Failed vice presidential candidate Tim Walz, the governor of Minnesota, is now taking credit for cracking down on fraud in his state despite dismissing critics months ago for “politicizing the issue” in a stunning evolution all around.
Walz is singing a new tune these days, positioning himself as a tough guy on fraud in his blue state wrought with scandal. Following the news of more federal raids in Minneapolis linked to alleged Somali welfare fraud, the Democrat proudly stated on social media that those committing fraud in the state will be caught and held accountable.
“If you commit fraud in Minnesota you’re going to get caught — and that’s exactly what we saw today. We catch criminals when state and federal agencies share information. Joint investigations work, and securing justice depends on it,” Walz said.
“Today’s raids by state and federal law enforcement happened because our state agencies caught irregular behavior and reported it. That’s how the system is supposed to work, and our agencies will keep at it as long as there are fraudsters around to put behind bars,” he continued.
He added, “Now let’s work on a joint investigation into the killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good — instead of cherry picking when we seek justice and when we turn a blind eye.”
Many X commenters were more quick to point the the stunning display of hypocrisy by Walz, posting pictures of him alongside those involved in the massive Feeding Our Future fraud scheme.
One X user pointed out, “You let billions in fraud (yes, billions: mostly your protected Somali community networks) fester for years under your watch while you virtue-signaled, covered for @Ilhan Omar’s crew, and demonized anyone who called it out.”
“You have turned a blind eye to so much corruption and/or have been in on it,” another said. “There have stories on this for years and you knew about it. Trying to take credit now is so incredibly insulting and pathetic. You truly are a pathetic piece of shit.”
Indeed, a House Oversight Committee report released in March concluded that both Walz and state Attorney General Keith Ellison were aware of claims of widespread fraud in the state’s federally funded welfare programs for years and “lied about their knowledge of the fraud, and retaliated against employees who dared to raise concerns,” according to Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer.
“Instead of protecting vulnerable Americans, they handed over billions in taxpayer dollars to fraudsters and threw their own state employees under the bus,” Comer added.
Despite Walz’s newfound tough guy approach, in December he dismissed the estimated $9 billion in fraud in the state-run Medicaid programs as “sensationalized.”
“You’re seeing a weaponization,” Walz said at the time. “We’ll continue to fix (the fraud). They’re going to continue to come up with numbers that don’t have it there, and it’s sensationalized. I don’t expect anything different from this administration.”
Walz also accused the Trump administration of “politicizing the issue” of alleged Somali immigrant fraud and claimed that he has continued to target fraud throughout his administration.
His video came after HHS Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill announced that the agency had “frozen all child care payments” to Minnesota.
But criticisms continued to pile on, and hundreds of Minnesota government workers came out accusing Walz of being responsible for the massive fraud problem, asserting that they alerted him of it early on.
“Somalis in Minnesota allegedly took millions of dollars in state Medicaid autism-care programs and sent it to their native country and its terrorist organizations,” as Breitbart News extensively detailed.
Walz maintained for quite some time that the Trump administration exposing Somali fraud in his state was only about hurting “working Minnesotans.”
Only as criticisms continued to pile up did Walz decided to appoint a director of a statewide fraud prevention program. However, he has tried to walk the line, making it clear that his administration would “never leave the side” of Somalians in Minnesota.
Kristi Noem, the Homeland Security Secretary at the time, described the Democrats’ Minnesota fraud machine as “ground zero for stealing taxpayer dollars and protecting criminals”:
We have had officers there for years. We’ve surged officers because we recognize and started to uncover the true corruption and theft that has happened. Billions and billions of dollars have been stolen from the American people and these are dollars that were supposed to go to programs to help the most vulnerable, to help people who were disabled or had mental health challenges, or children that were autistic, or to help people transition into their own home and to get back up on their feet. They stole the money from those people and used it to enrich their lives.
And many of the times we’ve dug into this and it’s [enabled by] immigration fraud [within Somali clans]. They came into this country lying on their [identity] documents, why they could come and why they were eligible to use our [refugee] programs. [President] Joe Biden facilitated this all, and as we uncover more of this criminal activity, we’re going to continue to surge resources to make sure that this abuse of government funds and government [immigration] power no longer continues in Minnesota.
The realities of the ever-blossoming Somali fraud scandals in his state became so inescapable for Walz that he dropped out of the governor’s race at the start of the year. According to his daughter, his inability to stop billions of dollars in fraud led to his decision.
Walz’s Tuesday statement on cracking down on fraudsters follows news of federal agents raiding over 20 locations in Minneapolis, all connected to alleged fraud linked to Somali-owned businesses, including child care centers accused of billing for care they never provided. Much of this was unveiled in reporting from citizen journalist Nick Shirley, who said he uncovered “over $110,000,000 in ONE day.”
Notably, Walz bragged about making it easier to start daycare centers in the blue state during a debate with now-Vice President JD Vance in 2024.
As Breitbart News reported, “half of $18 billion in federal welfare funds, which supports 14 Minnesota-run programs since 2018, has been lost to fraud.”
