GREGG JARRETT: If Walz is charged in Minnesota fraud scandal, his best defense is incompetence

“I hereby plead incompetence and stupidity.”

That’s probably the best defense that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz can offer if he is criminally charged in the shocking multi-billion-dollar taxpayer ripoffs that grow larger by the day.

Given his earned reputation, his excuse of incompetence would be credible.

Nearly every social service program receiving federal dollars was fleeced by fraudsters right under Walz’s nose, including child nutrition, daycare, healthcare, housing, and autism aid. Most of the perpetrators were Somalians who form a powerful voting block that the governor treasures like gold.

EMMER WARNS WALZ COULD END UP ‘IN CUFFS’ AMID MINNESOTA FRAUD CLAIMS

Walz was repeatedly warned of the swindles as far back as 2019 when he first took office. Instead of stopping the scams and prosecuting the grifters, he indulged them by establishing a culture of permissible fraud.

The scandal has already claimed Walz’s political career, forcing him to abandon his bid for re-election. But if he reckoned that quitting would somehow shield him from legal culpability, he is mistaken. There is mounting evidence that Walz was willfully complicit, deliberately refusing to expose or pursue the monumental thefts and, instead, launching aggressive measures to scuttle any legal scrutiny and criminal consequence.  

The governor’s own state workers at the Department of Human Services issued a blistering statement blaming him as 100% responsible. Witnesses say he retaliated against whistleblowers and schemed to discredit the well-documented fraud reports.

WALZ’S LONG-RUNNING FRAUD SCANDAL PUTS HARRIS CAMPAIGN JUDGMENT UNDER SCRUTINY

If true, Walz’s aberrant actions run dangerously close to criminal behavior involving cover-ups and obstruction.  

Nine federal agencies, including the FBI, are now working to unravel the full breadth and depth of the colossal cons.  The Department of Justice (DOJ) has sent scores of investigators and lawyers to Minnesota to prosecute the web of fraud and deceit.

They will inevitably weigh whether Walz should face criminal charges himself.

MINNESOTA AG BLASTS HOUSE HEARING ON FRAUD SCANDAL IN HIS STATE : ‘A LOT OF BULLS— FROM REPUBLICANS’

Possible Federal Charges

There are several federal statutes to consider. For example, 18 USC 371 makes it a crime to conspire with others to defraud the government. At present, there is no known evidence that Walz directly participated in the scams themselves or accepted money.

However, if he plotted to cover up the fraud by impairing, obstructing or defeating efforts to bring the fraudsters to justice, the conspiracy statute is applicable. So, too, are the various obstruction of justice laws.

JASON CHAFFETZ: DEMOCRATS TURNED OUR TREASURY INTO A ‘PIGGY BANK FOR FRAUDSTERS’

There is also 18 USC 2, the aiding and abetting statute where accomplices are treated the same as the main perpetrators. That law gave rise to the “willful blindness doctrine” recognized by our courts.

An example is a businessman who intentionally ignores or turns a blind eye to his partner’s money laundering, resulting in charges against both. Similarly, a public official such as Walz can be indicted for deliberate inaction where he has a clear duty to act.

Finally, 18 USC 3 is relevant whenever concealment occurs. Whoever knows that a crime has been committed but “hinders apprehension, trial or punishment,” is guilty of being an accessory after the fact. That bears a striking resemblance to what Walz is accused of doing.

FROM CONGRESS, TO VP NOMINEE TO DISGRACED FORMER GOVERNOR: A LOOK AT THE RISE AND FALL OF TIM WALZ

All of this invites the question of the governor’s motive. If not money, how did he stand to benefit by suppressing the avalanche of fraud? That’s the easy part. Votes.

Walz, together with liberal elites and their media handmaidens, have long dismissed the rumors and reports of Somali-engineered fraud as “racist.” Apparently, in Minnesota it is politically incorrect to enforce the law against immigrants from that particular East African country. It’s just not fashionable.

God forbid that putting criminals behind bars might lose electoral support. It’s chic to turn the other cheek.

REP TOM EMMER: WALZ OVERSAW BILLIONS IN STOLEN TAXPAYER MONEY — NOW COMES ACCOUNTABILITY

So, the Somalian fraudsters were gifted a “get-out-of-jail” free card, courtesy of the governor and his cronies. Walz, in turn, secured their votes. It was a nifty quid pro quo, but with an alternate currency — votes. As protection rackets go, it was slick.   

That cozy arrangement is manifested in a recently uncovered audio recording of a 2021 conversation between Walz’s Attorney General Keith Ellison and Somali hustlers who were soon after convicted of scamming millions of dollars. They were heard leaning hard on the AG to “protect” them in exchange for support and campaign donations.  

Ellison eagerly capitulated but now denies any wrongdoing. He returned the cash.           

Walz’s Incompetence Defense

It is too early to know whether a criminal case will be filed against Minnesota’s beleaguered governor. The U.S. attorney and DOJ lawyers are still digging through the mountains of evidence.

However, as noted above, the only tenable defense Walz may be able to conjure up is incompetence and stupidity. It is something that jurors might readily accept.

SCATHING AUDIT REVEALS MORE FRAUD CONCERNS INSIDE TOP MINNESOTA AGENCY WITH FABRICATED DOCUMENTS, ‘MISCONDUCT’

After all, ineptitude became the governor’s calling card. He infamously conceded his own buffoonery in the 2024 Vice Presidential debate when he called himself a “knucklehead.” He was such a gaffe factory that the Kamala Harris campaign squirreled him away from the media.     

Walz achieved the impossible. He made his running mate look like a genius. His bizarre on-stage antics were constant fodder for mockery. Baffling verbal goofs, such as boasting that he had “become friends with school shooters,” left voters scratching their heads or snickering.  

A series of demonstrable lies about his military service and his peculiar treks to China only compounded the impression of a man who is either a serial fabricator or not right in the head. Maybe both are true.  

And who can forget his epic bungling of the George Floyd riots in 2020? He radicalized the tragic death, thereby ginning up the ensuing violence. As Minneapolis burned, Walz dithered. Afterwards, he blamed the looting and the torched buildings on systemic racism.

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So, it’s not a stretch to imagine that an indictment alleging Walz was wittingly complicit in his state’s massive welfare fraud scandal might be met with a defense of “misfeasance” (careless or incompetent execution of a lawful duty) to combat the incriminating evidence of “malfeasance” (a deliberate, unlawful act).   

It’s a distinction that can mean the difference between conviction and acquittal.

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Should Walz find himself in the dock sometime soon … don’t be surprised if he portrays himself as a blockhead who was intellectually incapable of grasping the obvious.

Minnesota jurors who know the governor would understand completely.

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Expert warns painting slain anti-ICE activist as ‘George Floyd 2.0’ will fail

Despite large protests erupting in Minneapolis and throughout the country, an immigration expert said that the left’s attempt to paint slain anti-ICE protester Renee Nicole Good as “George Floyd 2.0” is “just not sticking.”

Leading Democrats have responded with outrage after an ICE officer killed Good in a Wednesday confrontation. The Trump administration has said the agent fired in self-defense in response to Good allegedly attempting to run him over with her vehicle.

Democrats have rushed to portray it as an example of unjust violence by the Trump administration.

Hillary Clinton posted on X on Thursday that “last night, at the corner where an ICE agent murdered Renee Good, thousands of Minnesotans gathered in the frigid dark to protest her killing.”

RENEE GOOD’S WIFE CLAIMED MINNEAPOLIS SHOOTING WAS ‘MY FAULT’ IN VIDEO AMID ANTI-ICE FURY

Clinton said that “in the face of this administration’s lawless violence, solidarity is the answer,” adding, “They want to mold America to their cruelty. We refuse.”

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey told ICE to “get the f— out of Minneapolis” during a Wednesday press conference, a sentiment that was echoed by Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., who also posted to the Department of Homeland Security, “Get out of our city.”

Amid widespread protests, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said the state’s National Guard was prepared to deploy if necessary, saying, “We’ve never been at war with our federal government.”

In an interview with Fox News Digital, Lora Ries, director of the Heritage Foundation’s Border Security and Immigration Center, said that a lot has changed in the several years since Floyd’s killing, including a decline in trust of the mainstream media and a subsequent surge in independent journalism.

VANCE DEMAND DEMOCRATS ANSWER WHETHER ICE OFFICER IN MINNEAPOLIS SHOOTING WAS ‘WRONG IN DEFENDING HIS LIFE

“This isn’t 2020 anymore, and a lot of Americans’ eyes have opened during 2020 from the COVID shutdowns, the mandates, the censorship, the nightly riots, the election fraud, and it’s just not going to work anymore,” said Ries. “People can see what’s really happening and decide for themselves, not just take mainstream media’s word for it or mainstream media omission of facts as the truth.”

Ries said that as soon as the fatal shooting happened on Wednesday, she knew “the left is going to try to make this George Floyd 2.0.”

“But within 24 hours, even less, that hasn’t come to pass,” she said.

Ries believes this is because of a general “distrust of the left” but also “the opportunity to see these videos, to know that this same agent had been subject to a different car dragging him and having to go to the hospital mere months ago, providing all the context that what the left is trying to push, it’s just not sticking.”

Vice President JD Vance said during a Thursday news conference that the ICE agent who had fired the shots had been involved in a harrowing incident six months earlier, in which he had been dragged by a car and had received 33 stitches to his leg. He might have been “a little bit sensitive about somebody ramming him with an automobile,” Vance said.

Nevertheless, Ries said that “the left is aiming all of its ire and even literally its fire at ICE, not any other federal agency, not the DEA going after drugs or fentanyl, not the FBI, not even defund the police anymore. It is solely ICE.”

AG PAM BONDI WARNS MINNESOTA PROTESTERS AFTER ICE SHOOTING: ‘DO NOT TEST OUR RESOLVE’

“Why? Because ICE is deporting their political base,” she said. “The left has built their political house of cards on mass migration, immigration fraud. Now it seems welfare fraud for political kickbacks, for votes, for headcount, for the census, which determines congressional districts, which in turn determines electoral college votes for the presidency. This is all about politics and if we had valid elections and valid censuses that only counted U.S. citizens for congressional apportionment, how different would the political map look right now? That’s the question.”

“The left is trying to paint this woman who was killed yesterday as a victim,” she went on. “She came from out of state. What was she doing there? There are accounts where she had been in her car, leading, harassing, tracking, stalking ICE agents all day long. The agents seemed to know her, and when they told her to get out of the car, she didn’t obey. . . . So, this is on her, unfortunately.”

Ries said it is the same deal with illegal immigration.

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“If people come here and break the law, then that’s their choice. That is their decision, and they should be personally responsible for that,” she said. “We, as a sovereign nation, enforcing our laws, should deport them. And there’s nothing wrong with that. We shouldn’t apologize for it.”

“For too long, we’ve not held people personally responsible,” Ries concluded. “We need to make personal responsibility great again and stop trying to make the perpetrators the victim.”

BROADCAST BIAS: Networks demonize ICE as ‘Trump’s Gestapo,’ downplay attacks on them

Minnesota Democrat Gov. Tim Walz pulled out the smears last May at a law-school graduation. The agents of Immigrations and Custom Enforcement (ICE) were “Trump’s modern-day Gestapo,” “scooping folks up off the streets.” It had been Joe Biden’s ICE just four months earlier. How quickly can an agency descend into fascism? 

The national broadcast networks never found that objectionable or newsworthy. The “independent fact-checkers” yawned. Comparing President Donald Trump to Hitler is 24/7 Democrat messaging. Comparing law-enforcement agencies to storm troopers is perfectly fine – when the Democrats aren’t in charge of them. 

It’s become clear that Democrats from Walz on down don’t just oppose mass deportation. They oppose any deportations. They don’t welcome cooperation with ICE. They push resistance against ICE. 

Because ICE is now relentlessly demonized, it shouldn’t be surprising that they’ve been on the receiving end of violence. The broadcast networks yawn. In September in Chicago, an illegal alien ran over and dragged an ICE agent in Chicago until the alien was shot dead. But there was no sympathy for the dragged agent on ABC, CBS, NBC or PBS.

