Latest / The Ben Ferguson Podcast / Election Night Shockwaves Rock GOP Establishment plus Vance Declares War on Government Fraud

Transcript

Election Night Shockwaves Rock GOP Establishment plus Vance Declares War on Government Fraud · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: And within weeks of this task force being established, we've
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: seen the largest ever slate of indictments, recovered funds, search warns, raids, seizures, investigations,
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: and new legal actions to stop, disrupt, and prevent fraud.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: What we've learned, which is not surprising to those of
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: us who spent some time in this area, is that
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: fraud is every bit as bad as President Trump said
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: it was, and even worse so. In other words, everything
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: we found either confirms our worst fears or exceeds them.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: You're listening to the forty seven Morning Update with Ben ferguson.
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: Good Wednesday morning.
• 0:35
  Speaker 4: Nice to have you with us on the forty seven
• 0:37
  Speaker 4: Morning Update, and we've got two big stories for you.
• 0:40
  Speaker 4: First up, it was a bloodbath for candidates that tried
• 0:44
  Speaker 4: to go against President Donald Trump. His endorsement mattered more
• 0:48
  Speaker 4: than ever. And one thing is clear, America First candidates
• 0:52
  Speaker 4: are winning over the hearts and the minds on election.
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: Day of the candidates.
• 0:57
  Speaker 4: Also, and story number two, Vice President Jade Vance held
• 1:01
  Speaker 4: a roundtable discussion with many attorney generals from across the
• 1:05
  Speaker 4: country and the amount of fraud that they have found
• 1:08
  Speaker 4: is truly shocking.
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: We have the details for you.
• 1:11
  Speaker 4: It's the forty seven Morning Update and it starts right now.
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: Story number one.
• 1:15
  Speaker 4: Well, it's time to break down what we witnessed on
• 1:18
  Speaker 4: election night in America. And it wasn't just another round
• 1:21
  Speaker 4: of Republican victories. It was a reminder to the entire
• 1:25
  Speaker 4: political establishment the President Donald Trump is still the undisputed
• 1:31
  Speaker 4: king maker of the Republican Party.
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: Now.
• 1:34
  Speaker 4: The political class and the consultants and the donors and
• 1:38
  Speaker 4: the so called experts and the elitis of DC, they
• 1:42
  Speaker 4: literally spent months, if not years, trying to convince American voters.
• 1:48
  Speaker 4: The Trump's grip on the GOP was, oh, either slipping
• 1:52
  Speaker 4: or it was a disaster, or we're going to lose
• 1:55
  Speaker 4: if you listen to Donald Trump. Well, guess what happened.
• 1:58
  Speaker 4: Election night told of the different story yet again. Across
• 2:03
  Speaker 4: Texas and across the country, candidate after candidate that was
• 2:07
  Speaker 4: backed by Donald Trump didn't just survive, they literally dominated.
• 2:14
  Speaker 4: And nowhere was this more obvious than what happened in
• 2:18
  Speaker 4: the great state of Texas and the biggest race of
• 2:21
  Speaker 4: the night. You had the Texas Attorney General, a maga
• 2:25
  Speaker 4: conservative that the elitis said could not win, a guy
• 2:29
  Speaker 4: by the name of Ken Paxton. He delivered a political
• 2:33
  Speaker 4: I would call it earthquake by defeating a longtime incumbent,
• 2:38
  Speaker 4: Senator John Cornyan and the Republican Senate runoff. And let
• 2:43
  Speaker 4: me be clear, it was a beatdown. It wasn't just
• 2:46
  Speaker 4: any victory. Cornyn was one of the most powerful Republicans
• 2:51
  Speaker 4: in Washington, and everybody that liked to have power in
• 2:55
  Speaker 4: Washington and had favors, they liked to cash in with Cornyan.
• 2:58
  Speaker 4: They went into this race with an open, blank checkbook,
• 3:02
  Speaker 4: and it still didn't work.
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: Now, Corning was a four term incumbent. Do the math
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: on that.
