IN THE HOT SEAT: New details in MASSIVE alleged scandal with all eyes fixed on top Minnesota Dems

IN THE HOT SEAT: New details in MASSIVE alleged scandal with all eyes fixed on top Minnesota Dems

The nightmare billiondoll fraud scandal rolls on in Minnesota and now the heat is on that state’s most powerful elected officials. Governor Tim Walsh and Attorney General Keith Ellison are trying hard to defend what they are accused of doing. Prosecutors say it was widespread and organized theft of taxpayer money. I’m Harris Falner. You are in the Faulner Focus. House oversight Republicans are accusing Walson Ellison of looking the other way to avoid political problems with Minnesota’s influential Somali community. If you can’t get that vote in that community, you can’t win in politics in that state. It’s very real. Ellison claims everything is under control now, though. We’re glad that we uh took the action that we did. I convicted over 300 people in the last few years for Medicaid fraud. So we are very able to go after fraud and we do all the time. Prosecutors have charged more than 75 people. So they didn’t find everybody clearly if they were even looking in four separate ongoing investigations. Here’s the Republican Minnesota House Speaker. We’re finally getting that national attention that we need so much here in our state to have full investigations. But you’re right, it’s over a billion dollars in taxpayer dollars that have gone out to fraud instead of going to the people that needed those services the most. Former White House press secretary Ari Fleer in focus in a moment. I want to go straight to our correspondent Garrett Tenny who’s been all over the story since it broke. Garrett? Well, Harris, the level of fraud investigators are finding in Minnesota is growing by the day. Kelly Leler, who leads the Small Business Administration, says in the two days her agency has been investigating the state, they’ve uncovered at least a million dollar in PPP fraud just 2 days in. Several of the whistleblowers in Minnesota have also told lawmakers they believe the total amount of fraud could total up to more than 8 billion. Governor Tim Walls, who is up for reelection, is under fire for all of this happening under his watch. But he says they have paused these programs. They’ve brought in outside auditors to get an idea of how farreaching this fraud was. They’re taking steps to keep it from happening again. And he’s defending his management of the state while also taking shots at Republicans and the president. And in spite of the headwinds we’re up against, Minnesota ranks economically. economic growth, happiness, number of people insured, education levels near the very top. So, I’ll tell you what, I have no interest in having this state look like Oklahoma or Mississippi. And if folks are going to commit crimes here, thinking because our generous spirit and our programs that we have is going to give them some kind of cover, they are sadly mistaken. Yeah. Minnesota is also now home to the single largest pandemic fraud scheme in the country. And Republicans argue that Walls and other Democrats opened the door to this by offering such generous social welfare benefits without any real protections against fraud and then ignored warnings about that fraud because they didn’t want to lose the support of the Somali community. The whistleblowers that I’ve spoken to are saying that the governor knew and the governor and l and lieutenant governor and even Chris Schmid who was his chief of staff came to them as staff and scolded them for pointing out fraud. Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar told CNN this week she believes the fraud spiraled out of control because co programs were rolled out without sufficient guard rails. It’s also worth noting the owner of the restaurant where Omar held her 2018 victory party is among those from the Somali community who have been convicted of profiting from the schemes. Harris, look, I don’t know. I I know this would be public, but I don’t know how hard they’d make us work as journalists, but I want to foyer for those 300 plus arrests that AG Ellison says that he makes. I want to know the dates that those arrests, do they coincide with being caught or or this coming to light? I want to know who they picked up in the scheme when you just heard a head of small business saying Kelly Leler there more people to go out and get. I mean, this is unbelievable. Your last quick word. Yeah. You know, and it’s interesting earlier this week uh when Governor Walls was asked why is it that he was leaving this up to the feds? Why isn’t the state doing more? Yeah. He said, “We’re working with the feds and that we’re leading to these federal cases.” He didn’t answer that question repeatedly though of why it is that the state itself hasn’t done more to go after these fraud cases. Wow. And just to hear Tim Maul say he’s working with the feds after every push against ICE, different topic. Same attitude though. So interesting. Now to save his own hide, he’s going to work with the feds for that investigation. Uh Garrett Tenny, thank you. Minnesota’s fraud scandal is raising much larger, more far-reaching and implications questions about the welfare state and government bureaucracies across America. The Wall Street Journal editorial board is honing in on that issue that is at the heart of remember DOA’s mission to to cut out things that weren’t working that cost us so much to cut that and it’s a huge concern for taxpayers. Here’s part of that article. The main problem here isn’t ethnicity or migration. It’s the incentives for uh indolence and fraud at the heart of the welfare state. And all that free money with few guard rails is an invitation to