Sacramento, California - Governor Gavin Newsom responded after Vice President JD Vance announced billions of dollars in Medicaid cuts to California over allegations of "rampant fraud."
On Wednesday, Vance – who President Donald Trump tapped to head his anti-fraud task force back in March – announced that the administration is withholding $1.3 billion in Medicaid funding due to allegations of fraud within the state's hospice and home health agencies, such as the In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS).
Vance declared that the action was driven by the idea that California "has not taken fraud very seriously," and said that he and Trump want to "protect" the state's citizens "from their own leaders."
In an X post shared later that day, Newsom argued that he and his state "hate fraud," insisting that it was not what the cuts were actually about.
He accused Vance and Dr. Mehmet Oz – another member of the task force – of "attacking programs that keep seniors and people with disabilities OUT of nursing homes," adding that doing so was "pretty sick."
"Why has IHSS grown in California? It's simple: Because California is keeping more people OUT of far more expensive nursing homes," he wrote.
President Trump has made tackling federal fraud a focus of his second term. The task force has been ordered to focus on health and welfare fraud, and has so far only taken aim at Democrat-run cities and states.
Most notably, the Trump administration has been targeting the state of Minnesota, where it cut over $250 million in Medicaid funds in February and another $91 million just a few months later.