Americans Have "A Right to Be Stupid" John Kerry

US Secretary of State John Kerry, in Berlin as part of his first overseas tour at his new post, says that in America one has "a right to be stupid".

Published

3 months ago

Categories

US

Topics

US Politics, United States, Politics & Government

People

John Kerry

Places

United States of America, Germany, Berlin

Transcript

(ROUGH CUT ONLY - NO REPORTER NARRATION) U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, on his first overseas trip since replacing Hillary Clinton as the nation's top diplomat, met with a group of Berlin's youths on Tuesday (February 26) and said that in America "you have a right to be stupid" when he spoke about religious freedom and tolerance in the U.S. "We live and breathe the idea of religious freedom and religious tolerance, whatever the religion and political freedom and political tolerance, whatever the point of view. I mean, you know, some people have sometimes wondered why our Supreme Court allows one group or another to march in a parade even though it's the most provocative thing in the world and they carry signs that are an insult to one group or another," Kerry said. "And the reason is that, that's freedom, freedom of speech. In America you have a right to be stupid, if you want to be, and you have a right to be disconnected to somebody else if you want to be. And we tolerate it and somehow we make it through that. Now I think that's a virtue. I think that's something worth it fighting for," he added. The comments were made hours before Kerry was due to hold key diplomatic talks with his German counterpart Guido Westerwelle, Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. After Berlin, the U.S. Secretary of State, who is on an 11-day trip of Europe and the Middle East, will travel to Paris, Rome, Ankara, Cairo, Riyadh, Abu Dhabi and Doha before he returns home on March 6.