Speech: JD Vance Delivers a Speech on Anti-Fraud Efforts in Bangor, Maine - May 14, 2026

Well. We love you. We love you too and it's great to be in Maine today. Now before we get started, I gotta poll the crowd a little bit because, you know, it's lunchtime. And so when we get back on Air Force 2, I told the team we need to get lobster rolls now that we're here in Maine. So what is the recommendation of this Bangor crowd?

Where do we get lobster rolls from? We have a lobster roll guy right here? Okay, fantastic. So where do I need to go? Okay. [Audience members call out "Eagles Nest"]

Whoa. Eagles Nest. Eagles Nest. What about somebody, I heard Lobster Boy. Is that, okay. So, word, word to the wise, never come to a crowd of Maine and ask them where to buy lobster rolls because I've gotten 14 answers in the past 15 seconds, but it sounds like we got plenty of options, and I'm proud to be here in Maine and proud to be in a state with hardworking people, hardworking fishermen, hardworking shipbuilders and the people who make the United States run.

God bless you, Maine. I'm proud to be here. [Audience members call out "We love you"]

Now, I wanna give a, a great shout out to our acting labor secretary, Keith, who's done an amazing job helping us fight fraud but also protect American working people. One of the things the Trump administration, the president has ordered us to do from day one is we are trying to create good American jobs for the American people who is sick of leadership that sips, ships our jobs overseas.

Aren't we proud to have a president who protects your jobs and keeps them right here in America? But here's the thing, my friends, because you all work hard, because you all pay your taxes, because you do things the right way, it is time to have leadership in Washington that treats you the right way and protects those hard earned tax dollars.

When the president of the United States said, "JD, we've got a fraud problem, and I want you to tackle it," I was so proud and so happy to be able to do it because I realized that fraud isn't just about saving money. It's not just about protecting taxpayers, it's about protecting you. The money you send to the government and the services that you rely on. So for once, for the first time in a very long time, you've got an administration in Washington DC that is fighting for you, fighting to protect your tax dollars and fighting to put the fraudsters in prison, which is where they belong.

And, and we're gonna talk about that because everybody asked me. The president asked me, I hear from people all the time who say, "Is, is going after fraud hard?" And I say, "Unfortunately no, because there is a lot of fraud in the federal government." It's like fishing in a barrel. There is always something.

Every week I get a report from these guys. We're gonna talk about that in a second, but it's unbelievable, unbelievable how much you have been fleeced by your own government over the past 15, 20, 30 years. Nobody, nobody was looking at this. Nobody was asking difficult questions like, for example, are dead people getting food stamps? [Laughter] Okay?

Call me, call me old-fashioned, but I don't, I don't think that dead people eat, so certainly they don't need food stamps. Unfortunately, they vote for Democrats. They don't vote for us, my friends. [Laughter] But why is it that we have people who are driving Lamborghinis? And that is true. People driving Lamborghinis who are getting low income assistance that's supposed to go for housing and food for our people.

Why is it that we have people in hospice claiming hospice benefits but who have no terminal illnesses? And by the way, here's the crazy thing. It's very often it's not a person who's even using their own identity. They're claiming that somebody else, they're, they're stealing somebody else's identity, claiming hospice services and then when that hardworking American goes to apply for some other benefit, they get tagged by the bank as being a fraudster, even though it wasn't them.

It was somebody who stolen their identity. Who here knows somebody who's had their identity stolen? Isn't that a shame? At least half of the hands shot up and the reason why we've allowed identity theft to fester in this country is because the government wasn't going after fraud. And ladies and gentlemen, that changed the moment Donald J. Trump became the president of the United States.

Now, I wanna talk about all that, but I, I'm gonna give a few notes of shout-out here because we have a lot of great local officials and a lot of great future officials that are here today. And first, we have your great former governor, Paul LePage. Paul, where are you, man? There he is. Now, Paul is a great guy, a gr- -- guy who loves the state of Maine, and we're gonna talk a little bit about how he was the biggest advocate for your tax dollars and the biggest threat to fraudsters that ever existed in the state of Maine.

And here's the, here is the, here's the problem [Laughs] is fraud has festered in Maine because this guy is no longer the governor of Maine, so we're gonna send him to Washington and fight fraud at the federal level. Now my, now my, my, my friend and former Senate colleague, Susan Collins, was not able to be here.

Susan is back in DC. She doesn't like to miss votes. And here's the thing I'll say about Susan Collins is sometimes I get frustrated with Susan Collins. [Laughter] I almost wish that she was more partisan. But the thing I love about Susan is she is independent because Maine is an independent state. And, frankly, if she was as partisan as I sometimes wish that she was, she would not be a good fit for the people of Maine.