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Last December in St. Paul, Minn., an illegal alien allegedly ran over an ICE agent and bit another agent when he was apprehended. The national networks showed they don’t care. They didn’t bring that up after the latest incident. 

The death of Renee Nicole Good when she threatened to drive into an ICE agent is a tragedy. If activists like Good wanted to protest ICE by showing up wherever they seek to enforce the law and film it on their phones, that’s in our First Amendment tradition. But it’s a crime to get involved in trying to impede law enforcement activity. 

Everyone knew how the broadcast networks would cover this death, with massive energy and outrage. That didn’t happen for women killed by illegal immigrants. We can guess the elitist media would say these murders were atypical for illegal immigrants. But using that logic, apparently ICE shooting a protester is typical for them?

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The broadcast networks didn’t care about 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray being raped and murdered, or the rape and murder of Maryland mom Rachel Morin. When they gave 20 minutes to the trial of Laken Riley’s illegal-immigrant killer last November, it paled in comparison to the 78 minutes the networks gave a little-known comedian at a Trump rally last October calling Puerto Rico “a floating island of garbage.” They were all trying to get former Vice President Kamala Harris and Walz into the White House.  

Not everyone let Democrats rant without a challenge, like Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey demanding ICE “get the f— out of Minneapolis.” Newly minted “CBS Evening News” anchor Tony Dokoupil asked Frey: “The rhetoric we just heard, other things you have said, you’ve now got protesters in the streets saying things like ‘Nazis go home.’ How are you helping the situation calm down?” Frey basically said he won’t: “What I appreciate about this situation right now is we in Minneapolis are all singing with one accord, which is, one, we are going to stand up for our immigrant community. Two, we are going to keep people safe.” 

Democrats routinely call illegal immigrants “our neighbors,” our “immigrant community,” and describe opposing deportation as “keeping people safe.” Frey and the others say ICE isn’t stopping crime, it’s engaged in crime, it’s “sowing chaos.” Radicals impeding ICE activity aren’t engaged in chaos, but in “keeping people safe.” All of that sounds Orwellian. 

But don’t call activists like Good “radical.” The press pretends she was “just a mom.” On NBC’s “Today,” reporter Maggie Vespa broke out the “without evidence” claim: “The Trump administration defending his actions, including Vice President JD Vance in a rare appearance in the White House Briefing Room saying without evidence that [Renee] Good was radicalized … white local officials, including the city’s mayor, dispute the Trump administration’s narrative.”

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Whenever these networks say “without evidence,” it’s because they didn’t look. The New York Post reported Good was an anti-ICE “warrior” who sent her son to Southside Family Charter School, a K-5 academy opened in 1972 that, from its inception, has been “unabashedly dedicated to social justice education.” 

Everyone knew how the broadcast networks would cover this death, with massive energy and outrage. That didn’t happen for women killed by illegal immigrants.

The broadcast networks didn’t just rant against Trump and ICE on the newscasts. Speaking of Venezuela, ABC “comedian” Jimmy Kimmel brought out a red T-shirt, “They’re trying out a new slogan: ‘DONALD J. TRUMP IS GONNA KILL YOU.’ Pretty good, right?” Moving on to Minneapolis, Kimmel retorted, “This maniac, he isn’t just killing people overseas. An ICE agent today shot and killed an unarmed 37-year-old woman during an ICE operation in Minneapolis, who were there under the guise of protecting us.”

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On ABC’s “The View,” they took their loathing of Trump to a new level, scaring their own audience after the Minneapolis shooting. Cohost Whoopi Goldberg asserted, “That young lady could have been anybody in this audience. It doesn’t matter what — forget color. Forget everything. It could have been anybody, and if they can do this to her, they can do it to you, too.” 

You can count on these networks to avoid left-wing rhetorical excess – when they’re not engaged in it. Accounts on X circulated video of a protest in New York’s Foley Square where they chanted “Kristi Noem will Hang!” and “Save a life, kill an ICE!” You might call it the spirit of the post-George Floyd riots of 2020 and the networks won’t disparage it. They’ll use it to announce “growing outrage tonight” against ICE and Trump. 

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Treasury secretary announces cash rewards for Minnesota fraud whistleblowers

Whistleblowers who come forward with information related to Minnesota’s sprawling fraud scandal will receive cash payments, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Friday on Fox News.

The Trump administration launched a wide-scale fraud investigation in Minnesota amid a growing web of allegations involving money-laundering schemes and misuse of taxpayer funds.

“We know that these rats will turn on each other,” Bessent told “The Ingraham Angle.”

“We are going to offer whistleblower payments to anyone who wants to tell us the who, what, when, where and how this fraud has been done. I think that that will give us a great leap forward on how to get it done,” he added.

CRITICS WARN MINNESOTA LEGISLATION NOW TAKING EFFECT IS SETTING UP THE ‘NEXT BILLION-DOLLAR FRAUD’

Several Minnesota childcare and food-distribution facilities have been accused of misusing federal funds while a recent audit showed corruption tied to taxpayer-funded grant programs.

The daycare and food-distribution sites allegedly did not provide childcare or serve food, but instead used the federal funds they received to launder money.

A state audit found limited monitoring of grant programs within the Department of Human Services’ Behavioral Health Administration, which distributed hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding to mental health and addiction services.

The Trump administration froze multiple federal funding streams to Minnesota, including certain funding from the Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

However, a federal judge on Friday temporarily halted the Trump administration from freezing about $10 billion in federal funding to five Democratic-led states. 

BESSENT BLAMES WALZ AS TREASURY PROBES WHETHER MINNESOTA FRAUD FUNDS REACHED TERROR GROUP AL-SHABAB

Bessent said the fraud continues, pointing to a recent finding in which a convicted fraudster allegedly attempted to bribe a juror.

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“One of the people who has been convicted of fraud — she was given $200,000 to bribe a juror,” he explained. “And she was so corrupt, she skimmed $80,000 of it and only tried to give a $120,000 bribe.” 

Federal judge blocks Trump from cutting childcare funds to Democratic states over fraud concerns

A federal judge Friday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from stopping subsidies on childcare programs in five states, including Minnesota, amid allegations of fraud.

U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian, a Biden appointee, didn’t rule on the legality of the funding freeze, but said the states had met the legal threshold to maintain the “status quo” on funding for at least two weeks while arguments continue.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said it would withhold funds for programs in five Democratic states over fraud concerns.

The programs include the Child Care and Development Fund, the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, and the Social Services Block Grant, all of which help needy families.

USDA IMMEDIATELY SUSPENDS ALL FEDERAL FUNDING TO MINNESOTA AMID FRAUD INVESTIGATION 

“Families who rely on childcare and family assistance programs deserve confidence that these resources are used lawfully and for their intended purpose,” HHS Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill said in a statement on Tuesday.

The states, which include California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota and New York, argued in court filings that the federal government didn’t have the legal right to end the funds and that the new policy is creating “operational chaos” in the states.

In total, the states said they receive more than $10 billion in federal funding for the programs. 

HHS said it had “reason to believe” that the programs were offering funds to people in the country illegally.

‘TIP OF THE ICEBERG’: SENATE REPUBLICANS PRESS GOV WALZ OVER MINNESOTA FRAUD SCANDAL

New York Attorney General Letitia James, who is leading the lawsuit, called the ruling a “critical victory for families whose lives have been upended by this administration’s cruelty.”

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Fox News Digital has reached out to HHS for comment.

USDA immediately suspends all federal funding to Minnesota amid fraud investigation

The Trump administration announced Thursday it is suspending all U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) funding to Minnesota, effective immediately, with a large-scale fraud investigation underway.

“Enough is enough! The Trump administration has uncovered MASSIVE fraud in Minnesota and Minneapolis —billions siphoned off by fraudsters. And those in charge have ZERO plan to fix it,” Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins wrote in a social media post.

The USDA will suspend federal financial awards to the state “until sufficient proof has been provided that the fraud has stopped,” according to Rollins.

‘TIP OF THE ICEBERG’: SENATE REPUBLICANS PRESS GOV WALZ OVER MINNESOTA FRAUD SCANDAL

“No more handouts to thieves!” she wrote in the post. “Time to drain the Minnesota swamp and put American taxpayers first.”

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Friday said Minnesota tax dollars may have been filtered to terrorist group al-Shabab after a December investigation by his agency.

In one alleged fraud scheme, the nonprofit “Feeding Our Future” allegedly swindled $250 million from a USDA-funded children’s nutrition program that Minnesota oversaw during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dozens of people are charged with faking invoices, attendance records and meal distribution in low-income communities in Minnesota, having allegedly used USDA COVID-era waivers that allowed for unchecked program enrollment.

DEMOCRATIC LAWMAKER SAYS FOCUS SHOULD BE ON ‘WHITE MEN’ AT MINNESOTA FRAUD HEARING

Earlier this week, the Department of Health and Human Services froze funding for several childcare grant programs in the state, including the Child Care and Development Fund, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and Social Services Block Grant programs.

A federal judge blocked the action Friday, finding the Trump administration could not block federal funding for childcare subsidies and programs to aid low-income families, according to a report from The Associated Press.

Another scheme allegedly involved the Housing Stability Services Program, which doled out Medicaid coverage for housing stabilization services for those with disabilities, mental illnesses and substance-use disorders.

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Stephen A Smith says ‘there shouldn’t be sanctuary cities’ where people can escape federal law

Sports commentator Stephen A. Smith questioned the concept of sanctuary cities on Thursday night, blasting the idea that local leaders can decide their cities can defy federal law.

Many local liberal leaders in states across the country have publicly declared plans to resist ICE efforts to deport illegal immigrants, one of the key agenda items President Donald Trump was elected to accomplish.

Democratic Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey is one such leader who told federal immigration authorities Wednesday to “get the f—” out of the city following the fatal shooting of a woman by a federal immigration officer.

When a caller from California said he was angered by Frey’s statement, Smith said he understands where he is coming from, but noted this is part of a larger problem across the country.

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“Listen, it’s not just him, it’s people in sanctuary cities,” Smith said. “They’re not going to facilitate cooperation with federal law enforcement when it comes to ICE. And so their position is that, ‘We’re not going to obey these laws. We have our own laws when it comes to migrants coming into our country. We’re not going to listen to that.’”

Smith marveled at the idea that this had been allowed at all.

“I don’t understand how sanctuary cities are allowed in this country. I don’t get it. If there’s federal laws that mandates that, ‘You know what, you can’t cross the border illegally,’ there shouldn’t be sanctuary cities saying, ‘Yes, you can,’” he said. “It just shouldn’t be. I mean, one way or another, pick one. You either can or you can’t. But it shouldn’t be federal government says no, but you say yes. So you get to usurp the authority of the federal government and we’re still calling ourselves a ‘nation of laws.’ But which laws? It makes no sense!”

The caller noted that he lives in Los Angeles, and that its transition to become a sanctuary city was decided by local officials, not in a vote by the common people, saying this decision was a “bunch of baloney.”

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“Yeah, I don’t blame you for feeling that way,” Smith said. “Because the American people should have an opportunity to vote on it. You’re absolutely right! I didn’t even know that was the case, Andy, until you just told me!”

“You understand?” he appeared to say to listeners. “How you, a sanctuary city. Just by declaring yourself to be a sanctuary city, but the citizens in the city didn’t even vote on it? That doesn’t seem to be the American way! I’m telling you, we got problems in this country! We got to make a decision about what kind of country we want moving forward. Seriously, ’cause it’s bad!”

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Anti-ICE agitators threaten agents in chaotic Minnesota protests: ‘You’re going to f—ing die’

Anti-ICE agitators have erupted en masse in Minneapolis following the fatal shooting of a protester who the Trump administration says tried to run over an agent.

Video of the chaotic scenes unfolding in Minneapolis shows agitators harassing federal agents, with some throwing snowballs at them and some shouting phrases such as “We’re going to f—ing kill you” and “I hope you suffer.”