theft. Columnist Kim Strael echoes that with this quote, Minnesota raises to alarm level a separate need for reset. The system itself, the government machine, is broken. The system serves more as a cash machine for criminals than a safety net for the needy. Here’s Republican Senator Joanie Ernst. We need to continue the ability to audit all of those books, all of those funds, those grants that went out through the various CO programs. I am all on board with going back and exposing what has happened in Minnesota. And let this be a lesson as well, not just to Minnesota, but to all of the fraudsters that exist out there that have taken money that did not belong to them and should not have gone to them. Well, she’s right about that. They’re taking a look at other states, including California. That for another day. Let’s focus in on this really wildfire going on uh in terms of politics in Minnesota right now. Ari Fleer, former White House press secretary, Fox News contributor. Ari, how do we not focus in on what the motivation to do something like this would have been? And that’s is you cannot win in that state in politics without that Somali community and they are at the heart of this fraud allegation. Well, I think there are two issues here. The most fundamental one is the the ripping off of the welfare state, which is human nature. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Why does anybody think this is limited to Minnesota or any of the 50 states? This is what people do when the government hands out free money. They create fraud to get more of it. And this is why big government equals big fraud and wasted money. It always has, always will. And what’s vital now, and this is where if Walter Ellison, the governor and the attorney general, knew of this and looked the other way, they need to be thrown out of office because this is corruption because of the key Somali community as you referenced Harris. Look, what do we how do we look at this in terms of Doge, Department of Government Efficiency, and all the push back that Democrats had on this? I I’m wondering now, were there some other underlying things going on to push back on that like this? Well, that’s why I supported Doge so much. Big government equals big waste. The two just go hand in hand. There will never be sufficient guard rails on any federal spending program because people are always going to figure out a way to cheat it. That’s the problem with big government. That’s the problem with free money. This is the fruit of the welfare state. Now, keep in mind too, this is almost 2026. CO happened 2020 to 2021, 5 to 6 years ago. This is only coming out now, right? What other programs throughout the federal government were full of fraud and they’re only being caught later. So, what you need now is high level prosecutions. People know need to go to jail for an excessively long time and people need to be forced to give the money back. the government can claw money back when it was given out fraudulently like this. That’s what you need to do. Looks like Minnesota won’t do that. Minnesota will just try to let this sweep be swept under the rug because the importance of the Somali community there. But as the Wall Street Journal was good in pointing out, this is not about ethnicity. This is about government welfare state and the fruits of welfare. Look, Islamic terrorist group al-Shabaab is said to have gotten that money. You can’t claw that back, right? Wow. All right, let’s move to this. Uh, and thank you very much. All right, this news just breaking moments ago. Fox News has obtained photos of one of the Somali illegal immigrants wrapped up in the Minnesota fraud scandal, posing with several high-profile Minnesota Democrats, including Congresswoman Elan Omar and Governor Tim Walls. The man pictured is Abdul Dahir Ibrahim. He entered the country in 2000 and has had an order for removal since 2004. He also has a prior conviction in Canada for asylum and welfare fraud. ICE tells Fox News Ibrahim was granted temporary protected status for 10 years, but should have never been eligible. We are going to have more on this in our next hour. A massive fraud scandal unfolding in Minnesota turning into a wakeup call on America’s broken welfare system as more details come to light about scams that built taxpayers out of what could be more than1 billion dollar. Yes, they sound like Dr. Evil. It’s $1 billion. Welcome to a new hour of America Reports. I’m John Roberts in Washington. That’s real money, Sandra. That is real money. Good to be with you on this Friday, John. I’m Sandra Smith in New York. So, one startling example sticking out concerns a program to help recovering addicts find stable housing. Initial estimates for the housing program was for just under $3 million annually, but an indictment shows grifters fraudulently build Medicaid more than hundred million last year alone. Garrett Tenny is live on this out of Chicago for us. What do you have, Garrett? Well, Sandra, several of the whistleblowers in Minnesota have told state lawmakers that by the time these investigations are through, they believe the actual size of this fraud, the amount of taxpayer dollars that has been stolen could be higher than 8 billion. We are already seeing some of that. Two days into the Small Business Administration’s investigation, Secretary Kelly Leler says the agency has uncovered at least a million dollars in PPP fraud. And the state itself is now looking into the possibility of fraud in another Medicaid program. Minnesota’s Department of Human Services is now pausing the issuing of new licenses for disability service providers over concerns of fraud after an explosion in the number of applications for new licenses over the