• 3:09
  Speaker 4: That's twenty six years, literally decades of establishment support. He
• 3:14
  Speaker 4: had massive fundraising from outside the state and every institutional
• 3:20
  Speaker 4: advantage imaginable when you're an elected official. Yet Ken Paxson
• 3:25
  Speaker 4: was armed with Trump's endorsement at the last minute, but
• 3:29
  Speaker 4: he had the MAGA grassroots, the American First grassroots, on
• 3:33
  Speaker 4: his side the entire time. And what happened. He steamrolled
• 3:38
  Speaker 4: the political establishment. Now the race became a national referendum
• 3:43
  Speaker 4: on who actually controls the Republican Party, the Old Guard
• 3:47
  Speaker 4: in Washington or the America First movement led by Donald Trump.
• 3:52
  Speaker 4: And voters answered loud and clear, which is making everyone's
• 3:56
  Speaker 4: minds in the establishment and in the media well go insane. Now,
• 4:00
  Speaker 4: Paxson's victory was especially significant because not only did the
• 4:06
  Speaker 4: establishment throw everything they had at him, but they also
• 4:10
  Speaker 4: had tens of millions of dollars that were spent to
• 4:13
  Speaker 4: make sure that KEM. Paxxon didn't win. These Republican attacks
• 4:18
  Speaker 4: were relentless, yet voters looked past all of it and
• 4:22
  Speaker 4: chose the candate they believe would fight alongside President Trump
• 4:26
  Speaker 4: not manage the decline of the Republican Party politely from Washington. Now,
• 4:31
  Speaker 4: Paxson wasn't the only example of this, and congressional races
• 4:35
  Speaker 4: across the state, you had Trump back candates that kept
• 4:38
  Speaker 4: piling up victories. Alex Mueller, endorsed by Trump, won the
• 4:41
  Speaker 4: Republican nomination in Texas in the newly redrawn ninth congressional district,
• 4:46
  Speaker 4: giving Republicans a major opportunity to flip a Democratic held
• 4:51
  Speaker 4: seat in November. Trump back Kennants also scored wins in
• 4:55
  Speaker 4: open congressional seats and key runoff races around the state,
• 4:59
  Speaker 4: providing that the present endorsement still carries enormous weight with
• 5:03
  Speaker 4: Republican voters, even kennets, were strong conservative credentials. They understood
• 5:08
  Speaker 4: one thing during these races, if you wanted to energize
• 5:12
  Speaker 4: the base, there was no endorsement more valuable than that
• 5:16
  Speaker 4: of the presidents. And nationally, the same trend continued. Over
• 5:20
  Speaker 4: the past several weeks. Trump endorsed candidates have been racking
• 5:23
  Speaker 4: up wins in critical primaries in Kentucky, in Georgia, Indiana,
• 5:28
  Speaker 4: and in some cases longtime incumbents and establishment Republicans with
• 5:34
  Speaker 4: unlimited financial backing were pushed out entirely. That is why
• 5:39
  Speaker 4: election night mattered the most. This wasn't simply about individual races.
• 5:45
  Speaker 4: This was about the power inside the Republican Party, getting
• 5:48
  Speaker 4: rid of the rhinos, getting rid of the special interests,
• 5:52
  Speaker 4: getting rid of the people that don't actually listen to
• 5:55
  Speaker 4: you and I the voters, and the results showed that
• 5:58
  Speaker 4: Trump's influence may act actually be stronger now than at
• 6:02
  Speaker 4: any point since he first became president. In fact, since
• 6:05
  Speaker 4: he first came down the escalator in twenty fifteen.
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: Now Story number two, Vice President JD.
• 6:11
  Speaker 4: Vance stood at the center of what the Trump administration
• 6:14
  Speaker 4: is calling an all out war on government fraud, waste
• 6:18
  Speaker 4: and abuse, and the headlines coming out of the Anti
• 6:21
  Speaker 4: Fraud Roundtable, well, they were staggering. Vance made it crystal
• 6:25
  Speaker 4: clear that this administration not only believes that American taxpayers
• 6:29
  Speaker 4: have been robbed for years by massive fraud schemes buried
• 6:33
  Speaker 4: deep inside of our federal programs, and now he says
• 6:37
  Speaker 4: the days of looking the other way they're over. At
• 6:40
  Speaker 4: the White House round table with state attorney generals and
• 6:44
  Speaker 4: federal officials, Vance announced at the administration's Anti Fraud Task
• 6:48
  Speaker 4: Force has already identified and recovered up to one hundred
• 6:53
  Speaker 4: and sixty billion dollars connected to fraudulent payments, fake reimbursements, contracts,
• 7:01
  Speaker 4: and abuse of taxpayer funded programs. The Vice President laying
• 7:06
  Speaker 4: out a list of exactly what's happened in just the
• 7:09
  Speaker 4: first two months.