One video shows several federal vehicles driving down a Minneapolis street surrounded by protesters on either side of them. Many of the protesters can be seen lobbing snowballs at the vehicles while the crowd chants, “ICE out now.”

In another video, reposted by the White House’s official rapid response X account, a protester outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building can be seen confronting a law enforcement vehicle, shouting, “We’re going to f—ing find you, and we’re going to f—ing kill you! You’re going to f—ing die, b–ch!”

TRUMP DEFENDS ICE AGENT, SHOWS NYT REPORTERS VIDEO OF DEADLY MINNEAPOLIS SHOOTING

The White House referred to these individuals as “left-wing agitators.”

Another video posted on X shows a protester telling U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commander Gregory Bovino, “I hope you suffer, I hope you suffer a long, terrible death.”

In response, Bovino informs the protester that federal law enforcement is conducting “Title 8 enforcement, ma’am.”

Title 8 enforcement involves civil immigration arrests of illegal aliens without criminal offenses.

Other videos show protesters cursing federal officials. In one instance, a protester whacks an official with a sign as he shoves a protester back. The protester is then grabbed by several officers and taken to the ground.

ICE DIRECTOR FIRES BACK AT ‘SQUAD’ LAWMAKERS OVER ‘POLITICAL RHETORIC’ AFTER FATAL MINNEAPOLIS SHOOTING

In response, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLauglin told Fox News, “We are seeing a coordinated campaign of violence against our law enforcement, particularly in Minneapolis.”

McLaughlin said federal officials in the city have seen five instances of protesters ramming law enforcement vehicles with their cars and an “8000 percent increase in death threats.”

DHS wrote on X that “dangerous criminals – whether they be illegal aliens or U.S. citizens – are turning their vehicles into weapons to attack ICE.”

“The brave men and women of DHS law enforcement will not be deterred and will continue arresting the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens,” wrote DHS.

This comes after an anti-ICE protester, later identified as 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good, was shot and killed by a federal official after she allegedly attempted to run him over.

WALZ PREPARES NATIONAL GUARD AFTER WOMAN KILLED IN ICE OPERATION: ‘NEVER BEEN AT WAR’ WITH FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

Federal authorities said Good had tried to run over ICE agents who were part of a 2,000-strong team sent to the Twin Cities to investigate fraud in the state and deport illegal immigrants.

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“This appears to be an attempt to kill or to cause bodily harm to agents, an act of domestic terrorism,” DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said during a news conference late Wednesday in Minneapolis. “The ICE officer, fearing for his life and the other officers around him and the safety of the public, fired defensive shots. He used his training to save his own life and that of his colleagues.”

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said Good was shot in the head and later pronounced dead at Hennepin County Medical Center.

Pritzker challengers demand audit, pitch ‘DOGE for Illinois’ and point to Walz-style failures

Two Republicans running for Illinois governor this year are calling for Springfield to clean up its act in the wake of Minnesota’s rampant fraud scandal, citing multiple areas of alleged vulnerability under incumbent Gov. JB Pritzker.

The Democrat and Hyatt Hotels heir defended Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz after Walz declined a third term amid his state’s fraud scandal, calling Walz a “friend” and saying he was “thankful for his service and sacrifice.”

Current GOP frontrunner Darren Bailey announced plans for a “DOGE for Illinois,” and fellow Republican Ted Dabrowski publicly demanded that Pritzker submit to a full audit of social services, including SNAP.

“At the bottom of all these crazy budgets, all these deficits, all these tax hikes are everyday Illinoisans who are just getting whacked,” Dabrowski said at a recent press conference on the matter of Illinois’ tax woes and Pritzker’s oversight of state programs.

TRUMP ADMIN PUTS MINNESOTA ON NOTICE, MOVES TO AUDIT MEDICAID AND CLAW BACK FUNDS TO PROTECT TAXPAYERS

Dabrowski, the former president of Chicago-based financial research firm Wirepoints, said Illinois has seen disbursements to childcare social services funding spike nearly 300% since 2019, and wondered aloud, “Is that fair?”

“They were just burning their tax bills on the West and South Side [of Chicago],” he said, referencing reports of people literally lighting their tax forms on fire in November after witnessing 100% increases at times.

Calling for a true forensic audit of Springfield’s books, Dabrowski said Illinois cannot print money like the U.S. Treasury can, but may only keep borrowing on the backs of taxpayers.

VP VANCE SAYS TIM WALZ SHOULD RESIGN’ OVER MASSIVE MINNESOTA WELFARE FRAUD SCANDAL INVESTIGATION

Similarly, Bailey announced this week that his running mate, Palatine city legislator Aaron Del Mar, will also be named “Illinois DOGE Czar” if his ticket is successful against Pritzker in November.

“This will be a transparency-first project,” Bailey, a recently departed state senator for the Effingham area, said in a statement.

Del Mar would be in charge of “putting waste, fraud and abuse on public display,” he said.

JASON CHAFFETZ: DEMOCRATS TURNED OUR TREASURY INTO A ‘PIGGY BANK FOR FRAUDSTERS’

Nodding to how former federal DOGE chief Elon Musk opened his office, Bailey said Illinois DOGE would not be done with a chainsaw but with “an X-Acto knife.”

“It needs to be audited. It needs to be opened up so that people know where the money’s coming from. I am very confident there is going to be a lot of waste discovery in that,” he told Peoria’s CBS affiliate.

Pritzker campaign spokesman Alex Gough rejected the premise, telling the outlet that Bailey “echoes Trump’s lies, copies Trump’s dangerous ideas and wants to bring Trump’s chaos to Illinois.”

GOP LAWMAKER DEMANDS MINNESOTA FRAUD BE TREATED AS ‘ORGANIZED CRIME’ SCHEME

Gough also returned a Fox News inquiry about Pritzker’s comment on Dabrowski’s plan by quipping, “Good luck with that.”

“Just so we’re clear, Ted Dabrowski is saying he does not want the state to provide support to and care for people with disabilities?” Gough said of Dabrowski’s audit plan.

“This is such an extreme, ludicrous position that members of his own party don’t even support it.”

BESSENT BLAMES WALZ AS TREASURY PROBES WHETHER MINNESOTA FRAUD FUNDS REACHED TERROR GROUP AL-SHABAB

After the federal Department of Health and Human Services froze funding for childcare services in Illinois, Pritzker defended Springfield’s existing controls, saying state agencies “operate within robust procedures and protocol to prevent, report and address alleged fraud,” according to the Jacksonville Journal-Courier.

Other Illinois lawmakers also chimed in on the thought of pursuing fraud in Illinois to curb any Minnesota-like issues.

Rep. Mary Miller, R-Ill., was asked by St. Louis’ FOX News Radio affiliate how much fraud she believes can be found “in the Land of Lincoln.”

‘TIP OF THE ICEBERG’: SENATE REPUBLICANS PRESS GOV WALZ OVER MINNESOTA FRAUD SCANDAL

“I think it would be stunning,” Miller replied.

“And I think the fact that JB Pritzker refuses to release the voter rolls, the SNAP rolls, the Medicaid rolls [shows] he doesn’t want us to uncover the layers of corruption and abuse of taxpayers that is going on in Illinois.”

Miller said she hopes state Republicans’ plans come to pass, saying she will also put pressure on the Hyatt Hotels heir.

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“We control the purse — Congress does. We are going to cut off funding to any states that refuse to comply,” Miller said.

USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins also previously called for every state to allow the feds to audit their SNAP rolls, in particular. Most Democratic governors balked at the demand.

Bessent blames Walz as Treasury probes whether Minnesota fraud funds reached terror group al-Shabab

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said it’s possible that Minnesota tax dollars could have been filtered to terrorist group al-Shabab, and cast blame on Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as Minnesota faces investigations into multiple alleged fraud schemes plaguing the state’s social services system.

Bessent said that the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) that money service businesses believed to have been connected to the fraud scheme, although he did not name which financial institutions are suspected to be involved. 

“We are thoroughly investigating the fraud, including funds sent to Somalia through money service businesses, which provide financial services outside of a formal bank,” Bessent said during a virtual press conference Friday. “These funds could have potentially been diverted to the terrorist organization al-Shabab. We have traced where the money went and are examining that.” 

“These businesses had an obligation to comply with anti-money laundering laws, and they will be held responsible for any crimes they committed,” Bessent said.

COMER SAYS WALZ ‘RETALIATED’ AGAINST WHISTLEBLOWERS WHO WARNED OF MINNESOTA FRAUD FOR YEARS

In December 2025, Bessent announced that his agency was spearheading an investigation evaluating whether Minnesota’s funds were potentially diverted to al-Shabab, which is based in Somalia. So far, more than 75 people have been charged in connection with alleged fraud in the state — most of whom are part of Minnesota’s Somali population. 

Bessent previously has said that a significant portion of the funds obtained through the alleged fraud schemes were transferred overseas. 

Likewise, Bessent said Friday that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Civil Enforcement is auditing financial institutions that allegedly supported the laundering of Minnesota funds, and that the IRS is planning to unveil the “formation of a task force to investigate any fraud and abuse involving pandemic-era tax incentives and misuse of 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status by entities implicated in the Minnesota based social services fraud schemes.”

EMMER WARNS WALZ COULD END UP ‘IN CUFFS’ AMID MINNESOTA FRAUD CLAIMS

Additionally, Bessent said that the Treasury is issuing training to Minnesota law enforcement on “how to utilize financial data such as suspicious activity reports to better combat these fraud schemes.” 

Bessent also blamed Walz for his lack of oversight of the state’s funds, and said that the Treasury has yet to determine the full extent of the alleged fraud schemes. 

“It’s clear that Governor Walz has been negligent in his fiduciary duties as a chief executive of the state of Minnesota, that this would happen on his watch,” Bessent said. “And we are actively pursuing all leads to see the level of involvement, whether it’s limited to just negligence and incompetence or is something more than that.”

VANCE CALLS WALZ ‘A JOKE,’ CLAIMS MINNESOTA GOVERNOR ENABLED MASSIVE FRAUD

“We do not know the depth, breadth, and collusion in this financial calamity that Governor Waltz has allowed to have happen,” Bessent said. “Was this directed from overseas? Is it the endogenous flourishing of these fraudsters that Governor Waltz allowed to grow right here in the backyard and take advantage of hard working people of Minnesota? We’ll see. So we are going to track this everywhere, from top to bottom.” 

Walz’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.

However, Walz previously has said that he believes that reports suggesting the fraud could total over $9 billion are exaggerated and “sensationalized,” he’s also promised to address the issue. 

“I am accountable for this, and more importantly, I am the one that will fix it,” Walz told reporters in December 2025. 

Walz, who announced Monday he wouldn’t run for re-election, has recently come under fire from Republicans and President Donald Trump, who has labeled Minnesota a “hub of fraudulent money laundering activity.”

TRUMP ADMIN PUTS MINNESOTA ON NOTICE, MOVES TO AUDIT MEDICAID AND CLAW BACK FUNDS TO PROTECT TAXPAYERS

In addition to the Treasury Department, lawmakers have launched probes into Minnesota’s alleged “Feeding Our Future” $250 million fraud scheme that allegedly targeted a children’s nutrition program the Department of Agriculture funded and that Minnesota oversaw during the COVID-19 pandemic.

At least 77 people have been charged in that scheme, which took advantage of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s decision to waive certain Federal Child Nutrition Program requirements.

Likewise, another alleged fraud scheme in the state stems from the Housing Stability Services Program, which allegedly offered Medicaid coverage for housing stabilization services in an attempt to help those with disabilities, mental illnesses and substance-use disorders receive housing.

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The Justice Department so far has charged less than a dozen people for allegedly defrauding the program that runs through Minnesota’s Medicaid service, but more charges are expected.

The bulk of those charged are part of Minnesota’s Somali population, prompting Trump to announce in November that he was ending the Temporary Protected Status for Somali migrants in Minnesota that offers protections against deportation.