past 5 years going up 283% while the number of people needing those services only increased by 25%. Governor Tim Walls, who is up for re-election, is under fire for all of this happening under his watch. But he says they have investigated every claim of fraud that’s come in, something whistleblowers dispute, and says the state is taking the steps it needs to to keep it from happening again. We’ve acknowledged that this is serious, needs to stop. It is stopping. People are continuing to go to prison. I think the good news for motans to know when that 90-day pause is over and the third party audits are done, we will have a better picture than we’ve ever had, which I think is really good. While all of these investigations are getting underway, Republican lawmakers are sounding the alarm about Minnesota’s new paid leave program launching next month that allows anyone in the state, regardless of their citizenship status, to take 12 weeks of paid leave a year, paid for by the state. GOP lawmakers say the program is ripe for abuse. It was written so broadly that you can take advantage of it and abuse it and no one’s going to come looking for you. The taxpayers put in a bunch of money to launch the whole thing. So, this is going to be uh the next horrible thing coming out of Minnesota. And it’s important to remember the FBI is also still investigating the massive fraud schemes there. This morning, Attorney General Pam Bondi said there are going to be a lot more arrest on this coming. Sandra. Okay, thanks for keeping track of it for us, Garrett Tenny in Chicago on that for us, John. All right, let’s dig deeper into all of this by bringing in Texas Republican Congressman Brandon Gil, a member of the House Oversight Committee, which is now investigating fraud in Minnesota’s social services system. Congressman, good to have you with us this Friday afternoon. Thank you for joining us. So there plenty of accusations that Governor Tim Waltz turned a blind eye to this. And the Wall Street Journal sums it all up this way. Quote, “Democrats won’t acknowledge fraud because they want more Americans on the dole. Welfare is central to their political business model. Republicans who make this scandal about immigration are missing the point and missing an opportunity to educate Americans about the entitlement state grift.” What do you say to that? Well, I would say first of all that I agree that the problem is that the welfare state has gotten far too big with almost virtually very few uh real eligibility checks or anti-fraud provisions. But I do think that there is clearly an elig an an immigration component to this as well. You know, the the famous economist Milton Freriedman uh famously remarked that you can’t have both open borders and a welfare state. And for decades, the Democrats have been trying to have both. They’ve invited as many people as they possibly could from all over the globe into our communities, including tens of thousands of Somalians into Minnesota and then opened up the welfare state to provide benefits with almost no anti-fraud provisions whatsoever. And this is the obvious result. We knew this would happen and yet Democrats are pushing this for political gain. So, uh, still sticking with the Wall Street Journal, Kim Stell is a great observer of the political condition, not only here in Washington, DC, but across the country. She writes, “The lessons of Minnesota’s fraud.” She says, quote, “Minnesota raises to alarm level a separate need for reset. The system itself, the government machine, is broken. It’s heaving duplicative federal state programs, a wash in forms and bureaucracies, and ancient mainframes, has already suffered Soviet style collapse. The system serves more as a cash machine for criminals than a safety net for the needy. I mean, reforming the system is going to take years. So, what do we do in the meantime? Well, I’ll tell you what what House Republicans are working on and what we already have done in the president’s tax bill, which he signed into law earlier this year, was to start to rightsize the welfare state and say uh introduce basic ideas like if you are receiving Medicaid or or uh food stamps, you need either be working or seeking work. We tightened up eligibility requirements. We added in provisions that means we need to check more often whether people who are receiving benefits actually should be receiving benefits. The reality is whenever you have fraud, especially on the scale that we’re seeing here, that is money that is taken out of hardworking American taxpayers wallets and put in put into the hands of criminals. That’s absolutely grotesque and that’s stuff that we need to be laser focused on fixing right now. So, President Trump is really insensed about this. He he had very harsh words for the people who were involved in this as well as some other members of the Somali community in Minnesota. This is what he said yesterday. Listen. We’re going to go the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country. Elon Omar is garbage. She’s garbage. Her friends are garbage. These aren’t people that work. These aren’t people that say, “Let’s go. Come on. Let’s make this place great.” These are people that do nothing but complain. Congressman, what do you make of what the president said there? Well, I think the president is pointing out a basic truth that we shouldn’t be importing tens of thousands or more people from low trust societies where this type of fraud and corruption is common. And it is common in Somalia. Um, and we’ve got to recognize that whenever we import cultures that accept this type of behavior, we’re going to see that type of behavior right here in America. And again, that means taking money from hardworking