Vance says Biden admin 'turned off' anti-fraud protections, debuts new task force with focus on Somali schemes

By Fox News · Fox News

Vice President JD Vance on Friday hosted the first anti-fraud task force meeting, where he delivered opening remarks saying the Biden administration "turned off" anti-fraud protections that "existed in our government for a very long time." Vance was joined by Cabinet and administration officials, including White House deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller, Federal Trade Commission Chair Andrew Ferguson and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin. The vice president, Ferguson and Miller delivered brief opening remarks before the meeting was closed to the press to further privately discuss their planned actions to combat fraud nationwide. "We think fraud has been a problem for a long time," Vance explained. "It became a massive, massive problem under the Biden administration. We're going to do a number of things. First of all, we're going to turn back on those anti-fraud protections so that all of these Cabinet officials are looking at what's going on and focusing on it." President Donald Trump established the task force through an executive order last week, naming Vance to lead the team that will be focused on identifying and recovering Medicare, Medicaid and other areas of fraudulent usage of federal funds across the U.S. LABOR DEPT DEPLOYS ‘STRIKE TEAM’ TO CALIFORNIA OVER $21B UNEMPLOYMENT DEBT, FRAUD CONCERNS Trump indicated that fraud is "usually in blue states ," which was reiterated by Miller during Friday’s opening meeting. "I think that most citizens probably assume that there's some verification process that takes place for the receipt of most federal benefits," Miller said. "The reality is that there is not. This is particularly true in blue states, willfully true in blue states, in which all of these programs are operated entirely on the honor system." Minnesota has been the leading focus of the Trump administration after a multibillion-dollar fraud scheme involving child daycare and autism centers was exposed, leaving dozens…