• 7:11
  Speaker 5: In just two months, we exposed billions of dollars in
• 7:14
  Speaker 5: benefits that had been stolen from the American people. We
• 7:17
  Speaker 5: referred over twenty two billion dollars in fraudulent small business
• 7:20
  Speaker 5: loans back to the Treasury for collection. We've deferred more
• 7:23
  Speaker 5: than one point three billion dollars in fraudulent medicaid reimbursements
• 7:28
  Speaker 5: that we're coming from various states, particularly California, we put
• 7:31
  Speaker 5: a six month hold on enrollments for new hospice and
• 7:33
  Speaker 5: home healthcare providers because so many of the newer hospice
• 7:36
  Speaker 5: providers we're not actually providing hospice services, but we're just
• 7:40
  Speaker 5: focused on frauds. We're going to cut that out for
• 7:42
  Speaker 5: a little bit and try to get to a place
• 7:44
  Speaker 5: where we can actually certify that the people providing hospice
• 7:47
  Speaker 5: services are actually providing those very necessary and important services.
• 7:51
  Speaker 5: We recover taxpayer funds from the one hundred and thirty
• 7:54
  Speaker 5: five billion dollars stolen after the floodgates were open. In
• 7:58
  Speaker 5: the immediate aftermath of COVID, we have found six point
• 8:01
  Speaker 5: three billion dollars in suspected fraudulent government contracts which were
• 8:05
  Speaker 5: mostly awarded during the last administration, and that has stopped.
• 8:08
  Speaker 5: And finally, we've blocked sixty million dollars in student aid
• 8:12
  Speaker 5: fraud that should have gone to young people trying to
• 8:13
  Speaker 5: get an education, but instead we're going to fraudsters. And
• 8:17
  Speaker 5: I think the theme here of the Anti Fraud Task
• 8:20
  Speaker 5: Force up to this point has really been that we're
• 8:22
  Speaker 5: protecting two classes of victims.
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: Here.
• 8:24
  Speaker 5: We're protecting the American taxpayers who shouldn't have their money
• 8:27
  Speaker 5: stolen by fraudsters. And of course we're protecting the people
• 8:30
  Speaker 5: who need these services. Fraud is not a victimless crime.
• 8:33
  Speaker 5: This is not somebody gets to make some money for
• 8:35
  Speaker 5: violating the law and otherwise it's not a big deal.
• 8:39
  Speaker 5: This is people who rely on critical services, students who
• 8:42
  Speaker 5: rely on student loan services, sick people who who rely
• 8:47
  Speaker 5: on hospice care, a number of small businesses who rely
• 8:51
  Speaker 5: on the availability of these loans so that they can
• 8:53
  Speaker 5: grow their business and hire people. All of these people,
• 8:56
  Speaker 5: all of our fellow Americans, have been taken advantage by fraudster,
• 9:00
  Speaker 5: and the task forces here to stop it.
• 9:02
  Speaker 4: Now, let's just dive into some of these numbers for
• 9:04
  Speaker 4: a moment. One hundred and sixty billion dollars. Now, according
• 9:08
  Speaker 4: to Vance, this isn't just isolated fraud. He described it
• 9:11
  Speaker 4: as a systemic abuse that stretched across the healthcare programs,
• 9:15
  Speaker 4: COVID relief funds, student aid, and government contracting. Now, one
• 9:20
  Speaker 4: of the biggest examples that he highlighted was one hundred
• 9:22
  Speaker 4: and thirty five billion tied to alleged fraud involving post.