So let's give a shout-out to Susan Collins who's doing a great job. We have got Senate GOP leader, Trey Stewart. Where is Trey at? Raise your hand, Trey, good to see you, man. A young guy, a good-looking guy, younger and better-looking than I am. So I don't like you, Trey. I don't like it. [Laughter] But you're doing a good job.

We got House GOP leader, Billy Bob Faulkingham. Where is Billy Bob? We've got ranking member Chad Perkins. Where is Chad Perkins at? Chad, thank you, man. And we've got the county sheriff, Troy Morton. Where is the county sheriff at? Troy, thank you. Thank you for your service and for all that you and your law enforcement folks are doing for our great country.

We've also got some reporters from The Maine Wire, people who have been fighting, people who have been fighting fraud. So let's give a round of applause to Jon Fetherston and Steve Robinson. See you, guys. So, and so here's the thing that I've learned in fighting fraud for the last few months and focus on this issue is that fraud is the ultimate non-victimless crime.

There are multiple victims in fraud. The, we, what we think about when somebody steals your tax dollars and goes and spends it on something it's not supposed to, supposed to be spent on, we think of you all as the victims, the American taxpayer, the main taxpayer, the people who wake up, who go, go to work, who do what they're supposed to do and don't want their money stolen by people who are doing the opposite of what they're supposed to do. You were the first victim of fraud.

But you know what I, also I've realized is that you're not the only victim of fraud. Because when people steal your money and it doesn't go to where it's supposed to go, there are a lot of people who are out there who are suffering in the process. And I'm talking about physicians who are denied their Medicaid reimbursements because a fraudster stole their identity and charged for services that weren't actually being provided.

I'm talking about the good doctors who do what they're supposed to, and don't like it when corrupt healthcare providers go and claim services that aren't even necessary. So then the victim is the doctor that gets stolen from, it's the taxpayer that gets stolen from, but it's also the innocent patient who should be able to know that when their doctor prescribes something it's meant for them, and it's good for them.

I'm talking about the construction worker who can't buy a cell phone. Because when an illegal alien goes and steals their identity and applies for SNAP benefits, now, all of a sudden, they're tagged in the banking system, their credit score is ruined, not because they sing- -- did a single thing wrong but because somebody stole their identity.

Fraud is exactly what happens when you've got a government that is not fighting for the American people, but is fighting for fraudsters and illegal aliens, and it had to stop. And under the Trump administration, we are fighting it every single day. And, and again, it, it is every single day I learn of something new.

I learn about people who say that they're claiming for hospice services, but in fact they're not providing any services and they're making hundreds of millions or billions of dollars in, in the process. Talk about something that we've seen in Minneapolis but also in Maine. We have seen people go out there and say that they're providing services to autistic children, when in reality, they maybe don't have any children at all or they certainly don't have autistic children.

So, they get paid millions and millions of your dollars to provide services that they're not actually providing. And oh, by the way, what happened to the autistic children and their families who actually need those services and need a competent government to ensure that they're doing the right thing? My friends, this has gone on for far too long.

You have been fleeced by your own government for far too long, and we are stopping it every single day. Now, let me tell you about a guy though who did not stand for fraud. He did not stand for fraud when he was in the state government, and he will not stand for fraud in the United States House of Representatives representing you, and that's Paul LePage.

Now, I, I hate to say this because I, I love this state. The first time I ever visited Maine actually was, was, uh, probably four or five years ago. Actually, it was exactly four years ago because I remember our, our daughter who's now four was probably three or four months old at the time. And we came up here and we stayed for a week.

It was one of the most amazing trips I've ever had in my life because this is a beautiful state, as you all know, with incredible people, with good food. This is America. This is the very best of America right here in communities like this. And, and so, I have, I have a special affection for this state, but I can't even compare to your great former governor, because while I love this state as an outsider, he loves this state as somebody who has fought for it every single day.

A guy who came to work every single day protecting your tax dollars, protecting your essential services, protecting our local law enforcement, making sure common sense that the government actually works for the people who deserve and have the right to be in the United States to begin with. Makes sense, right?

