Vice President JD Vance has taken center stage in the Trump administration’s response to Somali fraud in Minnesota and the ICE Shooting on Wednesday in Minneapolis.
Vance spoke for approximately 35 minutes on the topics during a reporter-packed White House press briefing scheduled just hours earlier on Thursday, a day after his major interview with Fox News primetime host Jesse Watters.
This is the first time the vice president has appeared at a White House press briefing since October 1, the day the Democrat-led government shutdown began, signaling not only the gravity of the two issues he spoke about Thursday, but also his role in the response.
Vance updated reporters on current ongoing fraud investigations and the activation of an interagency task force to get to the root of fraud.
“We have actually activated a major interagency task force to make it possible to get to the heart of this fraud,” he said, pointing to a Department of Agriculture investigation on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) fraud as an example.
“We have over 1,500 subpoenas the Department of Justice has issued to get to the heart of the fraud ring,” he said. “We’ve done almost 100 indictments, mostly Somali immigrants, but also a few others. And of course, we’re looking in, with broad investigatory authority, to a number of the instances of wrongdoing that we’ve seen in Minneapolis.”
He also announced the forthcoming role of an assistant attorney general who will have jurisdiction over fraud in the United States and blasted the legacy media for its “irresponsible” coverage of the ICE-involved shooting.
“But we also want to expand this,” the vice president continued. “We know that the fraud isn’t just happening in Minneapolis; it’s also happening in states like Ohio. It’s happening in states like California. And so what we’re doing in order to help coordinate this remarkable interagency effort from the Trump administration, but also to make sure that we prosecute the bad guys, and do it as swiftly and efficiently as possible, is we are creating a new assistant attorney general position who will have nationwide jurisdiction over the issue of fraud.”
Vance detailed that the initial focus of whoever assumes the new assistant attorney general role will be on Minnesota, but there will also be a focus across the nation.
“Now, of course, that person’s efforts will start and focus primarily in Minnesota, but it is going to be a nationwide effort, because unfortunately, the American people have been defrauded in a very nationwide way,” he said.
Vance said that Attorney General Pam Bondi was key in helping to create the role and that he has spoken with Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) about quickly confirming the eventual nominee for the job, further illustrating his leading role in combatting fraud at the expense of taxpayer dollars.
“Creating a job like this often takes months, sometimes even longer. When we realized that we needed this associate attorney general position, Pam got this person up and running in about a week,” Vance told reporters.
“We’re going to make the nomination, hopefully in the next few days. We’ll obviously let you guys know who that is when we do it,” he added. “I’ve talked to Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who has promised me swift confirmation for this official, but this is the person who is going to make sure that we stop defrauding the American people.”
The role will have all the abilities of a special counsel with two distinct differences.
“Number one, it will be run out of the White House under the supervision of me, and the president of the United States. And number two, it’s actually constitutionally legitimate,” the vice president said.
“As you guys may know, the special counsel statute has some major constitutional questions,” he continued. “When we get the bad guys. We want to make sure we get them permanently, and they don’t have some legal technicality they can get out of, which is why we’ve set it up as an associate attorney general.”
News of Vance’s conversation with Thune comes as Breitbart News exclusively reported that one of Vance’s top Senate allies, Sen. Jim Banks (R-IN), has introduced legislation to prevent agents of any nation subject to the president’s travel ban from accessing taxpayer dollars.
Vance also torched the news media for its “irresponsible” coverage of the ICE officer’s shooting of a woman who the Department of Homeland Security said allegedly “weaponized her vehicle.”
“I think it’s really irresponsible for you guys to go out there and imply or tell the American people that a guy who defended himself from being rammed by an automobile is guilty of murder,” Vance said to reporters in the room. “Be a little bit more careful.”
“We’re gonna talk about turning down the temperature, which I know the president wants to do, and I certainly want to do. One of the ways we tone down the temperature is to have a media that tells the truth. I encourage you all to do that,” he added.
Vance’s leadership is drawing praise from Bondi and others.
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