Vice President JD Vance sat down for an interview with former White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany on her program “Saturday in America,” where he revealed how the Trump administration is going about the work of ensuring that Americans are protected from getting ripped off by fraudsters, most of whom hail from foreign countries like Somalia.
In a clip of the interview is going viral on social media, Vance tells McEnany that there are two victims of fraudsters. One is the American taxpayer. The other is all the individuals who genuinely need the help and support SNAP and other programs provide for low income individuals. “There really are two costs and two victims. One is taxpayers getting fleeced,” the vice president told McEnany.
“But it’s also there’s these programs that people in my family that I have benefited from that are meant to provide food to low-income kids, are meant to ensure that if you can’t afford a doctor, you can still have access to medical care. Those programs are going to be destroyed by the fraudsters,” he added.
He further explained that the administration is “trying to protect American taxpayers” while also “trying to ensure these critical programs are there for the American people.” The clip concludes with the vice president telling the Fox News host, “I think we’re going to save a lot of money, but also do a lot of good.” Vance also stated during the interview that he believes investigators will discover criminal wrongdoing connected to alleged taxpayer-funded welfare fraud in California.
According to a report from Fox News, the Ohio Republican told McEnany the anti-fraud task force, which he is in charge of, is currently investigating whether officials within the government are responsible for enabling the scams to happen. He issued a warning that anyone involved in covering up the fraud “ought to go to prison.”
“I guarantee there’s [going to] be some criminal wrongdoing that we’re [going to] find, because there’s so much wrongdoing, somebody had to know what they were doing,” Vance predicted. In a recent press conference, Vance, along with Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz, announced the administration would defer $1.3 billion in federal Medicaid funding to California because of oversight concerns.
Vance explained that the federal government has already shut down a large number of fake hospice centers and issued 22 subpoenas connected to a fraud ring in Minnesota. He then stated that state officials who were aware of the fraud and did not take action to stop it should be held accountable for their actions, which for many means a stint in prison.
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“When I hear about a report that says to the governor, ‘Here’s all this fraud,’ and he doesn’t do anything about it, I ask myself, ‘Was anybody engaged in criminal wrongdoing? Was anybody in his office engaged in criminal wrongdoing?'” Vance told McEnany. “I am [going to] promise the American people we’re going to look into that stuff, we’re [going to] investigate it, and we’re [going to] take it seriously,” Vance continued.
“Because if there was criminal wrongdoing, then people ought to go to prison for it,” the vice president said. California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office responded to Vance’s comments saying that the Golden State has been working to eliminate fraud for a long time. “Tackling fraud is nothing new to California – which is why Governor Newsom implemented a moratorium on all new hospice provider licenses back in 2022, to root out fraud while preventing bad actors from entering the system,” a Newsom spokesperson said.
We’re glad to see the Trump administration follow California’s lead on this after weeks of us calling for them to do the same,” the spokesperson continued. “California welcomes federal partnership in fraud prevention. If the Trump administration wants to focus on internal criminal wrongdoing, they don’t need to look very far – pardoning criminal cronies and letting bad actors skate has been a flagship of the president’s administration, so long as these individuals donate or vote for him.”
Featured Image: screenshot from embedded video