politics
JD Vance Campaigns for Paul LePage in Maine, Urges States to Strengthen Medicaid Fraud Controls
Vice President JD Vance visited Bangor on Thursday to support former Gov. Paul LePage's bid for Congress and highlighted what he called widespread fraud in the state's Medicaid program. Vance accused Gov. Janet Mills of refusing to cooperate with federal anti-fraud efforts announced the previous day by President Donald Trump's task force.
May 14, 1:45 PM·2m read1 source
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Vice President JD Vance traveled to Maine on Thursday to campaign for Republican congressional candidate Paul LePage in Bangor. Vance appeared alongside former Gov. Paul LePage, who is seeking election in Maine’s 2nd Congressional District.
The visit allowed Vance to expand on themes from a Wednesday press conference where he and members of President Donald Trump’s anti-fraud task force announced new steps to pressure states to cooperate on rooting out fraud. Vance told the Bangor crowd he was heartbroken by fraud in the state he said he loves.
“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,” he said.
He ranked Maine as the bronze medalist for fraud, behind Minnesota and California. Vance said Gov. Janet Mills was refusing to cooperate with the federal government on cracking down on fraud. He accused Mills and former President Joe Biden of transforming Maine from a state without a serious fraud problem to one of the worst in the union.
“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 to, by right, 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,” Vance stated.
On Wednesday, Vance and the Trump administration’s anti-fraud task force sent letters to each state Medicaid program. The letters pressed the programs to cooperate with the federal government or risk losing federal funding for Medicaid Fraud Control units.
