BREAKING: JD Vance says threat of censorship is the real 'threat to democracy'—not J6

GOP vice presidential candidate JD Vance, during Thursday evening's CBS debate, said that the real "threat to democracy" is censorship, not January 6.

Debate moderator Norah O'Donnell said that after the economy and inflation, the state of democracy was a top issue for voters. Vance said during his response, "I believe that we actually do have a threat to democracy in this country. But unfortunately, it's not the threat to democracy that Kamala Harris and Tim Walz want to talk about. It is the threat of censorship."

"It's Americans casting aside lifelong friendships because of disagreements over politics. It's big technology companies silencing their fellow citizens, and it's Kamala Harris saying that rather than debate and persuade her fellow Americans she'd like to censor people who engage in misinformation."

"I think that is a much bigger threat to democracy than anything that we've seen in this country in the last four years, in the last 40 years."

Vance later added that Kamala Harris, the Democrat presidential candidate, has engaged in censorship "at the industrial scale,” adding, “She did it during Covid. She's done it over a number of other issues, and that, to me, is a much bigger threat to democracy than what Donald Trump said when he said the protesters should peacefully protest on January the 6th."

After some back and forth with Walz, Vance told the Minnesota governor, "you guys attack us for not believing in democracy. The most sacred right under the United States democracy is the First Amendment. You yourself have said there's no First Amendment right to misinformation. Kamala Harris wants to use the power of the government and big tech to silence people from speaking their minds."

"That is a threat to democracy that will long outlive this present political moment, I would like Democrats and Republicans to both reject censorship. Let’s persuade one another. Let’s argue about ideas, and then let's come together afterwards."

Walz responded, "You can't yell fire in a crowded theater," to which Vance replied, "You guys wanted to kick people off of Facebook for saying that toddlers shouldn’t wear masks. That’s not fire in a crowded theater, that is criticizing the policies of the government, which is the right of every American."