Secretary of State Marco Rubio got a lot of love on Valentine’s Day in Germany of all places. The same could not be said of the high-profile Democrat politicians who also made the trip.
As reported on Monday’s AM Update, Rubio and others spoke at the annual Munich Security Conference, a prestigious event of international leaders that bills itself as “the world’s leading forum for debating international security policy.”
Rubio’s Remarks
Dubbed the “Make the West Great Again” speech by Axios, the Rubio emphasized Europe’s shared history and culture with the United States while also arguing that many of the West’s post-Cold War policies on energy, trade, and immigration have made both sides of the Atlantic weaker.
As Rubio explained Saturday, President Donald Trump is reversing those mistakes and he invited the Europeans to join the United States on its path to revitalization:
RUBIO: To appease a climate cult, we have imposed energy policies on ourselves that are impoverishing our people, even as our competitors exploit oil and coal and natural gas and anything else – not just to power their economies, but to use as leverage against our own. And in a pursuit of a world without borders, we opened our doors to an unprecedented wave of mass migration that threatens the cohesion of our societies, the continuity of our culture, and the future of our people…
Under President Trump, the United States of America will once again take on the task of renewal and restoration, driven by a vision of a future as proud, as sovereign, and as vital as our civilization’s past. And while we are prepared, if necessary, to do this alone, it is our preference and it is our hope to do this together with you, our friends here in Europe.
Rubio made clear that the Trump administration’s demands for change on issues like free trade and immigration are not just about policy preferences, but the future of Western civilization:
RUBIO: We are part of one civilization, Western civilization. We are bound to one another by the deepest bonds that nations could share, forged by centuries of shared history, Christian faith, culture, heritage, language, ancestry, and the sacrifices our forefathers made together for the common civilization to which we have fallen afar. And so this is why we Americans may sometimes come off as a little direct and urgent in our counsel. This is why President Trump demands seriousness and reciprocity from our friends here in Europe… And if at times we disagree, our disagreements come from our profound sense of concern about a Europe with which we are connected – not just economically, not just militarily. We are connected spiritually and we are connected culturally.
The secretary of state reminded his audience of the post-World War II era when the Soviet Union appeared to be on the ascendant and “Western empires had entered into terminal decline, accelerated by godless communist revolutions.” Rubio noted that “our predecessors recognized that decline was a choice” – a choice the West rejected then, and must reject again in this era of woke self-hatred:
RUBIO: We want allies who can defend themselves so that no adversary will ever be tempted to test our collective strength. This is why we do not want our allies to be shackled by guilt and shame. We want allies who are proud of their culture and of their heritage, who understand that we are heirs to the same great and noble civilization, and who, together with us, are willing and able to defend it…
We in America have no interest in being polite and orderly caretakers of the West’s managed decline. We do not seek to separate, but to revitalize an old friendship and renew the greatest civilization in human history… And the only fear we have is the fear of the shame of not leaving our nations prouder, stronger, and wealthier for our children… Because for us Americans, our home may be in the Western Hemisphere, but we will always be a child of Europe.
Despite Europe’s often skeptical – if not downright hostile – posture towards the Trump administration, Rubio received a standing ovation at the conclusion of his remarks. “We want to do it together with you, with a Europe that is proud of its heritage and of its history; with a Europe that has the spirit of creation of liberty that sent ships out into uncharted seas and birthed our civilization; with a Europe that has the means to defend itself and the will to survive. We should be proud of what we achieved together in the last century, but now we must confront and embrace the opportunities of a new one – because yesterday is over, the future is inevitable, and our destiny together awaits. Thank you,” he said to applause.
Dumb Dems
The speech went viral on X over the weekend, racking up tens of millions of views. But Rubio wasn’t the only U.S. politician in Germany. Numerous prominent Democrats also attended the Munich Security Conference, but they weren’t as eloquent as the secretary of state.
Exhibit A: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who spoke on a panel Friday night along with Trump’s Permanent Representative of the United States to NATO Ambassador Matthew Whitaker, and Michigan’s Democrat Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in a discussion moderated by Bloomberg TV’s Francine Lacqua.
The title of the session was “Breaking With the Past: Seismic Shifts in US Foreign Policy,” and something definitely seemed to be broken when AOC was asked about Taiwan. Take a look:
LACQUA: Would and should the U.S. actually commit U.S. troops to defend Taiwan if China were to move?
AOC: Um, you know? I think that this is such a, you know, I think that this is a, this is, of course, of course a very long standing policy of the United States. And I think what we are hoping for is that we want to make sure that we never get to that point. And we want to make sure that we are moving in all of our economic research and our global positions to avoid any such confrontation and for that question to even arise.
For the record, the United States has had a policy of “strategic ambiguity” in which it does not explicitly state how it would respond to Chinese aggression against Taiwan. That has been in place since the Carter administration.
Not the congresswoman’s finest hour (nor did she shine while describing Venezuela as “south of the equator”), but maybe not as bad as Gov. Whitmer’s performance. Earlier in the same panel, Whitmer said AOC was more knowledgeable on foreign affairs than she is and didn’t have much of an answer for what a successful end to the war in Ukraine would look like:
LACQUA: On Ukraine, what does victory look like?
WHITMER: It is, I– the two that I am on the panel with, are much more steeped in foreign policy than a governor is. But you know, I do think that Ukraine’s independence, keeping their land mass, and having the support of all the allies, I think is, is the goal, from my vantage point. Go ahead, Ambassador, do a better job.
Clinton’s Comments
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also made her way to Munich, where she moderated a panel Saturday called, “Girls Just Want to Have Fundamental Rights: Fighting the Global Pushback.”
Sounds nice, right?
Well, the first “woman” she welcomed on the panel was the biological male known now as Rep. Sarah McBride (D-DE), who is the first openly trans-identifying person in Congress. Here is a bit of that conversation:
CLINTON: I want to underscore how truly effective Sarah has been in talking with her colleagues, first in the legislature, the state legislature in Delaware, now in Congress. And you have shown immense grace in the face of attacks, even from your fellow members of Congress.
MCBRIDE: Well, thank you so much for those incredibly kind words. It’s an honor to be here with you, Secretary Clinton… There is no question in the United States that after decades of historic progress on gender equality writ large, and specifically, more recently, on LGBTQ rights, that we are facing, as you mentioned, a well-organized, well-funded, right-wing regressive movement, and they really have placed trans people at the center of that effort, but we should be clear that the consequences of this anti-trans effort, not only out of out of proximity, but out of intentionality, will include consequences for women of all backgrounds.
But in a moment that sounded more MAGA than Dem talking point, here was Clinton later on that same day talking about open borders and unfettered immigration. “I think we need to call it for what it is: There is a legitimate reason to have a debate about things like migration,” she admitted. “It went too far. It’s been disruptive and destabilizing, and it needs to be fixed in a humane way with secure borders that don’t torture and kill people.”
She didn’t seem to have much to say during the Biden administration.
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