American citizens and giving it to fraudsters and criminals. That’s because of open borders. It’s because of mass migration and and it’s because of an a welfare system that is so so large that there’s no possible way that you can check that the people who are receiving benefits actually should be receiving benefits. And if Kelly Leler is correct, this could be just the tip of a very big iceberg. Congressman, thanks for joining us today. Really appreciate it. Thanks for having me. You go one way or the other and we’re going to go the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country. Elon Omar is garbage. She’s garbage. Her friends are garbage. These aren’t people that work. These aren’t people that say, “Let’s go. Come on. Let’s make this place great.” These are people that do nothing but complain. They complain. And from where they came from, they got nothing. So he’s talking about Somalia and he’s talking about the Somali community inside Minneapolis uh mostly Minnesota. It’s the largest one of the country and we also know this huge burgeoning scandal where they’ve been bilking. Most of them are Somali. I mean 79 of the 84 indictments are Somali. 52 of the convictions almost all are Somali and it looked systematic and the money might in fact be going back to Somalia to al-Shabaab their al-Qaeda affiliate. So if that indeed that’s the Chris Rufo connection that he talked about last week that is being pursued now by the Treasury Department and the president is fed up. She’s fed up with people like Elon Omar who do nothing but complain or raise kids that have anti-Semitic take part in anti-Semitic protests at Colombia who just whine about this country instead of trying to make it better. And by the way, one of her staffers is indicted and a restaurant that she has an affiliation with is right in the middle of it stealing tens of millions of dollars. So, this is going to get a lot bigger. But is the president language helpful? His directness. Let’s bring in Ben Shapiro. Uh, Daily Wire co-founder, host of the Ben Shapiro Show, number one New York Times bestselling author. His latest book is Lions and Scavengers: The True Story of America. Hey, Ben, welcome. Your thoughts about the president’s approach and now banning travel, excuse me, immigration from, I think, 19 to 20 countries. I mean, on policy, there’s no question he’s correct. I mean, the fact is that we cannot vet people who are coming in from countries that effectively have no government. And not only do they have no government, what government they do have is very often complicit in actual terrorism, especially when you’re talking about a place like Somalia where something like 35% of its entire economy is remittances from the United States, which is totally insane. And so what what the president is doing by saying we can’t have mass migration from areas where people don’t hold anything in common with us, generally hate American values, h have no love for the American Constitution. I don’t even see what’s remotely controversial about that part of it. Obviously, the president uses the president’s language and anybody who’s shocked at President Trump’s language after a decade of President Trump, I think, I mean, get over it. Like honestly, we’re we’re now 10 years into this and on the list of insults, this comes up very short. So, you know, this thing’s going to get big. You know, Keith Ellison, who’s just was a terrible congressman and a horrible attorney general, but the people of Minneapolis seem to like him, is defending Governor Wals’s responses to the fraud that’s going to be over a billion dollars. And with the stuff they the programs they took from autistic programs, from poor people, from from these food programs, some of which Elon Omar sponsored and got federal funding for. So, this is this is going to be really big. Where do you think this goes as the federal government gets involved? Well, I mean, obviously the investigations are probably going to grow from here. My guess is that’s only the beginning. I think that probably there’s more there than they’ve even uncovered so far. One of the funnier articles I saw, there was an ABC affiliate that came out this morning talking about the benefits of mass Somali migration into Minnesota and pointing out that the total income of Somali motans was $500 million last year. Well, I noticed that $500 million as a total income is half of what was built from the federal government just in the cases that have already been uncovered. So, if what we’re talking about is the great enrichment that has happened due to mass migration and the best you can come up with is an income that amounts to half of the fraud committed by this small group of Somali, then I’m not sure exactly what case it is that that you’re making at this point. Again, this is not to malign every single person who’s coming from Somalia because whenever you have a group of people, I’m sure there are great individuals that exist within a broader spectrum of of human beings. And you know, when the president says garbage, I think, by the way, in that quote, he seems to be talking specifically about Ilhan Omar, who I I also agree is a a trash human being. I think she has horrible beliefs. I think that she stands for for for horrible things. And then he says, and her friends, I don’t know that he’s necessarily referring to every single Somali person in the United States. He may be referring to people who are politically affiliated or he may be referring to her actual specific friends, some of whom seem to be caught up in the actual fraud welfare scheme here, including one of her staffers uh that’s involved. And one of these restaurant owners who owns a safari in has 35 tables, but