That's what it should be. But because I love this state, I can say I am heartbroken by what has happened to the fraud that's being perpetrated on the taxpayers of this state. Because outside of Minnesota and California, which are probably number one and number two, if they're the gold, gold medalist and the silver medalist, I heard somebody shout out in New York, maybe New York is the bronze medalist, but let me be honest, maybe Maine is the bronze medalist. 'Cause if you look at the fraud that has happened in this state, if you look at the illegal immigrant communities who have taken benefits that ought by rights go to the people in this room, what you have in Maine is a festering problem, where people have been taken advantage of and they've been stolen from and your government hasn't done anything about it. You ask yourself, why did Maine go from a state that did not have a serious fraud problem to one where I can honestly say, it's one of the worst states in the Union, and I'll give you two answers and two politicians.

Number one is Janet Mills and number two is Joe Biden, and thankfully, thankfully one of them has already been kicked to the curb and one is on our way out the door exactly as it should be. Now, here, here's what Paul LePage do, and I'm not just, I'm not just blowing smoke, my friends, he took concrete action to try to fight back against fraud.

He doubled the number of fraud investigations when he was the governor of this state. That's an amazing thing. He required personal photos on EBT cards, so that we could make sure that people getting those benefits are the ones who deserve those benefits. And he cracked down on the international fraud rings that were taken, tak- -- taking advantage of this great state.

You have to ask yourself, why is it that you have a government that seems more focused on the illegal aliens growing weed illegally than it is on the taxpayers of this state? Why is it that you have a government that seems not to care about you, but sure as hell cares about Somali fraudsters who are making millions and millions of dollars off of your taxpayer money?

And the answer is because you have a governor who hasn't fought for you. Let's send a governor who did fight for you to the US Congress. Let's send Paul LePage to the US House. Now, now here, here's another thing Paul said, and this is why I blame Joe Biden, because you cannot talk about the fraud problem in the United States of America without acknowledging that Joe Biden's administration let in tens of millions of illegal aliens all over the United States of America, including the state of Maine.

And unfortunately, you still got way too many of them. It's one of the reasons why we have devoted ourselves over the past 18 months and we're going to keep on fighting to get illegal aliens out of the United States of America. We got to fight for our own people. So here's the difference though, the difference one administration, the difference one political leader makes is we are now trying so hard.

And I know y'all don't like Janet Mills, I don't especially care for her either. But I would love to work with the governor of Maine to stop the fraud that's being perpetrated in this state. This, this, this should not be, think about this. This should not be a red, red state or a blue state issue. This isn't Republican or Democrat.

This is common sense. This is protecting every single person in this room from being defrauded by their own government. But you know what she's done? She has prevented local police from working with us to get criminal illegal aliens out of this state. She has actually fought back against our efforts to identify fraud in the Medicaid and Medicare programs, which by the way, not only does it steal from you, but it means that those programs are gonna go bankrupt because all the money's going to the fraudsters.

So let me ask you this simple question. Do you like having a government official who fights for illegal aliens over you? [Audience responds "No"]

Do you like having a state governor who doesn't work with the federal government to fight against fraud? [Audience responds "No"]

So let's kick Janet Mills to the curb. And let's send Paul LePage to Washington to help us fight the fraudsters and protect all of you. [Audience member calls out "Send her to Gitmo"]

This guy just said, "Send her to Gitmo." No, no, no comment, sir, but I, I kinda, I kinda like sending the fraudsters to Gitmo. We gotta get them out of this country and we gotta get them in prison. Here, here's the thing. Let me talk a little bit about just one person, because I think it highlights how bad the fraud problem has been in the state of Maine.

We had an illegal immigrant in this community who said, who said that she was, she was providing services, interpretive services to other immigrants, okay? So the, so Medicaid reimburses people to provide interpretation services for, uh, people who don't speak English, which by the way, people should be speaking English in the United States of America.

I think that's common sense. But this woman, her name was Rakia Muhammad. And it turns out that Rakia Muhammad was not a particularly upstanding citizen, okay? So while she said that she was providing interpretation services, do you know what she was actually doing? Providing zero services and collecting the $15 million over a five-year period that was going directly into her pocket.

And that happened pretty much during the entirety of the Biden administration and no one in the Biden administration thought to step in and stop this ridiculous fraud. Now here's a, here's, here, I have two questions when it comes to Rakia Muhammad stealing $15 million from every single person in this room.

Question number one is, why was this person in the United States of America to begin with? Call me crazy, but I think that when we welcome new immigrants to the United States of America, they should be people who enrich our country and bring some good skills into our country. Not a person who's gonna steal $15 million from the people in this room.

But second of all, why on earth are we allowing a person to steal $15 million from all of you without the state government lifting a finger to stop it? Why did it take Washington coming in from the outside to ensure that this person who is defrauding you is gonna go to prison and ladies and gentlemen, that's exactly what is gonna happen, convicted guilty and she's going to jail, which is where she belonged.

