I’m not really prepared to go that far but – as with much in the Trump era and even more so now that he is not playing the game all by himself – I will give a thrilled applause to Secretary Rubio on this one:

Marco Rubio Leaves CBS News’ Margaret Brennan Speechless After She Claimed Nazis ‘Weaponized’ Free Speech

Brennan interrupted Rubio with the claim that Vance was “standing in a country where free speech was weaponized to conduct a genocide.” She then went on to criticize the vice president for meeting with Germany’s “far right” Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party, despite the fact that he also met with leaders of other major German political parties. There is also the fact that Europeans consider any party that doesn’t want to invite the entire world “far right.” Even more disturbing, Brennan defended the censorship by claiming it was “specifically about the right.”

Rubio not only vehemently disagreed with the CBS anchor, but countered with facts:

“I have to disagree with you,” he responded. “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 … There was no free speech in Nazi Germany. There was none. There was also no opposition in Nazi Germany. They were the sole and only party that governed that country, and so that’s not an accurate reflection of history.”

Rubio defended Vance’s point about the “erosion in free speech and intolerance for opposing points of view” in Europe.

When the secretary of state was finished, Brennan had nothing to say except that they were out of time. How convenient.

Whether you love or hate what is being said, if you don’t believe in their right to say it you are a totalitarian. Counter speech you dislike with facts, but don’t try to suppress it. Else you become the very thing you think you’re fighting against. It’s great to see the highest levels of American government defending THESE values in places that increasingly need it the most.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio defends @JDVance's "historic" speech last week in Munich, leaves ABC's Margaret Brennan speechless after she tries to claim that free speech was "weaponized" by the Nazis. Incredible exchange: 👇 pic.twitter.com/GYLZfopVwP

— Scott Morefield (@SKMorefield) February 16, 2025

For far too many years now one of the key features of the Un-Serious Era in America has been based on exactly this: Any shallow twit of mediocrity could drop a ridiculous claim like the above into an interview and not only was a courteous reply provided ignoring the stupid framing of the question but then the masses across the narrative news regurgitation universe would repeat the crafted progressive talking point based on the most obtusely intentional mischaracterization of that reply a million and a half times over the next two news cycles in order to permanently embed it into the “known-known” database for modern anti-intellectualism while continuing to ignore the embarrassingly moronic framing of the lead in question.

To see this happen on the big stage is encouraging. But don’t get too excited yet…this will continue to be the standard operating procedure of the social media Left and the source material for the essential heroes of the Soft Center Right who exist to re-regurgitate and rationalize anything to appease the gods of Never Trumpism.

But a little bit of intellectual seriousness here and a little bit of mature pushback against the progressive machine there….this could start a very positive trend. Way to go Marco.

UPDATE: Did I really say “shallow twit of mediocrity” above? Hmmmm. Well, Powerline weighs in on this topic:

Why No One Respects the Legacy Media

Margaret Brennan–CBS’s chief foreign affairs correspondent!–tries to tell Secretary of State Marco Rubio that the problem with Nazi Germany was that they had too much free speech. Hence the Holocaust. …

It tells you something when the media outlets formerly known as “mainstream” are opposed to free speech! But the real moral of this story is that Democratic Party media figures are amazingly stupid–below average in intelligence, below average in knowledge, below average in common sense. The idea that they have any standing to act as arbiters of truth is absurd. Happily, no one believes that anymore.

Giggle.