yet he claims to he’s gotten reimbured for 18,000 meals. He’s got a multi-million dollar mansion. I mean, are we kidding? And guess what? $9,000 a month at Nordstrom. That’s a lot of that’s a I mean, I hope he dresses well. That’s a lot of clothes. $9,000 a month. Whoa. So, so Ben, I’m going to add something to this. So, if you actually build your bill out of this money, there’s now a phone call that I re that I understand that the attorney general Ellison has where some of these people involved in the fraud uh pledge campaign contributions, which he eventually collects from these people. They also did the threatening, you talk about full circle of if you come down on me, I’m going to hit you with the racism and bias claims which backs out these politicians who need the 80,000 Somal 80,000 members Somali committee or community to vote for them. Yes, that that that’s correct. I mean, obviously every politician has to answer to constituents. And so when you have Keith Ellison basically, you know, garnering campaign contributions from many of the same people who are associated with this sort of activity and and saying, “I’m going to be your guy.” I mean, I’m not sure how that isn’t a scandal. I think Tim Walls obviously is a scandal. I think Elhan Omar obviously is a scandal. It’s hard to see how fraud perpetrated at this great a scale was unknown by everyone in a position of power, especially people who are extremely close to the communities in question. Ben, not that you should be surprised. That’s why you started the Daily Wire, but they looked at the networks and say how much coverage this has gotten. Zero. You know, I know the Nightly New I mean, zero. How could that not a billion dollars gone from a from a state like Minnesota, but I want to talk about also what’s going on with the anti- anti-semitism. I spoke at a at a Jewish conference last night and the isolation that the Jewish community feels, especially in New York City, is beyond comprehension, especially with the election of this mayor. And there’s some studies that are really disturbing. Nearly four in 10 of the current GOP, 37% believe the Holocaust was exaggerated and did not happen as history described. By the way, I met a Holocaust survivor last night, 96 years old. He told me it happened. Who would have thought? Younger men are especially likely to hold this view. 54% of men under 30, 39% of women under 50. Among men over 50, 41% agree compared with 18% of women over 50. How did that happen? How does this happen, Ben? Well, I I do think that one of the things that that that poll from Manhattan Institute is really fascinating because sort of breaks down traditional GOP and then people who are sort of know new GOP voters in in 2024. And what it shows is that the traditional GOP is significantly less likely to believe the sort of conspiratorial or anti-semitic nonsense. A lot of new GOP are more likely to believe it mainly because they were alienated by the Democratic party, but not necessarily because they hold traditional sort of conservative views. And it does show that whenever you have an electoral coalition there there are a lot of people inside that electoral coalition, but the coalition is defined by its leadership. Are the leaders willing to say true things? Are the leaders willing to call out actual bad beliefs? Are they willing to call out the purveyors of those actual bad beliefs? Because listen, no political leader should be expected to condemn every single person who is who is voting for them. But if the question is who defines the future of the coalition, who defines the the belief system by which the coalition rides together, that really does come down to a question of leadership and I think that that leadership has been in some quarters uh not not present. Particularly in the online space, it has been very much not present. And let’s be clear that on X and Tik Tok this sort of stuff goes viral very very quickly. Yes. And maybe disproportionately we get the theory that maybe too many people think that way. But let’s just amp this up. We It’s very common place and is total truth to say that the Democrats have a huge problem and they’ll admit it uh with the so-called socialist wing of the party that’s growing. Got it. Like that left-wing lunatic who ran in the seventh district of Tennessee. I understand it. And then they got other people that are looked at as moderates. Uh the Spamburgers. uh the Joe Mansions who’s not in politics anymore. I got it. And Fedterman to me seems to speak what I would hope be the future of that party, but he’s the minority of that party. That’s the fracture we like to dissect. But in your estimation, does the do the Republicans have a problem with the extreme right that says, you know what, Israel, they’re way too over the top. We’re way too close to them. Russia, they’re just misunderstood. We shouldn’t be involved. Venezuela, not our problem. Why we get why are we doing why are we worried about that? Do you think that divide on the Republican side presents the same quantitative problem as the Democrats have? So I think that there is a massive dem a massive quantitative problem on the Republican side. I don’t think it’s about disagreements over Israel policy or Venezuela policy or even Ukraine policy. I think it has to do with something deeper and that is I think there’s a wing of the Republican party that is rejecting the basic promise of meritocracy which used to be sort of the root of the conservative agenda. The root of the conservative agenda was the idea that we have constitutional checks and balances in order to preserve god-given freedoms that allow us to rise or fall on our own merits. That was basically the promise of the United States. And