Now with all these things though, there, there's, there's a good news, bad news situation. So the good news is that she's going to prison and she's not going to be committing fraud. But the bad news is the same system that allowed these people to take advantage of the taxpayers of Maine, it has not been changed at all by the local government.

I, I, I'm telling you, and I'll say this to the cameras, I'll say this to the Governor and anybody else, if you want to partner in fighting fraud, you've got one. This does not need to be Republican versus Democrat. This needs to be fraudster against non-fraudster. This needs to be good government versus bad government.

So I will extend the hand to anybody whether they've got a D next to their name or an R next to their name. If you want to help the Trump administration fight fraud, you are going to find a willing partner. And by the way, as much as I'm a Republican, you all know this, I'm the Republican Vice President of the United States, we have found some blue states that are willing to work with us. Unfortunately, Maine is not among them.

So whenever you replace Janet Mills with somebody, I hope you replace her with somebody who's going to help us fight fraud, protect you and protect the programs that the people of Maine rely on. A- -- and the, and the bad news for Rakia Muhammad is that she's gonna go to prison hopefully for a very long time.

Now, the, the, the good news for her though is I think she might have a future in Democratic Party politics in the state of Maine. [Laughter] Unfortunately, the, the Maine Democrats, elected Democrats seem to really like fraudsters. They might just elect this woman, the next governor, the next senator from Maine.

Who knows? But not if you have anything to do with it. Am I right? [Audience members call out "Right"]

Are we gonna elect the fraudster to the governor of Maine? [Audience responds "No"]

Are we gonna elect the fraudster a pro-fraud Democrat to be the next Senator for Maine? Absolutely not. We're gonna send representatives, senators, and governors who fight for the people in this room. We're gonna do it by rejecting fraudsters, sending them to prison where we can and taking away the money in all cases.

That's how we fight fraud successfully. And I wanna just say one, one final thing about fraud, because I, I think it's, it's such an important topic. You heard the, the great Secretary of Labor say this. What is so different about our approach in this administration is that we're not just sending money out the door and then trying to find the fraudsters afterwards.

We're actually making the money conditional on state governments fighting fraud to begin with. [Audience member calls out "Thank you"]

Now, why does this matter? Because that's where you've got the most power, and that's where you've got the ability to stop it from going to fraudsters to begin with. So here's what we did yesterday, the Trump administration. We sent out 50 letters to every state Medicaid system all over the country, and we basically said very simply that we're gonna take away your money unless you get serious about fighting fraud.

Common sense. And what that means is that we're gonna be able to ensure that there are proper controls, that there are proper filters, that before somebody pays out benefits, that they ensure that your money is going to where it should go. And I gotta say, as, as a person who has, in the past, benefited from some of these programs, this is a very personal issue to me. One of the things I love about our country, and I, I certainly think is true about the great state of Maine is that we're generous people.

We don't want American citizens to go hungry. We don't want low income kids to not be able to afford a bite to eat. We want to make sure that if you're a poor child or a poor family, you get an opportunity to see a doctor even if money is particularly tight. That's why these programs exist. They exist for American citizens to look after our fellow citizens, and I think that's a great and generous thing about the United States of America.

Again, my family has benefited from some of those programs in the past. But you know what destroys those programs and not just destroys those programs, but destroys the spirit of generosity that makes those programs possible? It's when local officials and state officials and federal officials, it's when they let the fraudsters take advantage of you instead of fighting for you.

So when I say that I'm fighting against fraud, I'm not just fighting to save your money as, as much as that matters to me. I am fighting to preserve the sense that Americans look after Americans. But you know who we don't look after? We don't look after fraudsters, and we don't look after people who have no right to be in the United States of America to begin with.

So here's, let me just, let me close with this, and then I'll take a few questions from the reporters. What we've done here in the last 18 months, I'm very, I, I'm incredibly proud of. We have managed to take the fight to the fraudsters. We've managed to save hundreds of billions of dollars of your tax dollars and, God willing, were to save hundreds of billions of more in the next two and a half years, but we cannot do it without you.

And one of the coolest things about this effort, maybe my single favorite thing about this anti-fraud effort is that many of the big leads that we've had have come from citizens and journalists, have come from people like Nick Shirley. It was a, a 22-year-old kid, a 22-year-old kid who had the audacity to go to the people who were receiving your tax dollars and ask questions.

