News Center Maine reporter Phil Hirschkorn called out Vice President JD Vance after he claimed the state was the third-worst in the country for fraud.
Following a speech on fraud in Bangor, Hirschkorn directly asked the vice president about some of his claims.
"So it turns out that Maine does have a Medicare fraud control unit," the reporter said. "I'm wondering, you said Maine could be the third worst state after states like California and Minnesota, which have proven tens of millions, maybe hundreds of millions of dollars in fraud and many federal convictions."
"So far what we've heard about from the federal government in Maine is questionable $45 million in the autism services, which you mentioned," Hirschkorn continued. "We've also heard about $1.7 million in questionable billing by a Somali immigrant-run NGO."
At that point, the rowdy crowd began booing at the reporter.
"Now, I appreciate you all standing up for me, but trust me, I've had a lot worse," Vance told the audience.
"My question is," Hirschkorn remarked, "we still have innocent until proven guilty in this country. My question is, what else do you got?"
"What else has your task force flagged that we should be concerned about because those amounts are a lot, 46 million, 1.7 million, but they don't really compare to California and Minnesota," he pointed out. "What else should we expect from your task force?"
"So, ladies and gentlemen, we've got biased reporters in all states," Vance complained to the booing audience. "It's okay. Trust me. I can handle it."
The vice president argued that California had a much larger population than Maine.
"So that's not necessarily a fair comparison," he said. "Number two, we've frankly been at this less long than we have in Maine than in other states. Okay, this is something where what we, I would say, you notice a pattern."
Moments later, an audience member appeared to faint. Vance used the medical situation to suspend further questions.
"I want to I just I want to be respectful so I'm not going to answer any more questions here," he said.