‘Tip of the iceberg’: Senate Republicans press Gov Walz over Minnesota fraud scandal

FIRST ON FOX: The entire Senate GOP demanded that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz provide a paper trail on the state’s role in the Minnesota fraud scandal, cranking up the scrutiny in Washington, D.C., in the process. 

In a letter led by Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., Republicans reiterated that Congress controls the flow of taxpayer dollars that are alleged to be used in the unfurling scandal, where federal prosecutors estimate that up to $9 billion was stolen through a network of fraudulent fronts posing as daycare centers, food programs and health clinics.

“The state’s apparent negligent management of federal funds raises significant concerns about the adequacy of the state’s oversight, verification, and compliance systems for safeguarding taxpayer dollars intended to support vulnerable children and working families,” they wrote. “Unfortunately, these latest reports appear to reflect only the tip of the iceberg.”

SENATE REPUBLICANS PUSH TO DEPORT, DENATURALIZE FRAUDSTERS AMID MINNESOTA SCANDAL

They support the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) move earlier this week to freeze funding to several childcare grant programs in the state, including the Child Care and Development Fund, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and Social Services Block Grant programs.

Cassidy, who chairs the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, called on Walz to provide receipts on several issues and warned that failure to do so could lead to even more streams of federal money flowing to Minnesota drying up. 

SCATHING AUDIT REVEALS MORE FRAUD CONCERNS INSIDE TOP MINNESOTA AGENCY WITH FABRICATED DOCUMENTS, ‘MISCONDUCT’

In the letter, backed by Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., lawmakers demanded that Walz clarify how the state was complying with federally directed audits and what verification requirements the state has “adopted or plans to implement in the near term to support proof of legitimate use of federal child care payments.” 

They also called for a detailed outline of several issues, like how often the state conducted on-site monitoring, inspections or investigative visits to childcare facilities that received federal dollars, and specifically wanted examples of any information uncovered on fake children, false attendance records, over-billing, ineligible enrollments, and shell or fake business structures. 

SCATHING AUDIT REVEALS MORE FRAUD CONCERNS INSIDE TOP MINNESOTA AGENCY WITH FABRICATED DOCUMENTS, ‘MISCONDUCT’

Lawmakers also demanded to know how many investigations the state has conducted into the matter since 2018, any oversight actions the state has taken and why the Walz administration has, so far, not complied with a slate of recommendations from a DHS Office of Inspector General report that included action to recover overpayments, strengthen attendance monitoring at childcare facilities and implement real-time electronic attendance reporting.

Cassidy and Senate Republicans gave Walz until Jan. 22 to comply with their slate of requests. 

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“The Constitution grants Congress the power of the purse,” they wrote. “And the United States Senate is exercising its duty to ensure proper stewardship of federal taxpayer dollars for child care programs, and we take this responsibility very seriously.”

FLASHBACK: Jill Biden visited Minnesota to tout billions in childcare spending during husband’s administration

Former first lady Jill Biden went to Minnesota in 2022 to highlight the billions of dollars in investments for childcare that were part of Democrats’ American Rescue Plan Act, where she stood next to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and praised him for his leadership helping families. 

“We helped states like Minnesota safely keep open childcare centers and family childcare providers and boost pay for their workers,” Biden said during a February 2022 visit to the University of Minnesota’s Child Development Laboratory School alongside Walz and then-Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra. 

“We supported high quality providers that enrich children’s lives, and we helped make them more affordable.”

BESSENT SAYS MINNESOTA FRAUD RECOVERY COULD HELP FUND TRUMP’S $1.5T DEFENSE PLAN

The 2021 American Rescue Plan Act, a $1.9 trillion COVID-era relief package, allocated nearly $40 billion for childcare after it was passed without any Republican support. Roughly 4 years after the first lady went to Minnesota to tout the Democrat-led investments in childcare, Walz and his state are facing immense blowback for allegedly failing to adequately monitor fraud within the state’s Medicaid program and its childcare sector. 

According to a local Fox affiliate, daycare centers in Minnesota received roughly $500 million in federal funds in 2021. 

“Tim, you understand that childcare is not only critical to families, it’s critical to businesses and our economy,” the first lady said as she turned to Walz standing behind her as she addressed people at the school. 

“And Joe and I are so grateful for your leadership and for the friendship that you and Gewn … that we’ve had for so many years. And I’m excited to hear more today about what you’ve done here in Minnesota to help families recover from the uncertainties and the losses from the pandemic.”

Earlier this week, a major state audit in Minnesota conducted by the nonpartisan Office of the Legislative Auditor found widespread failures and internal control problems in the Minnesota Department of Human Services’ Behavioral Health Administration (BHA) grant program, reaffirming concerns about massive fraud issues in the state.

VANCE CALLS WALZ ‘A JOKE,’ CLAIMS MINNESOTA GOVERNOR ENABLED MASSIVE FRAUD

The report, released Monday, found that between July 1, 2022, and Dec. 31, 2024, DHS dished out more than $425 million in grants to 830 organizations, the majority being nongovernmental, and did not show proper oversight in watching over those taxpayer funds, which in many cases were meant to help those with addiction and mental health issues. The audit found missing progress reports and discovered BHA could not show it had completed all required monitoring visits and had no documentation at all for some of them. 

The audit also found that when employees were surveyed, 73% of them said they did not receive the necessary training to properly administer and manage grants, with one employee saying, “Executive leadership has repetitively shown staff that they won’t take the staff’s concerns or questions seriously until something serious happens or it makes the news.”

The scathing report comes as Minnesota’s government agencies and leaders face immense scrutiny amid a fraud scandal that prosecutors say could total as much as $9 billion and has already prompted Gov. Tim Walz to drop his re-election bid. 

Some reports have indicated a handful of Minnesota’s Democrat leaders allegedly took donations from some of those accused of committing fraud in Minnesota, while others have suggested Walz retaliated against whistleblowers who tried to sound the alarm about the fraud.

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Fox News Digital reached out to representatives for Jill and Joe Biden but did not receive a response in time for publication. 

Carville and Al Hunt agree Minnesota fraud scandal is bad, say Walz made right choice to ditch campaign

“Politics War Room” hosts James Carville and Al Hunt agreed that Gov. Tim Walz, D-Minn., made the right decision to end his re-election campaign amid an emerging welfare-fraud scandal in Minnesota.

Walz announced Monday that he was dropping his bid for a third term as governor amid stinging criticism of his handling of the state’s massive welfare assistance fraud scandal. Businesses ranging from daycares to nonprofits allegedly used state policies to take what some estimate to be about $9 billion in taxpayer dollars.

As the co-hosts took questions from listeners, one asked if the Democratic Party would turn Minnesota’s fraud scandal into “another woke debacle” by insisting it was merely a bad faith attack on the Somali community and not a legitimate issue.

“John, if they did that, you’d be absolutely right. I think they’re not going to do that,” Hunt said. “I think Tim Walz’s decision not to run for reelection is an important one.”

LOEFFLER: VAST NETWORK OF SOMALI NONPROFITS RIPPED OFF MINNESOTA’S WELFARE STATE

He went on to note a recent piece he read from The Bulwark, saying that while the suspects in these scandals are not all Somali, “they certainly played a role,” adding, “It really is a bad scandal. It can’t be swept under the rug. And I think it’s really important now that Democrats, as well as Republicans, acknowledge that and go after it. The way the previous U.S. attorney did. The current U.S. attorney is doing that, and anyone who wants to downplay it, I think, is making a huge mistake.”

“I agree,” Carville said. “And what I hear all the time in media is, ‘Well, they say that you can’t talk about this issue, this issue is being under-covered.’ Well, you’re covering it right now.”

The Democratic strategist went on to mock the idea that the story had been swept under the rug, sarcastically joking as if it were a brave thing to condemn fraud. “It’s been all over the media,” Carville said. “But the greatest boogieman is to say, ‘They won’t allow you to say this, but fraud is bad!’ I will just go out and say this.”

VANCE CALLS WALZ ‘A JOKE,’ CLAIMS MINNESOTA GOVERNOR ENABLED MASSIVE FRAUD

“Now, you can’t say this in modern America, but I’m courageous enough to tell you: fraud is bad,” Carville continued to joke. “Fraud is even bad when it’s in Minnesota. Yes. Listen to me — Fraud is bad, I’m courageous.”

Carville then appeared to take a more serious tone as he addressed Walz’s decision to scrap his bid for a third term, but argued that at least part of the scandal is probably somewhat exaggerated.

“But I think that the governor did make the right decision. I just would bet anybody — Yes, there’s something here. At the end of the day, I would bet anybody — without knowing anything other than history — that something will be — that will not be the magnitude of what we’re told.”

When Hunt noted that a local newspaper had been covering the scandal in Minnesota for years, Carville joked that he is merely raining on the parade of an exciting news story.

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“You always want to come with your stupid a– facts, and no one wants to hear that,” Carville joked, appearing to make fun of conservatives. “We want our story! They’ve just let this go and Minnesota got caught up in a twirl of communism and, I don’t know… s—.”

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“James, I love woke,” Hunt joked sarcastically, playing into the bit. “I just love woke.”

Bessent says Minnesota fraud recovery could help fund Trump’s $1.5T defense plan

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Thursday that President Donald Trump’s proposed $1.5 trillion boost in defense spending would be achievable if the federal government can successfully claw back money lost to fraud, waste and abuse, pointing to welfare fraud investigations as a potential funding source.

Speaking at the Minnesota Economic Club, Bessent said the Treasury Department is intensifying efforts to recover taxpayer dollars lost to welfare fraud, describing Minnesota as a focal point of ongoing investigations tied to federally funded programs.

“Minnesota, unfortunately, is ground zero for what may be one of the most egregious welfare scams in our nation’s history to date,” Bessent said.

MINNESOTA’S ANTI-FRAUD SPENDING HAS QUIETLY BALLOONED, LEAVING TAXPAYERS TO PAY FOR FAILURE TWICE

Bessent said recovering those funds could help finance Trump’s proposal to raise U.S. military spending to a cool $1.5 trillion.

“Yesterday, President Trump announced he was considering a $500 billion increase in defense spending,” Bessent said. Asked whether the government could afford it, he replied, “Yes, if we can get the money back from fraud.”

Pressed on whether the recovered funds would be substantial enough to meaningfully increase defense spending, Bessent said they would.

The revelation comes amid a sweeping fraud scandal in Minnesota that has drawn national attention and is estimated to involve at least $9 billion in misused funds. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, announced Monday he will not seek re-election amid growing scrutiny over the state’s handling of the case.

ONE CHART LAYS BARE THE SPRAWLING FRAUD NETWORK MINNESOTA OFFICIALS MISSED

“Under Governor Tim Walz, billions of dollars intended for families in need, housing for disabled seniors and services for children were diverted to benefit fraudsters,” Bessent said. “I am here this week to signal the U.S. Treasury’s unwavering commitment to recovering stolen funds, prosecuting fraudulent criminals, preventing scandals like this from ever happening again and investigating similar schemes state by state.”

Bessent said the administration views aggressive fraud enforcement as a key component of its broader effort to rein in government waste while funding national security priorities without raising taxes.

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Turning to Minnesota’s future, Bessent said the state had lost its way in recent years but could regain its standing under a different policy approach.

“For decades, Minnesota led the Midwest as a hub for culture, business and innovation,” he said. “But it doesn’t have to be this way. President Trump’s hope, and ultimately his invitation, is that Minnesota becomes a North Star state again.”

Elon Musk responds to a former MSNBC host calling for 2028 Democrats to prosecute him

Tesla founder Elon Musk called out former MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan on Wednesday after Hasan suggested that any future Democratic president or presidential candidate should run on a platform of prosecuting him.

“I think the next Democratic president has to be ruthless — not just president, next presidential candidate,” Hasan said on Zeteo’s weekly “Ask the Editor” series. “The 2028 Democratic primaries have to showcase a group of politicians who are running for office to not just fix things, not just offer a bright new future, not just running on a change platform, but are running on a platform to prosecute and punish the people who broke the law, destroyed our country, destroyed our democratic fabric, destroyed society — I mean, turned people against one another.”

