Vice President JD Vance told a crowd at a rally in Iowa on Tuesday that his fraud task force found 186,000 dead individuals collecting benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
Vance traveled to Des Moines to appear at an event for Rep. Zach Nunn (R-IA), a vulnerable member of the House GOP majority. During his remarks, Vance talked about the fraud task force that President Donald Trump asked him to lead.
“People have asked me, ‘Is that a hard job?’” Vance told the audience. “And I say, ‘Well, let me think. Finding fraud in the federal government, it’s kind of like fishing in a barrel with dynamite.’”
Vance said he is “shocked every single day by the things” the task force has uncovered.
“Brooke [Rollins] has found out that we’ve got 355,000 people on SNAP benefits receiving double benefits, that we’ve got 186,000 dead people getting SNAP benefits,” Vance said, referring to the agriculture secretary. “186,000 dead Americans getting food stamps right now.”
Vance joked that the “fake news media” would misrepresent his remarks as wanting to “take away food stamps.”
“That’s what they’re going to say. I actually think that we should take food stamps away from dead people. I’m guilty of that,” Vance said to laughter and applause from the crowd. “I think that’s a reasonable thing.”
Vance also said Rollins informed him before the event that she had found “there are people who have Lamborghinis who currently receive SNAP benefits.”
TRUMP SAYS 300K ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS KICKED OFF SOCIAL SECURITY AND 100K OFF MEDICARE
“I’m a pretty conservative guy, but I would think that like 95% of the United States of America would agree that if you are wealthy enough to afford a Lamborghini, then you are wealthy enough to not receive SNAP benefits from the American people,” said Vance. “Is that common sense?”
SNAP is a government program aimed to help low-income individuals afford food by supplementing household grocery budgets. It is administered through the Agriculture Department, and benefit levels are determined based on net income and household size, operating on the assumption that 30% of a household’s net income is spent on food.