Something, frankly, it would have been great if the national media showed a little bit more interest in it. [Audience member calls out "Thank you"]

But I just want to say to all of you for caring about this issue, for being engaged in this issue, for sending tips into our fraud task force, thank you, because a big part of Americans looking after our fellow Americans is to ensure that nobody is defrauding the greatest country in the world, and you have been our best advocates in fighting back against fraud.

Thank you all. Thank you all for having me. All right. So we will take a, a few questions from the local press. The b- -- the lights are so bright, it is unfortunate I can't see you so I'll, you just have to kind of raise your hand and, and shout out your question.

Um, but I, I, I will say that I want one of these great local journalists who've been focused on this fraud issue. Let's start with you, sir. Go ahead.

Thank you, Mr. Vice President. Jon Fetherston with The Maine Wire.

We like this guy.

[Inaudible] fraud here in Maine and they want to know that these fraudsters are going to be held accountable. But I tell everybody --

Can't hear him.

I'll repeat it for you.

-- that it comes from us. You today coming validates the fraud. [Audience members call out affirmatively]

But it's up to the rest of us to make sure it gets fixed. What is your advice to the people of Maine and how they hold their elected leaders accountable?

So the question for those of you who couldn't hear is we all know there's a fraud problem in Maine. We all know we want to fix the fraud problem in Maine. What advice do I have? What are the concrete steps that we can take to actually ensure that the fraud stops? Let me give you a few answers. And, and one, I gotta be honest, it's on me and it's on the federal Department of Justice, it's on the leadership of the United States government is when we find somebody like Ms. Muhammad who's committing fraud against the American people, we've got to show up and arrest her and try to send her to prison.

It's very simple. There's gotta be accountability. 'Cause here, one of the things I learned and I was shocked by this is that when we have l- -- what, what is defined as low-level fraud, let's say a person defrauds all of you for a million bucks. Too many of our Department of Justice leaders under the Biden administration, they said that was too low level to actually go after. [Audience member calls out "Come on"]

So, I mean, how, how many of you would like the federal government to hand you a million dollars? Yeah. Well, there were fraudsters out there who were getting a million dollars of your money and the government wasn't even paying attention to it. One of the best things that you can do when you go and arrest somebody and throw them in prison when they break the law is yes, it's justice for that one person, but it also sends a message to all the other fraudsters that we're not going to tolerate this crap anymore.

So we have got to get serious and sir, we have. I promise you that we have. Here's [Laughs] -- the other thing is, is the best and most actionable thing that you can do, because you're not going to get help from the governor right now. We all know that. She hasn't taken fraud very seriously. It's, it's funny.

She, she came to Washington last year and did some breakfast with the President of the United States and when she [Laughs] when she showed up, what did she talk about? Did she talk about, you know, the, the, the, the, the issues that matter to workers? Was she talking about jobs and investments in the state of Maine?

No, she shoot up, she showed up to advocate for the right of men to play in women's sports. That's what she cared about when she got in front of the President of the United States. Again, I think all of us believe it's crazy that men would want to play in women's sports. That's, I think that's common sense.

But here's what I understand even less than that. Even if you think, even if you think that men should play in women's sports, how is that the issue you care most about as the governor of the state of Maine? It's crazy. It's crazy. So what you all can do is keep your eyes open, okay? I, I don't have any faith in your local government right now, or I should say your state government, that they're going to fix this problem.

But so much, again, of the best stuff that we've gotten on the anti-fraud task force has been from local officials and local citizen journalists. And when I say a citizen journal- -- citizen journalist, I don't mean a person who went to journalism school. I mean a person with a cell phone who's willing to ask questions of their local leadership and of everybody else in their community.

Like here's, here's, here's the thing. When we really got wind of what was going on in Minneapolis, it was because somebody showed up at the Quality Learing Center. We've got a guy over there. Did you get a good education at the Quality Learning Center, sir?

I did. I graduated with honors.

That's not, he said he's a graduate with honors of the Quality Learing Center. I congratulate you, but I don't think it's that hard if we're being honest with you. But he's, he's the proudest graduate. Look, here's the thing. If you have a daycare center that's receiving millions of dollars of federal tax dollars and it says it do- -- it can't even spell the word learning right, maybe you send a message to your local representative, you send a message to Paul LePage or you reach out to us on the fraud task force, the website's right there, and, and actually make it possible for us to go and investigate this stuff.

So keep your eyes and your ears to the ground. There is unfortunately fraud all around us. If we're gonna get at this problem, we're gonna need citizens to take it seriously. I know you are. Let's just keep at it. Thank you. We'll take a few questions from back in the, the peanut gallery there. Go ahead, guys.