there is a side of the right that has decided that the meritocracy is actually a lie. And that what we actually need to do is target a so-called globalist elite who are manipulating the system to their own ends. That tends to cross over with conspiratorial views particularly about Jews. Um, but it tends to cross over with other sort of conspiratorial views in general, which is something you’ve seen growing inside the Republican party. That same poll shows that there are a huge number of Republicans who believe in conspiracy theories about 9/11 or even the moonlanding. And and that sort of of thing, I think again goes to a grievance-based politics that used to be more foreign to the conservative coalition, but definitely has been growing in recent years. I know why it’s been growing. I mean, the reason it’s been growing is because if if the left continues to say for years and years and years that white Christian men are bad particularly, then there will be a reactionary response to that by saying, “Okay, we’ve been victimized. The system has been constructed in order to put us down.” But that response shouldn’t be to destroy all systems or that capitalism is bad or free markets are bad or freedom of thought is bad or or that America historically is bad. The response should be meritocracy. Unfortunately, very often it isn’t. And it’s a sort of grievance-based politics that looks more left than right. Well, that I mean that’s a theory, Ben. I mean, that’s a deep theory. The other thing is people doing it for clicks. Well, what if I did a show and I interview a World War II historian that says Hitler was misunderstood, that we never really should have got involved, that Winston Churchill was more of a problem, he was just going to take Czechoslovakia and maybe a little of Poland and that was it. We overreacted. Never should have dropped the bombs on Japan. So what if you have somebody that says building number seven was an inside job and their name wasn’t Rosie O’Donnell that 9/11 was an inside job. Of course everybody knew it and they talk about everybody involved in it. What if that same group said, “Wait, a man popped out of a pot pothole cover and shot Charlie Kirk, not somebody from the roof.” So I don’t know if there’s a school of thought there or if someone’s just trying to out outdo each other with sensational claims. Yeah, I mean I think that it’s it’s both. It’s it’s all of the above. It’s definitely a a clickbait thing. It’s definitely, you know, very viral online. All of that is definitely true. I think there is a an ideological aversion to again basic American principles with some of these folks that really amounts to a great demoralization, an attempt to demoralize all Americans. Everything you’ve been told is a lie. Everything about America that you’ve ever been told is untrue. America itself is rotten to the core. And only I, I, the conspiracy theorist or the person who’s laying out this new vision or no vision. only I am the real spirit guide for you who can illuminate all of the secrets that that have been hidden from that’s why your life isn’t what you want it to be is because no one has told you the truth but I’m here to tell you the truth now the problem of course is that it’s not the truth and all of these lies are going to make your life marketkedly worse but it’s kind of sexy to believe that that the reason that your life isn’t what you want it to be is because of conspiratorial forces beyond your control and if only you could see past the curtain then magically your life would be fixed so I mean I look at you your success you got it you you made your success online you formed your own company. Everybody knows it. But you still you don’t say anything sensational. These are just your opinions. They’re conservative thought. What’s in the conservative school of thought there’s always debate. Rush Limba didn’t change his delivery or his statements in order to remain number one. He just was consistent as issues came up. He knew exactly what he was going to dig into and he quickly knew his opinion. So would he rec would Rush Limbar recognize the right right now? I think it’ be very difficult for him to recognize at least some segments of the right. I I I don’t want to say it’s the entire record. It isn’t. I think a huge percentage of the the Trump right doesn’t believe a lot of this nonsense and all the numbers that we’re citing, except for some of the young men numbers are are minority numbers. But I I will say that yes, I mean the let’s put it this way, Brian, if I went back 10 years and I looked at the stuff that you were saying, it looks exactly the same as the stuff that you’re saying now. Nobody has ever asked what happened to Brian Kilme, right? Nobody who’s looked at the course of my career, I’ve been writing a syndicated column since I was 17. I’m now 41. Nobody would look at anything that I’ve said and said, “What what happened? How did Ben Shapiro change?” But there are an enormous number of quite powerful influencers and that question is being asked about them all the time. What what happened to exp what happened to this person? What what changed for this person? And and if this person is radically changing their opinion on a dime and seems to be gaining verality for it, you do have to ask, you know, the question about whether they’re chasing verality or or on what basis they’ve changed their opinion. All right. So, let me bring you to practical politics. You’re Donald Trump. you had your arms wrapped around everybody. You know, a lot of people I thought agree with a lot of people on Fox, a lot of people who do the podcast and now all of a sudden those people are fighting with each other and you need every single vote to keep