He argued that rising concerns about alleged fraud centered on the Somali community in Minnesota were “nonsense,” claiming they were driven by social media and its algorithms — and he placed part of the blame on Musk.

ELON MUSK DECLARES ‘WAR’ OVER PERCEIVED DEATH THREAT BY SOMALI TIKTOKER

“I said this recently to [former Obama aide] Jon Favreau on Twitter. I said maybe — I’m only half joking when I say this — which is the next Democratic president should run on a plan to prosecute Elon Musk,” Hasan said. “That would win — I mean they would easily go to the top of the pack. They would immediately go to the top of the polls in the Democratic race — that the first Democrat comes out and says, ‘My first act as president is to prosecute Elon Musk.’”

The clip went viral on social media — partly thanks to Hasan sharing it himself. 

Musk, responding to a post sharing the clip, replied, “In their eyes, enabling freedom of speech is high crime.”

ELON MUSK ACCUSES ILHAN OMAR OF TREASON OVER SOMALIA COMMENTS IN VIRAL SOCIAL MEDIA POST

Hasan preempted critics by claiming that there was already precedent for politicizing the justice system.

“Now, people will say, ‘Oh, you’re politicizing.’ That ship has sailed, right? That ship has sailed,” he said. “The Republicans have no grounds to bring that up. And any Democrat who brings it up — they’re living in the wrong world, right? There has to be accountability.”

He criticized past presidents who chose to look forward rather than prosecute their predecessors for alleged crimes, declaring that era is over.

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“The Democratic president, if he or she wins in January 2029, is inaugurated, has to come in with a day-one plan for accountability. Has to run on accountability. Has to pledge accountability. Has to put the fear of God into their Republican opponents,” Hasan said of future Democratic candidates.

House passes nearly $180B funding package after conservative rebellion over Minnesota fraud fears

The House of Representatives has passed a federal funding package totaling nearly $180 billion, putting Congress one modest step closer to averting a government shutdown at the end of this month.

The legislation accounts for just over $174 billion aimed at partially or fully funding the departments of Commerce, Justice, Interior and Energy, including laying out the budget for NASA, the FBI and federal nuclear energy projects.

Republicans and Democrats overwhelmingly supported the final package of three bills, which passed by a 397-28 vote. Twenty-two Republicans and six Democrats voted against the bill.

It comes after the bills ran into opposition from conservative Republicans on Wednesday.

DEMOCRATS’ LAST-MINUTE MOVE TO BLOCK GOP FUNDING PLAN SENDS LAWMAKERS HOME EARLY

Members of the House Freedom Caucus and others on the GOP’s right flank were incensed in particular by the Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS) appropriations bill, which they felt rank-and-file lawmakers did not get proper input on putting together.

It’s one of 12 annual appropriations bills that Congress is tasked with passing each fiscal year. Congressional leaders who negotiated the legislation along bipartisan lines originally included it in a three-bill “minibus” that, when passed in the House and Senate, would mean half of those dozen bills are finished.

Conservatives also threatened to kill the bill during a procedural vote on Wednesday afternoon over the inclusion of a community funding project requested by “Squad” member Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.

The bill would have given $1,031,000 to Generation Hope’s Justice Empowerment Initiative, which “helps justice-involved Minneapolis residents break the cycle through job training and support,” according to a description of the funding request.

But conservatives argued that the funding was just another vehicle allowing Minnesota’s Somali community to fraudulently take taxpayer funds at a time when the state is grappling with a massive fraud scandal enveloping its public service programs.

“Fraud is running RAMPANT in Minnesota under the failed leadership of Tim Walz. Democrats want to use earmarks to funnel another $1 MILLION to a Somali-led so-called ‘Justice Empowerment Initiative’ that ABUSES taxpayer dollars,” Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., said on X.

CONGRESS ROLLS OUT $174B SPENDING BILL AS JAN 30 SHUTDOWN FEARS GROW

Community project funding, also known as an “earmark,” is a request that specific lawmakers make that allows their districts to directly benefit from Congress’ federal funding bills.

“Earmarks, the currency of corruption, they’re coming back in full force in these products. And I just don’t support it,” Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, told reporters Wednesday morning.

He was among the conservatives who Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., negotiated with on the House floor for nearly half an hour as the minibus was in danger of failing during a procedural vote to allow for it to be debated.

In the end, House GOP leaders agreed to hold a separate vote on the CJS spending bill while also removing Omar’s earmark, which was also supported by Minnesota’s two Democrat senators.

“Chalk one up for the good guys. Proud to work the last two days to stop the outrageous Ilhan Omar $1 million Somali earmark. Much more to do,” Roy posted on X.

The CJS bill was first voted on, followed by the remaining two as a pair, and then a final vote on combining them before sending them to the Senate.

House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris, R-Md., told Fox News Digital he still anticipated “a number of” his members will still vote against that bill specifically.

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The legislation passed along bipartisan lines Thursday, with top House Appropriations Committee Democrat Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., celebrating that the bill was free of GOP “poison pills” earlier this week.

Its funding levels are above what was originally requested by President Donald Trump but below the threshold extending former President Joe Biden’s fiscal year 2024 spending levels via another continuing resolution would have brought.

The White House has also issued a statement of support for the minibus, which will be combined back into one bill before being sent to the Senate.

Congress has until the end of Jan. 30 to find a solution on the remaining six appropriations bills to avert another shutdown.

Trump defends ICE agent, shows NYT reporters video of deadly Minneapolis shooting

President Donald Trump defended the fatal shooting of a Minnesota woman by a federal immigration officer, running footage of the scene to a group of New York Times reporters amid an hourslong interview that was held shortly after news broke of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) shooting. 

“I’ll play the tape for you right now,” Trump told The New York Times from the Oval Office amid a sweeping interview Wednesday. 

“I want to see nobody get shot. I want to see nobody screaming and trying to run over policemen either,” Trump said as the reporters began pressing him on the issue, the outlet reported. 

Renee Nicole Good was fatally shot by an ICE agent Wednesday in Minnesota as federal agents converged on the city as a massive fraud scandal unfolds in the state. 

PHOTOS RELEASED OF RENEE NICOLE GOOD, THE US CITIZEN KILLED BY ICE IN MINNESOTA

The scandal has exposed alleged money laundering operations run through phony meal and housing programs, daycare centers and Medicaid services, according to investigators. Dozens of arrests have been made since 2022, mostly from the state’s large Somali community. 

The New York Times held a two-hour interview with Trump just after the shooting unfolded, with reporters discussing an array of topics including Venezuela and Greenland, as well as the Minneapolis shooting. 

The administration has defended the shooting, with Department of Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem saying Good was in the midst of carrying out an “act of domestic terrorism” targeting federal law enforcement officers. 

Good was operating a vehicle at the time of her death. Agents ordered her to exit the vehicle, which she refused and “attempted to run them over and ram them with her vehicle,” according to Noem. 

The shooting has led to an outpouring of condemnation and concern among Democrat lawmakers and critics of the Trump administration who have called the shooting a “murder,” while some protesters have also taken to the streets of Minnesota.

Trump called on an aide to bring in a laptop to run footage of the scene to the reporters as they asked about his view that Good attempted to run over the officers. The shooting unfolded on a snow-lined residential street in Minneapolis. 

“That was a vicious situation that took place,” Trump said. 

DEM SENATE CANDIDATE MOCKED AFTER CLAIM ABOUT DISMANTLING ICE GOES VIRAL: ‘UNMASK THESE THUGS’

“She behaved horribly,” Trump added. “And then she ran him over. She didn’t try to run him over. She ran him over.”

The president repeatedly reiterated to the reporters that the scene was tragic, and “no, I don’t like that happening.” He also focused much of his comments on criticizing the Biden administration’s immigration policies that led to an illegal immigration crisis under his tenure, the New York Times reported. 

“It’s a terrible scene,” Trump said as footage of the video concluded. “I think it’s horrible to watch. No, I hate to see it.”

The New York Times reported that Trump “sidestepped” when asked if the “ICE operation had gone too far,” and instead blamed “his predecessor’s immigration policies.” 

When asked for additional comment on the matter, the White House directed Fox Digital to Trump’s Truth Social message Wednesday that, after reviewing footage, “the woman driving the car was very disorderly, obstructing and resisting, who then violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE Officer, who seems to have shot her in self defense.”

“Based on the attached clip, it is hard to believe he is alive, but is now recovering in the hospital. The situation is being studied, in its entirety, but the reason these incidents are happening is because the Radical Left is threatening, assaulting, and targeting our Law Enforcement Officers and ICE Agents on a daily basis,” Trump continued in his Truth Social post. 

WALZ PREPARES NATIONAL GUARD AFTER WOMAN KILLED IN ICE OPERATION: ‘NEVER BEEN AT WAR’ WITH FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

The White House posted a message on social media backing federal and local law enforcement officers following the shooting. 

“We stand with the brave men and women of ICE and law enforcement who risk everything to keep our communities safe,” the White House posted to social media following the shooting. 

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The Department of Homeland Security reported in December that assaults and violent attacks against ICE law enforcement officers have surged more than 1,150% compared to attacks under the Biden administration. It found there were 238 assaults on ICE officers between Jan. 21, 2025 to Nov. 21, 2025, up from just 19 during the same timeframe in 2024. 

Vance calls Walz ‘a joke,’ claims Minnesota governor enabled massive fraud

Vice President JD Vance unleashed on Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz Thursday, calling him “a joke.” 

Vance made his comments after Walz reminisced about Minnesota’s contribution to the Union during the Civil War after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent shot and killed Renee Nicole Good, 37. 

Walz, who announced Monday he wouldn’t run for re-election, already has faced increased scrutiny in recent weeks as Minnesota faces investigations into multiple alleged fraud schemes plaguing the state’s social services system.

“Look, Tim Walz is a joke. His entire administration has been a joke,” Vance told reporters Thursday. “The idea that he’s some sort of freedom fighter, he’s not. He’s the guy who has enabled fraud and maybe, in fact, has participated in fraud.

REP TOM EMMER: WALZ OVERSAW BILLIONS IN STOLEN TAXPAYER MONEY — NOW COMES ACCOUNTABILITY

“I don’t care what Tim Walz says,” Vance said. “I care about getting to the bottom of this fraud for the American people.” 

Walz’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital. 

On Wednesday, Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said Good “weaponized her vehicle, attempting to run over our law enforcement officers in an attempt to kill them.” 

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Good “hit” the ICE agent involved with a vehicle and described the incident as an act of “domestic terrorism.”

VP VANCE SAYS TIM WALZ SHOULD RESIGN’ OVER MASSIVE MINNESOTA WELFARE FRAUD SCANDAL INVESTIGATION

However, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey later challenged the administration’s description of events and claimed the shooting wasn’t an act of self-defense like the administration was trying to “spin” it. 

Earlier Thursday, Walz described the contributions of the 1st Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment during the Battle of Gettysburg, who were responsible for holding the Union line against Confederate troops. 

“I’ve seen it throughout our history,” Walz said. “When things looked really bleak, it was Minnesota’s 1st that held that line for the nation on that July 3, 1863. And I think now we may be in that moment, that the nation is looking to us to hold the line on democracy, to hold the line on decency, to hold the line on accountability.”

DEMOCRATIC LAWMAKER SAYS FOCUS SHOULD BE ON ‘WHITE MEN’ AT MINNESOTA FRAUD HEARING

Vance isn’t the only one to unleash on Walz recently. SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently called Walz a “traitor.” 

Walz has come under fire from Republicans and President Donald Trump, who has labeled Minnesota a “hub of fraudulent money laundering activity.”

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The Trump administration and lawmakers have launched probes into Minnesota’s alleged “Feeding Our Future” $250 million fraud scheme that allegedly targeted a children’s nutrition program the Department of Agriculture funded and that Minnesota oversaw during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Likewise, another alleged fraud scheme in the state stems from the Housing Stability Services Program, which allegedly offered Medicaid coverage for housing stabilization services in an attempt to help those with disabilities, mental illnesses and substance-use disorders receive housing.

