Vice President Mike Pence received absolute silence from an audience at the Munich Security Conference awhen he said that President Donald Trump had passed along his greetings.
"I bring greetings from the 45th President of the United States of America, President Donald Trump," Pence said. He paused for several seconds to allow for applause but the crowd remained quiet after the announcement.
Pence was at the conference on Saturday to give an address at the inaugural John McCain Dissertation Award Ceremony, which paid tribute to the late senator who passed away in August 2018.
During his speech, the vice president criticized many of the country's closest allies over their relationship with Iran and Venezuela while also touting Trump's presidency as "remarkable" and "extraordinary."
Pence told senior European and Asian government officials to follow the United States's lead and withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal. The vice president added that our European allies need to "stop undermining" the Trump administration's sanctions on the Middle Eastern nation.
"The time has come for our European partners to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal and join with us as we bring the economic diplomatic pressure necessary to give the Iranian people, the region, and the world the peace, security and freedom they deserve," Pence said.
He went on to claim the Iranian government is openly advocating for "another Holocaust and it seeks the means to achieve it." During his trip abroad, Pence also visited the Nazi concentration camps Birkenau and Auschwitz. He described the experience as deeply moving and a "scene of unspeakable tragedy, reminding us of what tyranny is capable of."
German Chancellor Angela Merkel defended her country's decision to remain in the Iran nuclear deal, telling the audience that she sees "the Europeans on one side and the Americans on the other side."
Pence also urged the crowd to join the U.S. in recognizing Juan Guaido as president of Venezuela instead of Nicolas Maduro. He called on the European Union to "step forward for freedom" and acknowledge Guaido as the country's leader.
In his remarks Pence also defended the administration's foreign policy agreements, recalling a discussion with an official who was concerned that Trump would retreat from the United States's agreements abroad.
"I remember he said that Europe needed America to be the leader of the free world," Pence recalled. "I told him I respected his opinion, and I appreciated his candor. And then I told him that when you hear President Trump ask our NATO allies to live up to the commitments they've made to our common defense, that's what we call being leader of the free world."
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Alexandra Hutzler is currently a staff writer on Newsweek's politics team. Prior to joining Newsweek in summer 2018, she was ... Read more
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