• 9:27
  Speaker 4: That means, after COVID relief programs Vance argued that the
• 9:31
  Speaker 4: speed of pandemic spinning created the perfect environment for criminals,
• 9:35
  Speaker 4: shell companies, and organized fraud rings to steal massive amounts
• 9:39
  Speaker 4: of taxpayer dollars. He also pointed the twenty two billion
• 9:43
  Speaker 4: in fraudulent small business loans and that program money that
• 9:47
  Speaker 4: was literally supposed to keep legitimate American businesses alive during
• 9:51
  Speaker 4: the pandemic, but instead the money flowed to fake companies
• 9:56
  Speaker 4: and straight up scammers and then came one of the
• 9:58
  Speaker 4: most shocking examples involving healthcare. Van said investigators uncovered approximately
• 10:05
  Speaker 4: one point three billion and fraudulent Medicaid reimbursements, with much
• 10:10
  Speaker 4: of that activity concentrated and you guessed at liberal California now.
• 10:15
  Speaker 4: The Trump administration said, these fake providers, these fraudulent billing operations,
• 10:20
  Speaker 4: and sham healthcare businesses were siphoning off taxpayer dollars while
• 10:25
  Speaker 4: real Americans struggled with rising health care costs. The Vice
• 10:29
  Speaker 4: President also highlighted investigations in the hospice and home health
• 10:34
  Speaker 4: care fraud schemes. In recent weeks, the administration froze new
• 10:37
  Speaker 4: Medicare enrollments for some hospice and home health care agencies,
• 10:41
  Speaker 4: while the investigators audited the providers suspected of operating the
• 10:46
  Speaker 4: fraudulent facilities altogether. Now, according to the Trump administration, some
• 10:51
  Speaker 4: of these operations allegedly build the government for patients who
• 10:55
  Speaker 4: either didn't qualify for services or in many cases may
• 10:59
  Speaker 4: never have receive legitimate care at all. Another major headline
• 11:04
  Speaker 4: from the roundtable also involves suspected fraud in federal contracts,
• 11:09
  Speaker 4: and this is where they say the new frontier is
• 11:11
  Speaker 4: probably going to be. The task force says it is
• 11:14
  Speaker 4: flagged approximately six point three billion in questionable government contracts
• 11:21
  Speaker 4: involving potentially fraudulent businesses. Vance argued that Washington became too
• 11:27
  Speaker 4: far comfortable with handing out taxpayer money with little or
• 11:32
  Speaker 4: no accountability, and he said the administration is now using
• 11:36
  Speaker 4: aggressive audits and new AI technology to identify suspicious spinning
• 11:42
  Speaker 4: patterns and much faster than they ever had before. And
• 11:46
  Speaker 4: that goes back to even the fraud that we're witnessing.
• 11:49
  Speaker 4: On another level, student aid fraud. Money's supposed to mean
• 11:54
  Speaker 4: that students can go to college and better themselves, have
• 11:58
  Speaker 4: a better life, get a better education, and become great earners. Well,
• 12:03
  Speaker 4: now we know, the administration, says investigators have already uncovered
• 12:06
  Speaker 4: more than sixty million connected to fraudulent student aid claims.
• 12:11
  Speaker 4: Another example, the Vice President said used to argue that, hey,
• 12:16
  Speaker 4: taxpayer funded programs, well, they're basically just piggybanks for anyone
• 12:21
  Speaker 4: that wants.
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: To get a paycheck.
• 12:24
  Speaker 4: And this is all because the oversight systems have failed
• 12:27
  Speaker 4: for years. And that's exactly why the President and the
• 12:31
  Speaker 4: Vice President said they're going to continue to fight on
• 12:34
  Speaker 4: this issue. It's also very interesting to see how many
• 12:36
  Speaker 4: attorney generals were in the room for the roundtable, making
• 12:40
  Speaker 4: it very clear that the President and the Vice President
• 12:43
  Speaker 4: are going to be working state by state to get
• 12:46
  Speaker 4: rid of the waste, fraud, and abuse and lock up
• 12:49
  Speaker 4: those they catch stealing from the American taxpayer.
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: Thank you for listening to the forty seven Morning Update
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: with Ben Ferguson. Please make sure you hit subscribe wherever
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: you listening to this podcast right now and for more
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: in depth news, also subscribe to the Ben Ferguson podcast
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: and we will see you back here tomorrow.