JD Vance announces multi-state fraud task force in wake of Minnesota scandal

Vice President JD Vance announced a new federal task force aimed at tackling fraud across the country on Thursday.

Vance says the Justice Department will feature a new associate attorney general position to address fraud, in addition to the 1,500 subpoenas and 100 indictments the DOJ has already sent out on the issue.

Vance says the administration hopes to announce a nominee to the position “within the next few days.”

“This is the person that is going to make sure we stop defrauding the American people,” Vance said.

NOEM ALLEGES WOMAN KILLED IN ICE SHOOTING ‘STALKING AND IMPEDING’ AGENTS ALL DAY

“We have activated a major Interagency task force to make it possible to get to the heart of this fraud,” he continued. “We also want to expand this. We know that the fraud isn’t just happening in Minneapolis. It’s also happening in states like Ohio. It’s happening in states like California.”

Vance made the announcement alongside White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt at a Thursday briefing.

Prior to Vance’s remarks, Leavitt reiterated the administration’s rock-solid support for federal immigration officers operating across the country.

DEMOCRATS LOOK AT DEFUNDING ICE, IMPEACHING NOEM AFTER MINNEAPOLIS SHOOTING

Addressing the deadly officer-involved shooting in Minnesota on Wednesday, she blamed the incident on an “organized attack” by a “broader left-wing network” on federal officers operating in multiple states.

The statement echoed comments from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the victim, 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good, tried to “weaponize her vehicle” and “attempted to run a law enforcement officer over.”

Noem also accused Good of “stalking and impeding” federal agents all day. Noem told reporters that Good was instructed to get out of her car and stop “obstructing” law enforcement, but she did not comply.

The agency is labeling the incident as an act of “domestic terrorism.”

WALZ PREPARES NATIONAL GUARD AFTER WOMAN KILLED IN ICE OPERATION: ‘NEVER BEEN AT WAR’ WITH FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

On Thursday, in a separate post on X, Vance expanded on his defense of the officer’s actions, slamming critics for engaging in “gaslighting.” The post was made in response to comments from Jenin Younes, the national legal director for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, who argued that the officer was not in danger and had time to get out of Good’s way. Vance said Younes’ arguments were “preposterous.”

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“The gaslighting is off the charts, and I’m having none of it. This guy was doing his job. She tried to stop him from doing his job. When he approached her car, she tried to hit him,” Vance wrote. “A tragedy? Absolutely. But a tragedy that falls on this woman and all of the radicals who teach people that immigration is the one type of law that rioters are allowed to interfere with.”

Senate Republicans eye reconciliation to address Minnesota fraud scandal

Senate Republicans have been mulling whether to again use a powerful yet divisive legislative process, and tackling the unfolding Minnesota fraud scandal could be at the top of the list.

Congressional Republicans last year used the budget reconciliation process to ram through President Donald Trump’s crowning legislative achievement of his term so far, his “one, big beautiful bill.”

The GOP is considering taking another stab at the process, which would allow them to pass partisan legislation without Democratic votes in the Senate. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said that one option could be dealing with the alleged fraud in Minnesota.

SENATE REPUBLICANS PUSH TO DEPORT, DENATURALIZE FRAUDSTERS AMID MINNESOTA SCANDAL

“I think that one of the issues that’s been raised is this issue of waste, fraud and abuse coming out of the investigation in Minnesota, and whether there might be, you know, some bill that we could do that addresses that issue,” Thune said when asked if Republicans would go through the reconciliation process once more.

“But I think there are, you know, a number of candidates for consideration,” he continued. “I always think the best solution, if possible, is to try and do things through regular order.”

The situation in Minnesota has become a hot topic on Capitol Hill since lawmakers returned for the new year and the start of a new legislative session this week.

JAMES COMER TO ACCUSE TIM WALZ OF BEING ‘ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL’ AT FRAUD HEARING

Federal prosecutors estimate that up to $9 billion in taxpayer money was stolen through a network of fraudulent fronts posing as daycare centers, food programs and health clinics, among others.

Reconciliation has been a powerful tool for either party that commands a majority in Congress — congressional Democrats used the process to pass former President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act years ago.

But it’s a time-consuming, labor-intensive process that laid bare intra-party divisions last year and nearly imploded before leaving the walls of Congress. Still, some Senate Republicans have been pounding the drum for another chance, particularly to tackle the growing affordability issue in the country.

CORNYN PUSHES ‘ZERO MERCY’ LAW TO DEPORT ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS CONVICTED OF DEADLY DRUNK DRIVING

Senate Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who acts as the de facto quarterback for the process, has signaled that he is ready to take another crack at reconciliation.

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Thune didn’t close the door on using the process but reiterated that if Congress wants to reopen that Pandora’s box, they need to have a good reason to do it.

“I’ve always said that, if you’re gonna do reconciliation, you really have to have a reason to do it, well,” he said. “What is the ‘it’ that we’re talking about here? And, you know, is it something that the House and the White House are all on board with doing?”

Blagojevich tells Walz if he didn’t ‘do it’, go down fighting: ‘Makes me think his hands are unclean’

Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who said he knows what it’s like being accused of corruption, hammered Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz for “quitting” his reelection, which the Trump-friendly Democrat said suggests “his hands are unclean” in fraud scandals.

Walz, a Democrat, said Monday that he would not be seeking a third term, after consulting with his family and political team.

Blagojevich was impeached by the Illinois State Senate and removed from office in January 2009 as he battled corruption charges. He was later imprisoned for 14 years before having his sentence commuted by President Donald Trump. He later received a pardon but remains barred from holding Illinois office.

That saga appeared to lead the Democrat to slam Walz’ positioning as he too prepares to leave office next year.

JAMES COMER TO ACCUSE TIM WALZ OF BEING ‘ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL’ AT FRAUD HEARING

“I’m no stranger to being accused of wrongdoing,” Blagojevich said on social media.

“[B]ut if you didn’t do it, the honorable thing to do is to fight. If necessary, go down fighting.”

“But Gov. Waltz (sic) decided not to fight. He is running away and quitting which makes me think his hands are unclean on the Somali $9 billion fraud scandal,” Blagojevich added.

MINNESOTA HOUSE SPEAKER WARNS AMERICANS WILL BE ‘SHOCKED’ BY SCOPE OF FRAUD CRISIS

“Did he make a deal to avoid facing criminal charges?”

Fox News Digital reached out to Walz’ office for response to the assertion, while the outspoken former “Apprentice” contestant’s message came in response to a missive from X CEO Elon Musk that also criticized Walz.

“Walz replaced the Minnesota state flag with the Somalia flag. That’s part of why he deserves the name ‘Traitor Tim’. Put the flag back,” Musk had tweeted in response to an artificially generated meme showing Walz replacing the former state flag with a new one.

‘YOU DON’T GET A PROMOTION’: GOP RIVAL URGES PEGGY FLANAGAN TO QUIT SENATE RACE AFTER WALZ BOWS OUT

Designers of the new flag, adopted in 2024 after outcry over the depiction of Native Americans in the old version, denied that there was any intended link to Somalia’s flag – as both feature a star on a blue background.

Since his return to public life, Blagojevich has been outspoken on a wide range of issues.

He recently slammed his current successor, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, for attacks on the Trump administration – including regarding the arrest of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro.

“To Dems like JB Pritzker whose knee-jerk reaction is to attack President Trump no matter how good the president does, the raid and arrest of Maduro by the DEA was a law enforcement action and therefore not a matter to discuss with Congress beforehand,” Blagojevich said.

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He also recently praised Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, citing the right-leaning leader’s comment that mass migration amounts to “the replacement of native-born voters,” which Orbán said is “the left’s plan.”

Blagojevich said that as a “former twice-elected Democratic governor,” Orbán’s words ring true about what “Democrats are doing here in America.”

Federal prosecutor calls Newsom ‘king of fraud’ as Trump launches California corruption probe

The Trump administration is ramping up a nationwide crackdown on the misuse of taxpayer money. A top federal prosecutor criticized California Gov. Gavin Newsom over a lack of oversight, branding him the “king of fraud.”

“California has spent $24 billion in the last five years on homelessness, and no one can account for where that money has really gone,” First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Bill Essayli said Thursday on “Fox & Friends.”

In April, Essayli launched a task force to investigate corruption in California, with a focus on homeless services. The task force has already resulted in federal charges against two men accused of using real estate projects to exploit the state’s homelessness system for personal profit.

Essayli said those cases, which involve millions of dollars in alleged fraud, are only the “tip of the iceberg.”

COMER VOWS MINNESOTA FRAUD PROBE WILL EXPAND TO OTHER STATES AMID MOUNTING SCRUTINY

“We already charged millions of dollars in fraud,” he said.

“I can tell you more charges are coming, probably as soon as this month.”

He accused Newsom and California’s Democratic leadership of allowing fraud to continue in state-run programs with little oversight or accountability.

MINNESOTA FRAUD CASES, EXPLAINED: HOW HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS ALLEGEDLY SLIPPED THROUGH STATE PROGRAMS

The scrutiny of California comes as other Democrat-led states face similar federal probes of benefits programs. In Minnesota, federal authorities are investigating allegations of widespread fraud involving childcare and other social services.

President Donald Trump weighed in on Truth Social, suggesting California could be “more corrupt” than Minnesota.

“The Fraud investigation of California has begun,” he wrote on Tuesday. 

MAGNITUDE ‘CANNOT BE OVERSTATED’: FEDS SAY MINNESOTA FRAUD MAY BE MORE THAN $9B

Newsom’s press office pushed back against the accusations, writing on X that the governor has “blocked over $125 BILLION in fraud, arrested criminal parasites leaching off of taxpayers, and protected taxpayers from the exact kind of scam artist Trump celebrates, excuses, and pardons.”

Vice President JD Vance has also criticized California’s welfare policies, accusing the state of providing benefits regardless of immigration status. Speaking to Fox News’ Jesse Watters, Vance said California openly advertises using taxpayer funds to provide Medicaid to illegal immigrants.

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“California, more than almost any other state, has been so glaring and obvious about the fact that they’re giving welfare benefits to illegal aliens,” said Vance.

“They’re getting rich off of the generosity of the American taxpayer. The political corruption that enables it has got to stop,” he added.

Comer says Walz ‘retaliated’ against whistleblowers who warned of Minnesota fraud for years

House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., accused Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison of retaliating against whistleblowers who repeatedly warned state leadership about widespread fraud.

Comer said Wednesday that state officials ignored years of internal warnings and punished employees who tried to expose misconduct.

“These state legislators are well respected. They took an oath. They went under oath. If they lied, then they commit perjury. No one is accusing them of lying in Minnesota,” he said on “Hannity.” 

“They said also that whistleblowers have been coming forward for years, not weeks, not months, but years, trying to warn Tim Walz and the attorney general, Keith Ellison, that this fraud was happening.”

COMER VOWS MINNESOTA FRAUD PROBE WILL EXPAND TO OTHER STATES AMID MOUNTING SCRUTINY

“Apparently, they were catching the fraud in Minnesota, but every time they would report it, Tim Walz would bite their head off and threaten their jobs, threaten their tenure, and it would just go away until this video went viral, and here we are,” he added. 

Minnesota Republican state lawmakers testified about the handling of the alleged fraud during a recent House Oversight Committee hearing.

State Rep. Marion Rarick said Walz “has done nothing other than appoint commissioners that suppressed fraud and retaliated against their own employees.”

State Rep. Walter Hudson accused Democrats of overlooking fraud because it was politically beneficial. 

“The Somali community is a huge constituency group,” he said at the hearing.

LEAVITT CALLS MINNESOTA ‘LAND OF 10,000 SOMALI SCHEMES’ IN SCATHING WALZ TAKEDOWN OVER FRAUD SCANDALS

According to Comer, investigators have charged 98 defendants in the ongoing fraud scandal, 85 of whom are of Somali descent.

Federal accountability efforts are already underway. The Department of Justice has deployed investigators, and dozens of arrests have been made in connection with the probe.

