On Thursday’s broadcast of MS NOW’s “Morning Joe,” Minnesota Lt. Gov. and U.S. Senate nominee Peggy Flanagan (D) responded to questions on fraud in the state by saying that “Republicans are going to run against every Democrat on fraud because they want to distract from what is happening under the most corrupt president we have ever seen.” But “the governor says the buck stops with him, more should have been done sooner. And I agree.” And “more absolutely needs to be done.”
Co-host Willie Geist asked, “Lt. Gov., as you know, one of the lines of criticism you’ll hear in this general election — and you also heard, by the way, during the primary from Rep. Angie Craig (D-MN) — was your role as Lt. Gov. in this Medicare fraud scandal. That is a real thing. There are prosecutions. There have been charges around it. You’ll be hearing about it, certainly, from Michele Tafoya as well. How do you answer those questions about your role and perhaps not doing enough to stop that as Lt. Gov.?”
Flanagan answered, “Well, I would say that fraud of any kind is completely unacceptable. Minnesotans are angry, and I am, too. As someone who ran a nonprofit organization that served children and families, the very idea that people would steal taxpayer monies for their own grift is unacceptable. There have been measures put in place to stop fraud, to prevent it from happening in the first place, and more absolutely needs to be done. But what I need to be clear about is that Republicans are going to run against every Democrat on fraud because they want to distract from what is happening under the most corrupt president we have ever seen. They want to talk about fraud, we have to talk about the fact that, right out of the gate, Donald Trump got rid of 17 inspectors general whose whole job it is to police fraud at the federal level. He’s pardoned 70 white-collar criminals who have stolen billions of dollars in Medicaid and Medicare. And, every day, this guy is making money, hand over fist, from the Oval Office, through his meme coin and cryptocurrency, through hundreds of millions of dollars in insider trading. And Michele Tafoya and Republicans up and down the ballot are going to have to answer for that. The grift has to stop. And Minnesotans and Americans have had enough. This guy looks out only for himself and leaves everybody else behind.”
Geist followed up, “No argument on that point. Do you deserve any responsibility, though, Lt. Gov., for those fraud schemes that have taken place in your state over the last several years?”
Flanagan responded, “I would say, the governor says the buck stops with him, more should have been done sooner. And I agree. And now we know that 100 people have been charged, 60 have been convicted. We know that the head of Feeding Our Future, Aimee Bock, she has received 41 years plus eight months, and to that I say, good. That matters. And we have to make sure that, going forward, that Donald Trump is not allowed to continue to make money hand over fist by simply being in power. These are the checks, I think, that Minnesotans are looking for in Washington, D.C. and those are the things that I’m going to fight for, for folks to be able to afford the lives they want to live and make sure that this out of control presidential administration has checks, and then, as we go into 2028, we are electing a Democratic president and making sure that we’ve got a strong infrastructure to turn out the vote, we’re growing our party, bringing new folks in, and we continue to win and recover and repair what this guy has broken.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
