'Send the crazy people back home': J.D. Vance sharpens midterm rhetoric at Wisconsin rally

With just a handful of months left for the midterm elections, Vice President J.D. Vance amped up the Republican narrative, urging voters to send the "crazy people back home where they belong." Speaking in Wisconsin on Wednesday, Vance said that he had a simple request for voters: "When you go to the ballot in November, send people; people who fight for you to DC and send the crazy people back home where they belong."

While making his pitch for the GOP, Vance accused Democrats of "confiscating your money and giving it to fraudsters and illegal aliens." "They openly brag about fighting not for you, but fighting for some of the worst human beings that exist anywhere in the world," Vance said, amping up the Republican narrative of nationwide "election fraud."

"Any election fraud is too much election fraud in the world's greatest and oldest constitutional republic," he said, adding, "If Democrats want us to stop talking about election fraud, I'll make them a simple deal: Pass the SAVE America Act, and get voter ID, and we'll stop talking about election fraud."

According to The New York Times, Vance continued his attack on Democrats over their immigration views, claiming that they were fighting to increase fraud in the country. "This is not about better or worse policy," he said, "This is about who is supporting fraudsters and who is supporting you." At one point during the address, he held up a picture of Markita Barnes, a Wisconsin native who was convicted in March on 10 counts of health care fraud for stealing $2.3 million from a Medicaid benefit program meant to help at-risk pregnant women and women with young children.

"Look at this woman in the front with the smug look and the Louis Vuitton bag," he said, adding, "A woman who, quite literally, stole from young mothers who needed prenatal care and the state of Wisconsin, ladies and gentlemen, had to scale down that program because of insufficient funds." As per TMJ4, Barnes was convicted on multiple counts, including healthcare fraud, money laundering, and aggravated identity theft, in 2025. She was sentenced to 10 years in prison earlier this year.

Through his address, the Vice President indicated that fraud related to healthcare programs will remain a major issue in the November midterms. As per Fox News, the Trump administration revealed that Medicare claims for skin substitutes spiked from $200 million to $14.4 billion between 2019 and 2025. "That's a lot of money, and that bankrupts not just hospital systems and physician groups, but it causes major problems across the entire landscape," CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz said. The anti-fraud task force and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) have identified several fraudulent claims and have denied 96% of those made since March.