The largest case, known as the “Feeding Our Future” scandal, centers on a nonprofit accused of exploiting federal child nutrition programs. More than 70 defendants have been charged in that case alone.

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Comer said the Minnesota investigation could be the tip of the iceberg.

“Since we launched this investigation, we’ve had whistleblowers from other states come forward, and it looks like this is a pattern with many Somali groups in several blue states in America. And we’re gonna expand this investigation.”

DAVID MARCUS: ICE protesters put lives at risk, and not just theirs

The buzz around Hollywood is that the new film “One Battle After Another,” which features left-wing vigilantes triumphing over the evil American government, is set up to win a Best Picture Oscar.

In Minneapolis Wednesday, we saw what happens when this silver screen fantasy meets the bloody reality of the actual world, where, during an altercation with ICE agents, 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good was shot and killed.

Over the past day, various videos of the confrontation have been scrutinized as if they were the Zapruder film. What seems clear is that an officer was struck by Good’s car as she attempted to flee the scene, and he shot her through the windshield.

What is less clear, at least to the critics of law enforcement, mainly on the left, is whether the officer in question could have used less deadly means in the situation. But the thorniness of that very issue is precisely why the anti-cop vigilante tactics used by Good are a terrible and deadly idea.

NOEM CONDEMNS ALLEGED ATTACK ON ICE AGENTS STUCK IN SNOW IN MINNEAPOLIS AS ‘ACT OF DOMESTIC TERRORISM’

In the leftist world of protesting, there are two basic methods. The first is known as indirect action, such as holding a sign, chanting or marching along a sanctioned route. The other method is direct action, which is basically anything that might get you arrested.

According to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Good, along with others, including her wife, had spent the day impeding ICE officers who were doing their legal job.

The purpose of Good and her comrades was to create confrontation with law enforcement, and that is exactly what happened.

WAVE OF CAR ATTACKS ON ICE AGENTS FOLLOWS INCENDIARY RHETORIC FROM TARGET-CITY LEADERS

Nobody will ever know if Good intended to hit the officer with her car, or just panicked trying to get away. While it may feel viscerally like her death was too high a price to pay, these are the wages of direct action vigilantism.

The problem for cops is that the use of vehicles as weapons against them has skyrocketed in recent years, along with flat-out ambush attacks on them such as occurred in Dallas in September. Their threat level has never been higher.

When Good uses her car to block in law enforcement’s vehicle, the first thought of the officers isn’t “How do I de-escalate this?” It is “Are we being pinned down so people can shoot at us.”

BORDER PATROL CHIEF URGES ILLINOIS TO FOLLOW LOUISIANA BLUEPRINT AS THREATS AGAINST AGENTS SURGE

The mantra of many on the left, including Antifa, whose tactics Good was employing, is “resistance by any means necessary.” And if that puts lives at risk by shutting down streets so ambulances can’t move, or by driving at a cop, so be it, according to these radicals.

In fact, it is these agitators and the local police departments in places like Minneapolis and Portland who won’t arrest them, that create the very circumstances that lead to deadly confrontation. And they do it on purpose.

To take it a step further, the unwillingness of these police forces to punish direct action protesting has sent a clear message to the Antifa types that the streets belong to them. That is not how ICE officers operate, nor should it be.

MINNEAPOLIS POLICE CHIEF BLASTS ICE AFTER AGENT SEEN DRAGGING WOMAN THROUGH STREET, KNEELING ON HER BACK

I’ll be blunt, if the feckless manchild mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey, actually allowed his police to arrest people for criminal protesting, this tragedy never would have happened.

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Further, if Democratic mayors and governors simply cooperated with ICE and handed over criminals instead of protecting them, these ICE officers would never have even been there in the first place.

Left-wing protesters have to understand that it is not the job of law enforcement to allow them to commit crimes just because they think their cause is just. After all, pretty much everyone thinks their cause is just.

The message today should be crystal clear, and sung in unison: Protesters need to stop their illegal efforts to impede federal agents. That isn’t protest. It is criminal behavior and as we saw, it gets people killed.

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When Hollywood makes movies like “One Battle After Another” and celebrates anti-government violence, its “brave” stars like Leonardo DiCaprio don’t get shot, they get rich, they might even get Academy Awards, but that is because the movies are not real life.

In real life, anti-cop vigilante violence does get people killed, and sadly, though predictably, given the coddling of the criminals, that is exactly what happened in Minneapolis.

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Senate Republicans push to deport, denaturalize fraudsters amid Minnesota scandal

FIRST ON FOX: A cohort of Senate Republicans wants to ensure that both illegal immigrants and naturalized U.S. citizens who are convicted of fraud are booted from the country.

The lawmakers, led by Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., are pushing new legislation that would modify an existing, decades-old law that underpins immigration policy in the country to either deport or revoke the citizenship of convicted fraudsters.

Their bill, the Fraud Accountability Act, comes on the heels of the ever unfolding Minnesota fraud scandal, where federal prosecutors estimate that up to $9 billion in taxpayer money was stolen through a network of fraudulent fronts posing as daycare centers, food programs and health clinics, among others.

JAMES COMER TO ACCUSE TIM WALZ OF BEING ‘ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL’ AT FRAUD HEARING

“Anyone who comes to the United States and steals from American taxpayers by committing fraud should be deported,” Blackburn said in a statement to Fox News Digital.

“The fraud schemes we have seen in Minnesota and across the country are a betrayal of hardworking American taxpayers, and individuals like the Somali scammers in Minnesota should be subject to both deportation and denaturalization for these crimes,” she continued. “The Fraud Accountability Act would hold these criminals accountable for robbing American taxpayers.”

The situation in Minnesota has become a hot topic on Capitol Hill since lawmakers returned for the new year and the start of a new legislative session this week. In its wake, it torched the political career of Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who lawmakers say oversaw the alleged multibillion-dollar scandal.

MINNESOTA FRAUD HEARING SPARKS IMMIGRATION CLASH AS GOP LAWMAKER SPOTLIGHTS SOMALI WELFARE DATA

The legislation would modify the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), a law enacted in the 1950s that governs the country’s immigration policies, including visas, green cards, and citizenship, among several other enforcement matters.

Tweaks to the INA would include making any fraud conviction a deportable offense for noncitizens, mandatory detention of noncitizens convicted of fraud while deportation proceedings are ongoing, and would require automatic denaturalization of naturalized U.S. citizens convicted of fraud.

Notably, the legislation would allow for deportation for fraud convictions at any dollar amount; current law dictates that removal only kicks in if the amount hits $10,000 or higher. It would also effectively allow any court to handle denaturalization proceedings.

CORNYN PUSHES ‘ZERO MERCY’ LAW TO DEPORT ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS CONVICTED OF DEADLY DRUNK DRIVING

There is also a retroactivity clause, which stretches the denaturalization process for fraud committed on or after Sept. 30, 1996.

Blackburn is joined by Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Tom Cotton, R-Ark., in the Senate, while a House version of the bill will be introduced by Rep. Buddy Carter, R-Ga.

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Cornyn introduced a similar bill geared toward deporting illegal immigrants, specifically for deadly drunken driving incidents, on Wednesday.

“The rampant and unprecedented fraud uncovered in Minnesota involving Somali-run childcare centers and nonprofits is unconscionable, and Governor Walz’s complete deflection of any responsibility for this massive theft of U.S. taxpayer dollars under his watch is cowardly but unsurprising,” Cornyn said in a statement to Fox News Digital.

JASON CHAFFETZ: Democrats turned our treasury into a ‘piggy bank for fraudsters’

As the details of Minnesota’s widescale social services fraud blew up on social media over the Christmas holidays, it was hard to miss the contrast between the reaction of Republicans and Democrats. While Republicans were outraged, Democrats minimized and denied the very existence of the problem. 

With each new revelation of systemic fraud against the American taxpayer, we’re seeing a common denominator. Fraud protections have been deliberately bypassed in the pursuit of progressive political goals. Whether by incompetence or design, Democratic policies have turned the federal treasury into a piggy bank for fraudsters. 

American taxpayers have always been a fat target. But the industrial scale of the fraud that has been revealed in the last year is coming through programs apparently designed with glaring vulnerabilities that seem engineered for exploitation. 

The scope of the theft is staggering. In Minnesota’s Medicaid and social services programs under Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, an estimated $9 billion or more has been stolen – potentially half of the $18 billion administered. Politicians waived audits, ignored whistleblowers and relaxed verification rules in favor of equity-based distributions, effectively inviting “fraud tourists” from out of state to set up shell companies.

EMMER WARNS WALZ COULD END UP ‘IN CUFFS’ AMID MINNESOTA FRAUD CLAIMS  

Minnesota’s Feeding Our Future scam alone saw $250 million vanish into fake meal programs for nonexistent kids, with funds laundered overseas or splurged on luxuries. That’s one state. 

On the federal level, the COVID-19 relief bonanza under former President Joe Biden‘s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan incentivized fraud to obscene levels, with an estimated $420 billion in waste, fraud and improper payments — far exceeding initial Trump-era outlays. Programs like expanded unemployment insurance and PPP loans saw billions claimed by dead people, duplicate filers or fake businesses, thanks to waived ID verifications and rushed rollouts framed as equity measures for urban and minority voters.  

Democrats in Congress rejected Republican-proposed safeguards, arguing they would slow aid to those in need — effectively designing a trillion-dollar honeypot that attracted global scammers.

MINNESOTA AG KEITH ELLISON DEFENDS FRAUD PROSECUTION, SAYS OFFICE HAS DONE ‘ENOUGH’

Nowhere is the Democratic playbook for incentivizing fraud more evident than in the Biden-Harris administration’s immigration and border policies, which dismantled key safeguards and turned the asylum system into a magnet for fake claims and criminal exploitation.  

By reversing Trump-era measures like the Remain in Mexico policy and expanding catch-and-release practices, Democrats effectively minimized vetting requirements, allowing millions to enter with virtually no scrutiny — often just a notice to appear years later amid massive backlogs. This created a perverse incentive: economic migrants and cartels could game the system with bogus persecution stories, knowing weak credible fear standards and waived biometric checks would fast-track their release into the U.S., where they could work illegally or disappear.  

The result? Asylum grant rates plummeted from 51% in early 2024 to 19% by August 2025 as fraud overwhelmed the courts, with critics pointing to deliberate design flaws that prioritized rapid entry over security to appease progressive bases and expand potential voter demographics.

MINNESOTA FRAUD HEARING SPARKS IMMIGRATION CLASH AS GOP LAWMAKER SPOTLIGHTS SOMALI WELFARE DATA

Democrats seem to see fraud as the cost of doing business. As Minnesota Democratic state Rep. Steve Elkins explained during a 2025 legislative hearing on fraud prevention, “It’s literally impossible to completely eliminate all fraud unless you spend more money to try and eradicate the fraud than the fraud that’s occurring.… I don’t want to see us create an expectation that it’s possible to get zero fraud in programs like this.” 

While corruption and waste have long been bipartisan sins in Washington, the sheer magnitude and innovation in looting under Democratic leadership — particularly in the post-2020 era — stand out as unprecedented.

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Democrats in Congress rejected Republican-proposed safeguards, arguing they would slow aid to those in need — effectively designing a trillion-dollar honeypot that attracted global scammers.

Walz’s administration ignored whistleblowers and resisted reforms, turning what should have been targeted aid into an open invitation for organized crime — much of it tied to immigrant networks that form key Democratic voting blocs. This “innovation” in fraud facilitation extended beyond COVID, infecting autism services and home health billing, with new charges still emerging. It’s no coincidence that Walz avoided re-election amid the fallout; the real culprits are the policymakers who built a system so lax it practically begged to be looted. 

Republicans aren’t blameless, but the data shows this wasn’t “both sides” equally — Democratic-led expansions of welfare, aid and fundraising created loopholes on a scale that dwarfs historical precedents.

