JD Vance called veteran journalist Mehdi Hasan a “dummy” on Monday after he appeared to point to the vice president’s hypocrisy for saying European “commissars” are suppressing free speech while simultaneously banning the Associated Press from the White House over its continued use of the Gulf of Mexico.
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!
— JD Vance (@JDVance) February 17, 2025
The dispute erupted on X when Hasan, formerly of MSNBC and now the editor-in-chief and CEO of Zeteo News, tagged Vance and linked to an Axios article which said that the Trump administration’s decision to indefinitely block AP from the White House over usage style was an attack on free press. AP was permanently banned from the Oval Office last week over its editorial decision to disregard President Donald Trump’s order to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America.”
“I know you’re busy lecturing the Europeans on free speech, but have you seen this?” Hasan said on X.
The tweet referenced Vance’s speech at the Munich Security Conference on Friday. Many expected the vice president to address peace talks to end the war in Ukraine. Instead, the vice president used the speech as an opportunity to call out European governments for suppressing free speech. He alleged European Union “commissars” were suppressing free speech, blamed the continent for mass migration and accused its leaders of retreating from “some of its most fundamental values.” He also pointed out that Europe’s greatest threats were not from Russia or China but “from within.”
According to multiple reports, the address was met with almost utter silence in the room and was criticized by many leaders including European Commission Vice President Kaja Kallas.
Responding to Hasan’s comment that he’s “busy lecturing the Europeans on free speech,” Vance wrote on X in reply, “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!”
Hasan then had a few responses of his own.
Thank you Mr Vice President for taking time out of your busy schedule to call me names. But your boss Elon Musk just called for a ‘long prison sentence’ for CBS journalists, for edits he didn’t like. Did you not get the memo? Do you agree with Mr Musk on locking up US TV journos? https://t.co/3kzVUgMyV3
— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) February 17, 2025
“Thank you Mr. Vice President for taking time out of your busy schedule to call me names,” he first wrote. “But your boss Elon Musk just called for a ‘long prison sentence’ for CBS journalists, for edits he didn’t like. Did you not get the memo? Do you agree with Mr. Musk on locking up U.S. TV journos?”
Without a follow-up response from Vance, Hasan then extended an invite for the vice president to join him on air later Monday afternoon.
“Open invite to the vice president to come on my show and do an interview with me about the state of free speech in the U.S. and Europe,” Hasan wrote. “He won’t accept, of course, as he has a safe space on Fox. But I’m making the offer anyways, in the name of free speech and free debate.”
