Vice President JD Vance questioned Rep. Angie Craig (D-MN) on Wednesday for defending Minnesota’s record on fraud, suggesting Democrats are hiding data on corruption. The vice president weighed in on a statement Craig made during a House hearing with Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, in which the Minnesota lawmaker said the state’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program fraud rate is only 1.6%. Craig’s statement provoked swift backlash from Rollins, who said the federal government is relying on data touted by Minnesota officials because the state won’t share food stamp data with the USDA or allow it to scrutinize figures. “If the fraud rate is really as low as Democrats claim, why are they fighting so hard to hide the data?” Vance defended Rollins in a post to X. “Why not just work with USDA to audit and validate where the money is going? Their resistance to us going after fraud is part of why these programs ballooned in the first place.”
The National Republican Senatorial Committee also jumped on Craig, in light of an internal poll the GOP said her Senate campaign commissioned, which touched on fraud. Craig is challenging Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan for the Democratic nomination in the race to succeed retiring Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN).
