Gov. Janet Mills (D-Maine) issued a response to Vice President JD Vance’s anti-fraud visit to Bangor on Thursday, claiming that she actually is tough on fraud, and deflecting away from the fraud issue onto the Iran War.

“As District Attorney, Attorney General, and as Governor, I have always cracked down on fraud — often by working hand-in-hand with the Federal government,” said Gov. Mills.

“Whenever we identify credible allegations of fraud, they are referred to the Attorney General, who works in partnership with Federal law enforcement. We often coordinate with the Federal government to ensure the integrity of criminal investigations, which can last for months or even years,” she added.

Despite Mills’ claim, The Maine Wire has reviewed numerous instances in which auditors found millions of dollars in overbilling by home healthcare providers while the state continued to pay out taxpayer funds.

In many cases, the overbilling businesses failed to pay back the funds, faced no legal repercussions, and were allowed to continue billing.

During Vice President Vance’s speech, he called out Mills for failing to work with the federal government to combat fraud and specified that he believes anti-fraud efforts should be nonpartisan. He emphasized that he would happily work with Mills or any other Democratic governors willing to help fight fraud.

In the most recent budget, signed by Mills and supported by Democrats in the legislature, the governor took what appears to be a preemptive step toward countering federal fraud enforcement efforts by including provisions to use state funds to pay for the billing of any healthcare providers cut off by the federal government.

Mills’ also used her response to bring up rising gas prices caused by the Iran War, though it is not clear how that invalidates anti-fraud efforts.

“The remarks by the Vice President today are nothing but a weak attempt to distract from the Trump Administration’s failing agenda, endless war in Iran, and failure to control crushing costs — including sky high gas prices — that Maine families and businesses are struggling with every day,” said Mills.

“Maine people deserved to hear about how the Trump Administration is making their lives better by lowering costs, improving health care, building housing, and fixing child care — but we got none of that because the President and Vice President don’t actually care about these issues or the hardships they are causing our state and people,” she added