[Inaudible]

Louder.

Do we have a microphone for them? I- -- it's, because it's hard for me to hear all the way back there.

JD, here.

Yes, ma'am.

Sir, I'd like to invite you to go s --

Can you hear me now?

-- uh, cross-county skiing and snowshoeing with your family.

Thank you, ma'am. I just got invited to go cross-country skiing and snowshoeing by this lovely young lady here. And I gotta tell you, ma'am, I appreciate that. I love this state and we, we will make sure we get the brochure. But here, here, here's the thing about cross-country skiing is it's a lot of work.

When I'm doing leisure activity, I like to be a little bit lazier than that. I kind of like a nice hill where you just glide down. Cross country's a lot of work.

So Vice President Vance --

Sure.

-- Rich McHugh from NewsNation. We have been reporting here in Maine since last year on fraud. We've been reporting in Minnesota on fraud. We're seeing prosecutions happen in Minnesota and in California, but some of the things that we're hearing from people and whistleblowers is you have to go to the org, org structure, the leadership, and that's not happening.

How will this administration go after not just the people who are perpetrating it, but the people who are enabling it and overseeing it, uh, in the first place?

That's a good question. So, you know, one of the reasons why I raised this question of, of certain amounts of fraud being so low level that people weren't even looking at it is it's impossible to get to the high level fraudsters unless you're sometimes willing to look at the low level fraudsters too. You think, I mean, how many of us have watched a good mob movie and how do those prosecutions always start?

They, you never start with the boss. You start with the low level guys who then give you some sense of the criminal enterprise and then you can go after the high level fraud and the high level crime. The fact that we were turning a blind eye to fraud under a million dollars meant that we weren't even looking at the people who were sitting on top of some of these fraud rings.

And we, we do see already signs in Minnesota, for example, of some very sophisticated stuff. I mean, sometimes I see these fraud rings and I think to myself, you know, sir, if, if you just started like a real business, you might actually be a halfway productive citizen, but instead you put those talents into fraud and so we're gonna put all, all our talents to throw you in prison, if that's how you're gonna approach that.

And that's the most important thing is you've gotta be willing to go everywhere and look at all fraud, or you're never gonna be able to, to look at the high level guys. 'Cause very often what will happen is you've got, you have 10 people who are skimming a million dollars off the top and then they kick out up a few hundred thousand dollars to somebody above them and then it turns out that when you look at the whole network, you've got a lot of people who are making millions and millions and millions of dollars for every low level guy that's making $500,000 or something like that.

So our approach has been to go everywhere to look at everything and that's how we're gonna get the fraudsters. And trust me, we are gonna get them. We already have gotten a lot of them and we're gonna keep our pedal to the gas for the next two and a half years. Next question.

Brittany Bacaton from WABI and Bangor wondering what the Mills Administration and the state government could do today to begin working with you on this issue.

Yeah, so I'll, I'll give you two very con- -- the question was what could the local administration, the state administration do to help work with us on this issue? I'll give you two very concrete examples. So, so first of all, one of the biggest problems that we have in Medicaid fraud is, again, because these programs are state administered, the states have to actually empower their anti-fraud people to look into what's going on. So we have what's called every 50 state, or all 50 states should have what's called an MFCU, a Medicare fraud control unit.

And we need the local governor to just empower that Medicare fraud control unit to look at the fraud, to prosecute it, and then of course they can ask the federal government if they reach a case that's so big they need a little help. We would be happy to help them. We just need the local, uh, governor to work with us a little bit better.

Exactly. And unfortunately, I just, I just don't get the sense having talked to her, my people have talked to her, I, I don't get the sense that the local, that the, the state governor here is particularly interested in working on this problem. But I'll give you another example. So we, we know one of the biggest drivers of fraudulent federal benefits is SNAP. It's the food stamps program, okay?

So again, this is a program which ha- -- actually has even less federal oversight, as shocking as that is, even less federal oversight than the state Medicaid program. So here's, here's how food stamps works. Every month or every couple of weeks, the state of Maine, the state of California, all 50 states, I'm not joking about this, will submit a bill to the federal government and say, "This is how much we spend on food stamps." There's no verification of a single person, there's no confirmation that let's say a person was on food stamps and passed away, that that person has stopped receiving benefits.

There's no confirmation that you don't have a legal aliens receiving food stamp benefits. So I always laugh a little bit when I hear people like Gavin Newsome or Janet Mills say, "We don't let illegal aliens access the food stamp program." And I say, "How do you know?". And so the number one thing that I would like them to do is to help us set up the systems to where if you're getting food stamps, we confirm that number one, you're eligible, you actually need the program.

