of hypocrisy for criticizing European restrictions on free speech while the White House remains in a dispute with the Associated Press over its use of Gulf of Mexico/America terminology. Vance dismissed Mehdi Hasan, a former MSNBC talking head and current editor-in-chief and CEO of Zeteo News, calling him a “dummy” after Hasan implied that the White House’s decision to bar AP reporters from official events contradicted its stance on free speech.
“I know you’re busy lecturing the Europeans on free speech, but have you seen this?” Hasan asked Vance on X quoting an Axios X post on that dispute. The Axios post said: “President Trump’s decision to limit AP reporters’ access is as much [a] fight over the Gulf of America as it is a protest of what White House advisers say is years of liberal word choices that AP’s influential stylebook has spread across mainstream media.”
The vice president responded: “Yes dummy. I think there’s a difference between not giving a reporter a seat in the WH press briefing room and jailing people for dissenting views. The latter is a threat to free speech, the former is not. Hope that helps!” The exchange followed Vance’s fiery speech on Friday in Munich, where he criticized European leaders for infringing on their citizens’ free speech rights, the Washington Times noted.
Since last week, the White House has barred Associated Press reporters from attending certain press events, including an open-press news conference with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the swearing-in ceremony for Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. AP Executive Editor Julie Pace called the ban “a deeply troubling escalation of the administration’s continued efforts to punish The Associated Press for its editorial decisions.”