the House and the Senate practically. And then you got this 2028 where you have to have a nominee that’s going to have to find a way possibly to be all things to all people or just pick a side. What responsibilities do the people in power have now on their own party? You could say that for Democrats, but let’s just focus on Republicans now. I I think Republicans have a tremendous responsibility to define what the party looks like going forward because if they don’t, then I the people Yes. the leaders. Absolutely. I also think that it’s not worthwhile fighting yesterday’s war. Meaning that JD Vance’s coalition is not going to be identical to Donald Trump’s coalition because it doesn’t work that way. Hillary Clinton’s coalition was not identical to Barack Obama. She thought it would be and that’s why she lost. And if Republicans continue to think that every single voter who voted for Donald Trump is just going to translate right over. So if you just say nothing, if you just kind of hover across the top of these controversial issues that you will be able to keep everybody in your warm embrace. Donald Trump is a unique swanerous figure who’s able to encompass multitudes. That is not true of any other Republican in the field. Period. End of story. And so, you know, I listen, I I wish that President Trump would do it himself, but if President Trump won’t do it, then then I wish other politicians would say, “Here is what my conservatism looks like.” And and more importantly, here is what conservatism does not look like, and here is what can’t define the party going forward. Ted Cruz is I want you to hear Hillary Clinton because she seems equally dismayed in a way. Listen, smart, well-educated young people from our own country, from around the world. Where were they getting their information? They were getting their information from social media, particularly Tik Tok, and which he was referring to as her Colombia students anti-semitic views. And he doesn’t understand they had no perspective on the Israeli Palestinian disagreements at all. Just 30 seconds your thoughts on what he just said. I mean, that’s the worst person, you know, meme is right. Right. When Hillary Clinton broken clock being correct twice a day, that this is the twice a day. I mean, obviously the social media algorithms are broadening people’s minds. And what I’ve said to people is, you want to know what Americans really think? Get outside, touch some grass, spend less time on TikTok and on X and actually go to church and talk with your fellow Americans a little bit. You’ll find that the nutty beliefs are significantly less prevalent and important than you believe they are. All right, Ben, hang in there. Ben Shapiro, uh, go get his book for, uh, for this holiday season, Lions and Scavengers, and check him out on the Daily Wire all the time. Ben, thank you. Thanks, Brian. Appreciate it. Back in a moment. We already know California self admitted that it used 50 uh million dollars towards illegal immigrants that it was not allowed to. We’re looking at highspeed rail. We’re looking at uh healthc care expenses. We’re looking at other conduct by state officials. One thing we have not had in California for a long time is oversight because of the superdemocrat uh party out here. There’s been no oversight. There’s been no checks or balances on the power. It’s now here. All right. So, so there’s renewed scrutiny now on the welfare system here in the Golden State of California. Congress opening that investigation into Minnesota. Governor Waltz’s handling of several largecale fraud cases, talking about a billion dollars, maybe more. California gumnatorial candidate Steve Hilton launching a tip line to report fraud cases. He tells the New York Post that whatever we’re seeing in Minnesota is a thousand times worse in California because of many more years of one party rule by the Democrats. Let’s get Steve Hilton to back that up. He joins me now live. And sir, good morning to you. Good to be back in your state. I know you still love it here. A thousand times is a lot. Where’s that coming from? It may even be an understatement, Bill. Great to be with you. Sorry I couldn’t be with you in person. I’m doing a debate this morning up here in San Jose. Look, we’ve had 15 years of one party rule. We were the first state, California, to have a statewide sanctuary law. Look at the fraud and abuse. We already know about $20 billion in the pandemic. The employment department sent to people um in on death row, prisons and jails to and criminal gangs internationally. 24 billion the state auditor says on homelessness spending that went straight into the pockets of cronies and connected nonprofits for the homeless industrial complex as Billis was just alluding to there officially now $13 billion next year Gavin Newsome is going to be spending on free health care for illegal immigrants that’s 57 billion that we know about think about the rest the massive bloated size of our bureaucracy nanny state welfare state here in California. That’s why I’ve launched califraud.com because in Minnesota we saw for years honest, decent, brave civil servants were trying to blow the whistle on the abuse that was going on there. Tim Walls and the Democrat machine silenced them, harassed them, and tried to cover it all up. We mustn’t let that happen here. So, I’m calling on every civil servant, every state worker in California who may know of shenanigans that are going on to go to califraud.com anonymously tell us so that we know what’s going on so that when I’m governor, we can root it out and save taxpayers money. All right, we’ll see what you come up with on that. There’s a couple other topics I want to get to. I’ve been out here twice in the