Number two, you're not an illegal alien and number three, you're still alive. It, it is not a high barrier to demand that Janet Mills confirms that the people who are receiving food stamps are actually breathing. I'm a pretty conservative guy, but I think that's a pretty low bar for Janet Mills to clear.

We would love to work with her on that. We encourage her to do so.

ABC seven and Fox 22 News here in Bangor. In your remarks, as you mentioned, the administration has warned that states could lose federal funding if they don't aggress- aggressively prosecute Medicaid fraud. If funding is cut, how will the feder- -- federal government ensure that low income Mainers, particularly those in rural areas are still receiving necessary medical care?

Well, let me say, let me say two things. First of all, there is no administration in American history that has done more to make secure and safe and dependable the rural healthcare system than the Trump administration in the working family's tax cuts bill. Now, you all think of that primarily as a tax piece of legislation because it was, but do you know that there were tens of billions of dollars put into a rural healthcare stabilization fund, so that all the rural hospitals and clinics that were closing under the Biden administration, so that we could make sure those clinics are able to stay open for the people in Maine who need them.

That was a very, very important part of the legislation and something I'm very proud of. But the, the second thing I'd say is, is whether it's, it's Medicaid or any other program, we don't want the people and we're setting this up so that the people who need these programs and are eligible for them, they're not gonna suffer the consequences.

We want the fraudsters and we want the bureaucrats who enable the fraud. We want those people to suffer the consequences. So here, here's, here's a very simple thing is, the, the threat to the Medicaid program, I always think some of these political, you know, partisan types get this exactly backwards. The threat to the Medicaid program is not us keeping fraudsters away from the Medicaid program.

It's the fraudsters raiding that program to begin with. That's the threat to the Medicaid program. And so what I'd say to anybody who's worried about the Medicaid program, help us fight back against the fraud because we want low income people in this state to be able to get the healthcare benefits they need, but that's not gonna happen if the fraudsters steal all the money that should go to the people who actually need it.

Seamus Othot with The Maine Wire. In the recent budget, Janet Mills and the Democrats enshrined, um, essentially protections for fraudsters. If they get their federal funding cut, the state will pay for them. Um, how do you think that that can be fought on the federal level without just, um, taking those currently diffuse costs and putting them even more directly onto the main taxpayers?

Well, I, I, I had not heard of that. Unfortunately, it doesn't shock me and I think that th- -- this is where when we talk about, what can you do? What is my advice to you in order to stop the fraud? Advice number one is throw the people that enable the fraud, the hell out of office. They're not worthy of your support and it, it's gonna keep happening, unless we kick them out of office.

But, but, but the, the answer is we have a number of tools at the federal government to force compliance with our anti-fraud statutes and anti-fraud provisions. We're working very hard, again, to work with these states, but if the states aren't gonna work with us, we're gonna force them to comply with the anti-fraud mandate.

It's very simple. We're gonna use those tools at every step of the way. I don't frankly care whether the far left politicians in this or that state try to protect the fraudsters. We're not gonna protect them under the Trump administration and that is my solemn promise to every person in the state.

Jackie Mundry from WMTW in Portland. It, it sounds like it's been a challenge to work with the Mills administration on this issue. We have a good --

That's an understatement.

We have a gubernatorial election coming up in November with primaries in just a couple of weeks. Do you think it would be easier to work with a Republican governor? If so, why? And do you plan to endorse any of them? I know a number of them are here today.

Well, first of all, congratulations to those guys. I mean, I've run for political office. I always admire anybody who's willing to put their hat in the ring and try to represent the great people of this state or any other. It's an amazing thing. Thank you all. But, but, I mean, look, what I would say is obviously, I'm a Republican, so I think it's gonna be easier to work with some of these Republican candidates.

But the simple fact is, it couldn't be harder than it is with Janet Mills. Again, there are a few states. There are a few states, maybe, you know, California, New York, Maine, Minneapolis, or Minnesota. There probably are five or 10 states that are just impossible to work with because it's clear, they don't want to go after the fraud.

Now, I don't know why that is. Part of that could be they're complicit in it themselves. Okay? [Audience member calls out "That's true"]

Part, part, part of that, part of that could be they know that a lot of their donors have gotten rich off the fraud. Part of that could just be laziness and part of that could be because they honestly, in their hearts, care more about illegal aliens than the people they represent. There's a combination of explanations, but I guarantee you, whoever is the next governor of Maine, it cannot be worse when it comes to anti-fraud than Janet Mills.

