'Malicious Disinformation': Chuck Schumer Rips Into JD Vance Over Social Security Comments

4/8/2025

During remarks on the Senate floor Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) spoke about Vice President JD Vance claiming that 40% of calls to social security about benefits are fraudulent.

Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:

https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript

Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com

Transcript

00:00On Social Security. A few days ago, Vice President J.D. Vance claimed that 40% of people calling to get their Social Security, quote, are committing fraud. 40%.

00:13First, it was Elon Musk calling Social Security a Ponzi scheme.

00:17Then, Donald Trump spent 10 minutes in his congressional address talking about checks to 150-year-olds, which we all know is a lie.

00:25And now, the Vice President has picked up the axe and is coming for Social Security, too.

00:31We need to be very clear. What the Vice President said was malicious disinformation.

00:37His statement is factually incorrect.

00:39In the words of the Washington Post, it is, quote, absurdity on its face, the kind of twisted logic that turns up at the end of a long game of telephone tag, unquote.

00:50Well, we all know what game they're playing.

00:52Donald Trump and his inner circle are howling about fraud with the hopes of discrediting Social Security entirely.

01:00Never mind there's no rampant fraud within Social Security.

01:03They just want to cut people's benefits.

01:05Never mind that it's popular, overwhelmingly popular, with Democrats, Republicans, liberals, conservatives, rural people, suburban people, urban people.

01:14Why are they doing this, then?

01:17Why are they going after something that has been as sacred as Social Security since Franklin Roosevelt put the program together?

01:25Why? Simple.

01:26So they can cut taxes for the rich.

01:29This is a heist.

01:30If J.D. Vance had any intellectual honesty, he would acknowledge he was wrong when he was said 40% of the people who are calling are actually committing fraud.