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Vice President JD Vance in Bangor urges crackdown on welfare fraud and elevates Paul LePage
Summary
In a May 14 Bangor event, Vice President JD Vance urged aggressive federal and state action against alleged Medicaid and SNAP fraud, cited individual cases he said totaled millions, and praised former Gov. Paul LePage as the candidate to carry that fight to Congress.
Vice President JD Vance told a Bangor audience on May 14 that the federal government is stepping up efforts to stop what he described as large-scale fraud in state-administered benefit programs and urged Mainers to back leaders who will cooperate with those efforts.
Vance framed the problem as one that harms taxpayers, providers and eligible beneficiaries. "When people steal your money," he said, "there are a lot of people out there who are suffering in the process," naming physicians who lose reimbursement and patients who fail to get services.
He singled out former Maine governor Paul LePage for praise, saying LePage had "doubled the number of fraud investigations" as governor and urging the crowd to send him to the U.S. House to continue anti-fraud work. "Let's send Paul LePage to the U.S. House," Vance said, asking the audience to support candidates who prioritize enforcement.
Vance repeatedly blamed what he identified as both state and federal leadership failures for allowing fraud to persist, naming Governor Janet Mills and President Joe Biden as targets of criticism. He described fraud as a problem tied to multiple programs and communities, and presented prosecution and stronger controls as the remedies.
On individual cases, Vance pointed to a person he identified as Raquia Mohamed and said she had been accused of collecting roughly $15 million over five years for interpreter or autism-related services she "wasn't providing." Vance said federal prosecutors had pursued the case; his remarks characterized the matter as a prosecution the administration had taken up.
The event included a local reporter Q&A in which Vance described the administration's approach — pursue low-level operators to build cases up the chain of fraud networks and tighten state verification systems — and credited citizens and journalists for producing leads. A medical incident in the audience ended the session before additional questions could be answered.
Vance's remarks were delivered as appeals to Maine voters and officials, and combined policy proposals with partisan criticism and a public endorsement of LePage. He portrayed enforcement as both a protection for eligible program recipients and a political issue for the upcoming state elections. The administration's factual claims about specific prosecutions and amounts were presented by Vance as assertions and were not independently verified in the event.