But we'll do --

Yeah, hi.

We'll do, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll do one more question, and then we'll hit the road.

Thank you, Mr. Vice President, for taking questions. Uh, I'm Phil Hirschkorn from News Center Maine. [Audience boos]

So it turns out, it turns out that Maine does have, uh, a Medicare fraud control unit. You mentioned that a few minutes ago. I'm wondering, um, you said Maine could be the third worst state after states like California and Minnesota, which have proven tens of millions, maybe hundreds of millions of dollars in fraud and many federal convictions.

So far, what we've heard about from the federal government in Maine is questionable $45 million in the autism services, which you mentioned. We've also heard about $1.7 million in questionable billing by a Somali immigrant run NGO. My question is, what else --

Guys, it's all right. Now, I, I appreciate y'all standing up for me, but trust me --

Hey, hey, we still have innocent until proven guilty in this country. My question is, what else do you got? What else has your task force flagged that we should be concerned about because those amounts are a lot, 46 million, 1.7 million, but they don't really compare to California and Minnesota. What else should we expect from your task force?

Thank you.

Well, let, let, let me, let me say a few, let me say a few things. So let, let, ladies and gentlemen, we, we, we've got bias rep- -- we've got bias reporters in all states. It's okay, trust me. I can, I can hand, I can handle it, but here, here's, here's what I'd say a few things. Number one, you talk about the scale of the fraud being less in Maine than it is in California.

Well, California has a population that's much higher than Maine, so that's not necessarily a fair comparison. Number two, we've frankly been at this less long than we have in Maine than in, than in other states, okay? This is something where what, what we, I would say, you notice a pattern, and you're right, innocent until proven guilty, but what I've noticed is a pattern that when you see certain types of fraud and certain types of programs, that's the tip of the iceberg.

And when I see that autism services fraud in the Medicaid program in the Somali community, but not just that, I see local and state politicians who don't care about policing that fraud, that's the tip of the iceberg. And we're going to find out just how deep that iceberg is, and I suspect, I can't promise, but I suspect we are going to find hundreds of millions of more dollars every single month that we look in the state of Maine because this is not a state that takes it seriously.

And this is the third point and the most important one. I, I do not actually like having a contentious relationship between the state government and the federal government. We want people to help us find the fraudsters. It goes a lot quicker, it's a lot easier, it requires fewer resources from the federal government, but you find more fraud when you're working with people at the local level.

What I find so preposterous about Maine, it's not just that we found tens of millions of dollars of fraud in a relatively small state. It's that we've had no cooperation from the state government. So when I say, so when, when I say that the state government, when I say this is the, the third, maybe the fourth-worst state when it comes to fraud, what I mean very simply is that you've got a governor and you've got a set of the bureaucrats that don't care about fraud, and all I'm saying is Donald J. Trump and J.D. Vance, we care about fraud, we care about the people of this state, and we care about your tax dollars going to where it's actually supposed to go. Are we -- D- -- d- -- d- -- guys, do we have somebody over here who's got an issue?

Yes.

Okay. Let's get a, let's get a doctor in here. Sounds like we got somebody who may be fainted or, got him?

They got him, yeah.

They got him? Okay. All right.

What about voter fraud?

So I, so let, let, let's, if we would, ladies and gentlemen, if you would just make a pathway so the law enforcement and the doctors can get to that person? We okay? We're good?

She's got care.

She's got care?

Yeah.

Okay, sounds good. Well, I, look, I, I, I want to, I, I just, I want to be respectful so I'm not going to answer any more questions here. I'm going to let, uh, let this, um, let this person get the, the treatment and the care that she needs. Let me just say two, two quick words. N- -- number one, um, let's all say a prayer for our friend here and make sure that God looks after him or her, looks after her health.

And number two, what I, I'd say is, it is the coolest job that I've ever had to be the vice president of this great country. It's the coolest thing to be able to come here in, in the beautiful state of Maine in the beautiful month of May and to be able to spend some time with you. Let me just say that this job has given me more confidence than ever that this country, its best days are ahead of it. A- -- a- -- as much as I am sometimes frustrated by Washington DC, as much as I'm sometimes frustrated by the politicians who seem to care more about illegal aliens than they do the citizens of this country and the citizens of this state, what I've learned over the last 18 months is that we have the most talented, the most compassionate, and the toughest people anywhere in the world.

Ladies and gentlemen, America is the best country and it's going to be the best country for many years to come. God bless you all. Thank you for having me. It's good to see you all. Thank you.