Two dozen Democratic state attorneys general decided to skip Vice President JD Vance’s anti-fraud roundtable at the White House Tuesday.
The snub came as Vance’s Task Force to Eliminate Fraud convened at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.
16 Republican attorneys general were in attendance. The Democratic AGs sent a letter to Vance refusing to show, but the reason they gave drew immediate skepticism from administration sources.
“While we would appreciate the opportunity to engage in serious discussions, the invitation was provided with less than one business day’s notice with no agenda,” the 24 Democratic AGs wrote.
“This short notice does not match the spirit of collaboration that has long defined our joint efforts with federal partners. Accordingly, we respectfully decline to attend at this time.”
A source familiar with the planning told The Washington Examiner a different story: the event was originally designed for Republican attorneys general only, but Vance himself said it would be a shame if Democrats didn’t participate. He personally pushed to extend the invitation, only to be snubbed.
Democrats have no interest in rooting out fraud, it seems.
Trump established the task force by executive order in March, naming Vance its chairman with FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson as vice chair and Deputy White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller as senior adviser.
Trump later formally dubbed Vance the nation’s “fraud czar,” saying his focus would be “EVERYWHERE, but primarily in those Blue States where crooked Democrat politicians have had a ‘free for all’ in the unprecedented theft of Taxpayer Money.”
The task force has moved aggressively since its launch. Vance announced it has shut down 780 fraudulent hospice centers, identified $6.3 billion in government contracts going to potentially fraudulent businesses, and sent letters to nearly 400 contracting companies demanding proof of legitimacy within 30 days. The task force has also issued more than 1,500 subpoenas and secured over 100 indictments.
Vance has specifically called out California, New York, and Hawaii as states with massive fraud problems and weak prosecution, noting Hawaii has recorded zero indictments or convictions for Medicaid fraud in recent years. He has gone further on California, and said Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office has turned a blind eye to the fraud.
“When I hear a report that says to the governor, ‘here’s all this fraud’ and he doesn’t do anything about it, I ask myself, ‘was anybody engaged in criminal wrongdoing? Was anybody in his office engaged in criminal wrongdoing?'” Vance said recently on Fox News. “Again, I’m not going to say yes, but I am going to promise the American people.”