VP pool report #4- fraud task force event

VP Vance took the stage at 11:43am to announce the Small Business Administration suspended nearly 870,000 borrowers connected to suspected fraudulent activity from the Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loan.

He called on Democrats in Congress to support the administration’s efforts to combat fraud.

Standing behind him was Missouri Sen. Eric Schmitt, Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe, AG Todd Blanche, FBI Director Kash Patel, and SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler, among others. In the audience are elected officials and US attorneys from multiple states.

Note: we are currently in Missouri.

Blanche spoke after Vance-

“I flew in from Washington DC this morning for one reason. The American people were robbed and they deserve to know,” the AG said, adding that fraudsters treated the pandemic-era PPP like “a personal piggy bank."

“For years, fraudsters got the message that Washington would look the other way. That era is over.”

Loeffler spoke next and said the suspended 870,000 SBA borrowers are tied to an estimated $39 billion of taxpayer money across 45 states and territories.

“If you stole from the Paycheck Protection Program, if you created fake companies and lied about your employees, we know who you are, we will claw back the money.”

Patel spoke next and recalled that Vance said to him, "Kash, why don't we have a most wanted fraudsters list?”

"And I said, 'Because I'm not as smart as you,’” he added.

Patel said five of the most wanted fraudsters have been captured in just three months. He hopes to double that number by the end of the year.

Schmitt spoke next, thanking Vance for being in Missouri and his leadership on the issue.

“He’s very committed to this issue and that’s what it takes."

Following Schmitt, Kehoe, FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson and SBA IG Bill Kirk spoke. Kirk announced “Operation No Doze” to send final 30-day demand letters to suspected SBA fraudsters in Kansas and Missouri.

Vance wrapped up the event with remarks and took questions. Some quotes:

“This is had work in a lot of ways… but it’s not complicated work. All we really needed was the president of the United States to empower the attorney general and the broad administration to go after fraudsters.”

"If you're thinking about defrauding the American taxpayer, if you're thinking about skimming off the top, if you're thinking about taking a program that was meant for hungry children or for needy young mothers, don't do it. Go and get a job instead.”

“The government should have been doing this for years. The fact that we've been doing it for the past 18 or so months is a great indictment of our political system."

He said "a few" Democrats on the state level have helped the fraud work but added, "you know who hasn't lifted a finger to help us? Congressional or Senate Democrats in Washington D.C. In fact, they've lied about our anti-fraud efforts and they fought us every single step of the way. If you're looking to cast a ballot in November for somebody who's going to protect your taxpayer dollars and ensure that the food stamp program actually goes to young families, who ensures that the Medicaid program actually ensures that our low-income children have access to a doctor, who ensures that our small business administration goes to upstart companies, not to fraudsters, then you need to think seriously about why congressional Democrats have refused to help us at every step of the way."

The vice president then took questions from reporters, one on redistricting, the Biden administration and PPP loans, preventing future fraud, tariffs on Canada, and how to implement fraud combatting into law.

Q: what message would you send to the Missouri Supreme Court about redistricting?

VP: "what I find most bizarre about the Missouri redistricting debate is that you already had a primary election where people cast ballots with districts as they exist now. So if the courts don't do what I think that they should, you could have people who are going in the general election and casting ballots in districts that are different than the ballots that they cast just a couple of months ago in the primary. That to me disrupts the democratic process. And if the Supreme Court wants to step in and change things, they should have changed things back then. "

Q: a couple members of your fraud task force said the Biden administration turned a blind eye to PPP fraud, do you have reason to believe that they were aware? would the fraud task force look into them?

VP: "certainly the fraud task force is looking into that.

"It was an open secret. If you talk to any state governor, the small business administrator, any United States senator in 2022 or 2023, we knew that the PPP program was ripe with fraud. I'm not talking about a few dozen cases."

"Everybody knew what was going on. Everybody knew people were skimming off the top. It's just the federal government wasn't doing anything to stop it.”

Q: What can the federal government do in a more proactive way with applications, review process, to prevent fraud?

VP: "when we say that we're cutting off the people who fraud the government in the past, That's perhaps the most proactive thing that we can do because we make sure that if you come back to the federal government... your application is automatically going to be deemed as negative. Now, there's a review process actually in place, people to try to appeal that if they feel like they've been wrongfully tagged as a fraudster. But the unfortunate reality is that almost no one will do that because every single person who's defrauded the government knows when they've done it. They know that they've made a mistake, and they know that they shouldn't be getting taxpayer dollars in the future.

Q: What is the administration going to do to mitigate the economic pain of the trade conflict with Canada?

VP: "one of the things the president is trying to do is just make things more fair for the American worker. If you look at what... that $4 billion export market. We got to ask ourselves: Is Canada applying restrictions on Kansas City workers or Missouri workers or Kansas workers that it's not applying to anybody else? And the unfortunate answer is despite the fact that we all love Canada, it's obviously a friendly country in a lot of ways, their government has imposed extraordinary trade restrictions on American workers all across our country for many years.

"What we're saying to the Canadian government is if you want access to American markets, you have to be fair to American workers. This is going to lead to a place that's much better for American workers. I think frankly, much better for Canadian workers too.

Q: Of the fraudulent borrowers, how many have been convicted? How much has been recovered?

VP: "We certainly appreciate that some people, you know, mistakes sometimes happen. So we've set up a process to ensure that people can actually challenge whether they've been adequately or accurately, I should stay, tagged as a fraudster."

Q: what are your ways of maintaining this law so that it lasts far beyond this administration? And secondly, is this task force also looking into fraud in transgender procedures?

VP: "So we are absolutely looking into that. We're looking actually at a host of Medicaid fraud because you know, for those who don't know, Medicaid is I think one of the most important programs that exists in the entire government and ensures that low-income Americans are able to access health care. So when you steal money from Medicaid, you're not just stealing it from the American taxpayer, which of course is a very serious problem. You're also potentially stealing it from a kid who grew up in a circumstance like me who needs to go see a doctor, but will find that those services don't exist because the money has been stolen by fraudsters. We take that extremely seriously.

"To your point about consensus and you know building the kind of legislative framework that can make this anti-fraud task force endure, we would love it. And in fact, we've extended many, many invitations to congressional Democrats to either work with us...

"whoever the president is in 2029, and if it is a Democrat, I want the anti-fraud effort to continue because we can't allow it to be normalized that the American people get stolen by or stolen from fraudsters. And importantly, to the people who are commiting fraud out there, I don't want them checking the clock. I want them to know that whoever's in charge of the federal government, they're going to go after fraud as zealously as President Donald J. Trump has."

The event ended at 12:26pm.

Motorcade is rolling to next event.

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Alex Gangitano

Reporter, White House | POLITICO