While there is no shortage of hypocritical, dishonest, and opportunistic politicians, California Governor Gavin Newsom absolutely takes the cake. Just one county in his state, Los Angeles County, is home to astronomical amounts of hospice fraud. Dr. Oz, the Head of The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS), was sounding the alarm on this fraud back in January. He ordered Newsom to come up with a plan to address the fraud, a request that largely went ignored. Independent journalist Nick Shirley went to California to investigate the fraud in hospice and child care. Gavin Newsom's Press Office attacked him for it, portraying Shirley as a creep preying on kids.
Unfortunately for Gavin, CBS News also exposed the fraud in two separate investigative stories. Fox News also uncovered fraud.
Now that Newsom realizes he's got a problem on his hands, he's trying to take credit for cracking down on the fraud.
California is again leading the charge against large-scale identity theft and hospice fraud.
— Governor Gavin Newsom (@CAgovernor) April 9, 2026
Today, we're taking decisive action against 14 providers who tried using stolen identities to bill Medi-Cal for nonexistent hospice services.
Here's why we can't let him.
In January, Newsom attacked Dr. Oz for implicating Armenians who were implicated in fraud schemes.
Dr Oz’s LARPing in LA is a targeted attack on the Armenian community — throwing out accusations against businesses with no proof.
— Governor Gavin Newsom (@CAgovernor) January 29, 2026
In 2021, I signed a law banning all new hospice licenses to curb fraud, revoking 280+ licenses since.
Where have you been? pic.twitter.com/tT1KRnpNi4
Newsom's office also filed a civil rights complaint against Dr. Oz for making "baseless and racist" allegations against those Armenians.
My office is filing a civil rights complaint seeking an investigation into Dr. Oz's baseless and racist allegations against Armenian Americans in California. pic.twitter.com/MBU0vAf507
— Governor Gavin Newsom (@CAgovernor) January 30, 2026
When confronted with more examples of fraud, Newsom's Press Office dismissed the claims and blamed Republicans.
First off, the “center” initially identified is a student tutoring business.
— Governor Newsom Press Office (@GovPressOffice) February 16, 2026
Now, since the right-wing has become obsessed with hospice fraud recently, they may have missed this — the Trump Admin dismantled a Biden era effort to combat hospice fraud last year.
Meanwhile, in… https://t.co/tg1lftWaHI
He falsely claimed he was cracking down on fraud in March, and blamed President Trump yet again.
Since I implemented a hospice moratorium in 2021, California has led one of the toughest crackdowns on hospice fraud in the nation with 280+ licenses revoked, investigations into 300 providers and 284 criminal defendants.
— Governor Gavin Newsom (@CAgovernor) March 24, 2026
Meanwhile, what has Trump done? He literally paused… https://t.co/priQYyJPPM
On April 8, City Journal ran a story in which a Newsom spokesman with the California Department of Social Services said “fraud in the IHSS [In-Home Support Services] program is not widespread.” From March through the present day, Newsom's administration and Attorney General Rob Bonta said the investigations were "President Trump’s shiny new political talking point" and claimed they were cracking down on hospice fraud since 1979.
There's just one problem with that, too. Medicare didn't authorize hospice services until 1982.
And if they were cracking down on fraud, how did shady hospice agencies and billing grow exponentially in the past few years? Shouldn't an administration committed to cracking down on fraud have prevented that from happening in the first place?
Newsom gets no credit for the fraud investigations or crackdown. He had no interest in stopping it until President Trump and his administration brought the problem to light.