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The innovation here lies in scale and design: Democratic policies weaponize left-wing priorities like equity and speed to create exploitable systems, looting trillions while building voter loyalty through unchecked spending. Broader analyses, including OIG reports and Heritage databases, show fraud spiking with Democratic expansions of welfare and aid, not equally across parties.  

The real culprits aren’t just the fraudsters; they’re the architects in Washington who built these machines of waste. As DOGE dismantled fraudulent networks and clawed back funds, the lesson was stark: True reform means designing systems with fraud-proofing from the start, not as an afterthought. Until then, the treasury remains a target — not for both sides equally, but for those who innovate ways to raid it under the guise of good intentions. 

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VP Vance says Tim Walz should resign over massive Minnesota welfare fraud scandal investigation

Vice President JD Vance says Minnesota’s fraud scandal reflects a larger scheme and that the Trump administration believes there is a nationwide fraud ring perpetrated by illegal aliens and others taking advantage of the American welfare system.

“Anybody who is involved is going to get prosecuted,” Vance vowed on “Jesse Watters Primetime” Wednesday.

The vice president’s comments come as the Trump administration is pausing over $10 billion to five Democrat-run states, including California, over concerns that money was fraudulently given to noncitizens.

Vance addressed whether he thinks Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who announced Monday he would not seek re-election, should resign over his state’s fraud scandal, which is estimated to be at least $9 billion.

JAMES COMER TO ACCUSE TIM WALZ OF BEING ‘ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL’ AT FRAUD HEARING

“I think Tim Walz should resign,” Vance told Fox News host Jesse Watters. “I almost feel bad for the guy, except for the fact that he should’ve seen this.”

Minnesota’s scandal is a “massive failure of government,” Vance said.

“It’s not just that people are getting welfare who shouldn’t get welfare. … It’s bigger than that,” Vance said. “It’s that people take this money and create whole businesses around siphoning money from the American taxpayer. “

MINNESOTA AG BLASTS HOUSE HEARING ON FRAUD SCANDAL IN HIS STATE : ‘A LOT OF BULLS— FROM REPUBLICANS’

The vice president predicted similar cases of fraud will be found in other places around the country.

He went on to accuse California of being “glaring and obvious about the fact they are giving welfare benefits to illegal aliens,” adding the Trump administration is sending investigators to “a lot of places.”

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In a statement to Fox News Digital, Newsom’s office said the California Department of Social Services administers childcare and other essential programs that allow working families to “afford safe, reliable care so parents can go to work, support their families and contribute to their communities.

“These funds are not optional. They are critical lifelines for working families across California,” the office said. “The State of California aggressively investigates and prosecutes fraud. Using unsupported allegations to withhold childcare funding only from states that didn’t vote for the President doesn’t stop fraud — it harms struggling moms and dads President Trump claims to be fighting for.”

Familiar groups mobilize immediately after ICE shooting of Minnesota protester

Within hours of a Minnesota protester being fatally shot after allegedly attempting to run over ICE agents, a familiar network of far-left protesters for causes ranging from communism to climate change mobilized across the country.

The deceased, identified as 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good by the Minneapolis City Council on Wednesday afternoon, was killed at the wheel of her SUV just after 11 a.m. ET. 

Federal authorities said she had tried to run over ICE agents who were part of a 2,000-strong team sent to the Twin Cities to round up and deport illegal immigrant criminals.

“This appears to be an attempt to kill or to cause bodily harm to agents, an act of domestic terrorism,” DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said during a news conference late Wednesday in Minneapolis. “The ICE officer, fearing for his life and the other officers around him and the safety of the public, fired defensive shots. He used his training to save his own life and that of his colleagues.”

MINNEAPOLIS POLICE CHIEF BLASTS ICE AFTER AGENT SEEN DRAGGING WOMAN THROUGH STREET, KNEELING ON HER BACK

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said Good was shot in the head, and later pronounced dead at Hennepin County Medical Center.

“I have just viewed the clip of the event which took place in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is a horrible thing to watch,” President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social. “The woman screaming was, obviously, a professional agitator, and the woman driving the car was very disorderly, obstructing and resisting, who then violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE Officer, who seems to have shot her in self-defense.”

Almost immediately, various groups with causes as diverse as socialism, communism, climate change, Palestinian rights and the Democratic Party launched what seemed to be coordinated protests online and in American streets, using similar language. 

The effort by left-wing groups with no obvious shared cause echoed protests over the weekend, when many of the same groups sprang into action in the hours following the U.S. capture of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro.

“It’s the same network of people that have thousands of Americans blocking the streets, waving communist and terrorist flags and attacking law enforcement and innocents,” said Brandy Shufutinsky, director of the Education and National Security Program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “They are stoking the grievance industry that they built.”

While authorities said an investigation was underway, the protest groups were quick to brand the killing a murder. A sentiment analysis of relevant social media posts by left-wing groups showed the graphic and emotional language used in the posts was designed to provoke moral outrage and mobilize people to take to the streets. For example, posts told people to “get in the streets now,” “hit the streets” and “get to the White House ASAP.”

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“The state is the enemy, the state is the murderer! Resistance is justified,” wrote Fight for a Future, an organization who openly advocates communism.

At 1:24 p.m., the National Alliance against Racist and Political Repression, a fixture in left-wing protests, announced an “emergency rally” in New York City’s Foley Square for Thursday. The rally was also promoted by a group dubbing itself “NYC ICE Watch.”

Indivisible, the Democratic Party-aligned nonprofit and PAC that was at the forefront of protests against Tesla and the Trump administration, shared a picture on Instagram of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, whose agency oversees ICE, with two Xs over eyes, a symbol often used to portray someone as dead.

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“Kristi Noem get the f*ck out of NYC right now,” the post read in both English and Spanish. The post was shared by 50501, a newly established organization that played a lead role in the #NoKings protest against President Trump.

“EMERGENCY ALERT. THIS IS AN ALL HANDS ON DECK MOMENT!” wrote 50551 on Instagram at 11:50 a.m.

Indivisible’s post echoed the language of Frey, who had moments earlier called on ICE to “get the f— out of Minneapolis.”

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At 2:44 p.m., Refuse Fascism, a socialist organization active in protests against Israel and the Trump administration, posted a message on Instagram decrying the incident.

“From Venezuela to the streets of Minneapolis, the trump [sic] regime murders and demonizes whole peoples and countries without any pretense of the rule of law,” the group wrote.

At 3:33 p.m., the Party for Socialism and Liberation’s Columbus, Ohio, called for an “emergency protest from Columbus to Minneapolis.”

“ICE out! ICE has murdered a legal observer in Minneapolis,” the Instagram post read. “We fight back!”

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At 3:06 p.m., the Palestinian Youth Movement, which organized campus protests following the Oct. 7 massacre of Israelis by Hamas, weighed in.

“The time is rise and resist is now (sic),” the group posted on Instagram.

Democratic lawmaker says focus should be on ‘White men’ at Minnesota fraud hearing

A progressive lawmaker called for greater scrutiny of crimes committed by “American citizens” and “White men” during a U.S. House Oversight Committee hearing Wednesday on Minnesota’s ongoing fraud problems.

The remarks came as Democratic Gov. Tim Walz announced Monday he would not seek re-election. He dropped out after Minnesota prosecutors revealed the state may have lost up to $9 billion under Walz’s leadership through abuse of government assistance programs.

Rather than pressing witnesses on the alleged fraud, some Democrats used their allotted time to place attention on the Trump administration, Jan. 6 and other topics.

During questioning of Republican Minnesota state Rep. Kristin Robbins, Rep. Emily Randall, D-Wash., said the committee should instead focus on crimes committed by White men and Jan. 6 defendants.

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“What percentage of sexual assaults in the United States are committed by White men?” she asked Robbins. “Fifty-seven percent.”

Randall also cited data claiming that 33 individuals she described as “Jan. 6 insurrectionists” who were pardoned had been convicted of subsequent crimes. She further referenced data indicating that 41% of murder suspects in the United States in 2023 were White and that a database tracking domestic extremism found the majority of suspects were men.

“We can trot out all the data that we want to create the sense that there is a bad guy. There is a bad group of people. There are folks that are not among us. There are folks who are other. And I think we should spend a lot more time looking at ourselves,” Randall said. 

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“Looking at American citizens. Looking at White men who are committing violence at disproportionate rates in our country, who are committing crimes at disproportionate rates in our country, including the President of the United States, who is sitting at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, as so many of my colleagues have pointed out,” she added.

Fox News Digital reached out to Rep. Randall’s office for comment.

The White House called Randall “very sick” in response to her comments. 

“Well-known symptoms of Trump Derangement Syndrome include: unhinged rantings and defending Somali fraudsters who rip off American taxpayers. It sounds like Emily is unfortunately very sick. She should remember she was elected to represent hardworking Americans, not the fraudsters who steal their money.” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said.

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In recent months, investigators say they have uncovered large-scale fraud schemes in Minnesota involving entities posing as daycare centers, medical providers and food assistance organizations. Authorities allege the groups siphoned millions in government funds by fabricating services or inflating the number of people they claimed to serve.

“The fraudsters — many of whom are from Minnesota’s Somali community — have stolen from programs meant to feed needy kids, provide services to autistic children, house low-income and disabled Americans and provide healthcare to vulnerable Medicaid recipient,” Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., said at the hearing.

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‘You don’t get a promotion’: GOP rival urges Peggy Flanagan to quit Senate race after Walz bows out

Minnesota’s Democratic Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, who is also running for Senate, is facing a call from one of her GOP opponents to drop out of the race amid Gov. Tim Walz’s decision to drop out of his re-election race as a massive fraud scandal continues to unfold in the state.

“In the military, if your squad fails the mission, you certainly don’t get a promotion,” Adam Schwarze, former U.S. Navy SEAL and Republican candidate for Minnesota Senate said in a press release this week. 

“Governor Walz made the correct decision not to run for re-election, and I commend him for it. Now it’s time for Peggy to make her own announcement. She has worked alongside the governor in raising taxes by $18 billion and has failed to stop the ongoing waste and fraud that are driving costs even higher. Minnesotans deserve new leadership that restores affordability, integrity, and accountability.”

Flanagan, who has served alongside Walz since 2019 as the fraud crisis unfolded in the state, has faced increasing criticism in recent days, Fox News Digital reported, for not doing enough to ensure that taxpayer funds were protected. 

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“Both of these candidates sat idly by while billions were stolen from hardworking taxpayers in Minnesota,” House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, who represents Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, said this week about Flanagan and Dem. Rep. Angie Craig, who is also running for Senate. 

“And just like Tim, they ought to reconsider their candidacy.”

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Flanagan’s close ties to Walz date back to 2006 when she advised the governor during his successful run for Congress, and she was the only person on his list to pick for lieutenant governor years later, MPR News reported. 

“Every major decision she has been there from the beginning and helps me see about them differently and think about them differently,” Walz said in 2020. “You have a 55-year-old rural white guy who was in the Army and coached football, and you have a 39-year-old indigenous woman who lived in St. Louis Park. That brings a wealth of [ways] to approach these issues.”

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Fox News Digital reached out to Flanagan’s campaign for comment.

Though she is considered a frontrunner in the race, Flanagan’s response to the scandal has garnered criticism. She was recently seen on a Somali TV station wearing a hijab at a mall to signal her support for Minnesota’s Somali community and calling them part of the “fabric” of Minnesota as the federal government cracks down on the fraud scheme.

This comes as more than 90 people, most from Minnesota’s large Somali community, have been charged since 2022 in what has been described as the nation’s largest COVID-era scheme. How much money has been stolen through alleged money laundering operations involving fraudulent meal and housing programs, daycare centers and Medicaid services is still being tabulated. But the U.S. attorney in Minnesota said the scope of the fraud could exceed $1 billion and rise to as high as $9 billion.

“We need holistic reform and holistic leadership change in Minnesota,” Schwarze said in a video posted on X. “So while Walz is stepping away I would postulate this to everybody, why is Flanagan silent on all these acts, why has Flanagan not said anything? Why should Flanagan be promoted to the U.S. Senate while Walz is resigning? Valid questions, right?”