last couple of weeks. It is a stunning thing for me to drive through the Pacific Palisades and then through Malibu for many, many miles. And so our viewers at home who have not been out here, the destruction from these fires is extensive. And you’re I mean the state’s doing his best to try and recover and it’s been a very slow process. Last January, here is Gavin Newsome on NBC and said this about the effort in California. Watch. We’re already organizing a Marshall Plan. We already have a team of looking and reimagining LA 2.0 and we’re making sure everyone’s included, not just the folks on the coast. uh people here uh that were ravaged by this disaster. Okay. So after that, President Trump came to California and yesterday Gavin Newsome was in Washington DC. He said, “In January, real Donald Trump looked me in the eye on the tarmac promising Angelinos that he’d help rebuild after the firestorms. 11 months later, he still hasn’t delivered. That’s why I’m headed to DC to push for a long overdue federal aid package for survivors.” Will California get that, Steve? How do you see it? I’m I’m sorry, Bill. Um, but the the level of lying and gaslighting now from Gavin Newsome is beyond a joke. It is disgusting. It is an insult to everyone who lost anything in the Palisades fire and the Altadena fire because look at what he said there. You played the video. He said he, Gavin Newsome, not Donald Trump, Gavin Newsome would be organizing a Marshall plan to rebuild LA. I was in the Palisades yesterday afternoon. We went to the first house that they touted as being rebuilt after the fires. Turns out it was permitted before the fires. It’s not even a real home. It’s a show home. And look at what’s actually been happening on the ground in the Palisades. It’s actually the president and his team who’ve done the job. The Army Corps of Engineers cleaning the toxic waste. Lee Zeldon and his team from the EPA, they did their job in record time. The federal government did its part. It’s California, the feckless governor, the useless mayor who’ve done nothing practically to deliver on the promises they made. That’s why we’re going to kick them out next year. Bill, we’re sick of all this. I I I know you want his job. We’ll see how that election goes. Uh in the meantime, we’ll see what he gets from Washington from this trip to our nation’s capital. Steve Hilton, thank you for your time. We’ll continue to track it. Appreciate you coming on today. You bet. Moving on to this. The House Oversight Committee demanding Minnesota Governor Tim Waltz hand over documents as we learn new details about the investigation into the $1 billion welfare fraud scandal and new reports claiming Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar has deep ties to people who personally profited from the alleged fraud. That list includes one of her former campaign officials and a co-owner of the restaurant where Omar held her 2018 Congressional Victory Party. It is important to note the congresswoman has not been directly linked to the fraud herself. Joining us now is the speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives, Lisa Demouth, who joins me now. And Lisa, thank you so much for doing just that. A billion dollars in taxpayer dollars essentially lit on fire. What is your reaction to this staggering fraud scandal that has rocked your state? For the last seven years, we have looked at fraud that has exploded under Governor Tim Walls in autism services. Feeding our future, the food scandal during the co time is the largest COVID food scandal taxpayer money waste in the nation. And we’ve been sounding the alarm over the years. We’re finally getting that national attention that we need so much here in our state to have full investigations. But you’re right, it’s over a billion dollars in taxpayer dollars that have gone out to fraud instead of going to the people that needed those services the most. Tim Waltz is up for reelection. What are people What are residents in Minnesota saying about this? Tim Walls is up for his third election um here in the state of Minnesota. People were surprised when he was reelected for a second time. But when he was on the national stage just a year ago, it really let the nation know truly who Tim Walls is. Definitely let motans know. His favorability is underwater right now. It’s less than 50% and it’s mostly because he has not handled fraud and he’s increased our taxes and fees and spent through a record surplus. You say that a billion dollars could just be the tip of the iceberg. That’s pretty big iceberg. What do you mean by that? Yes. And that is what we’ve heard from the acting US attorney um in the case uh specifically looking at some of these things. That was said by acting attorney, US attorney Joe Thompson. He said this could be just the tip of the iceberg. It could push north almost to two billion dollars. Again, these are taxpayer dollars that have been stolen by fraudsters here in the state of Minnesota. Well, in 2020, according to the New York Times, the Minnesota Department of Education actually questioning questioned Feeding Our Future, which is one of these fraudulent organizations, about all the requests that they were making. And the organization actually threatened the state agency and said that if you don’t give us what we want, we’re going to sue you, accuse you of racism, and I don’t think we really want that kind of negative press. And the state agency caved. That’s just one example of the brazen nature of all of this that took place over the course of five years. Why do you think this took so long to uncover? I think there’s been a lack of accountability at the very top of our state. You know, if threats were made such as those, you still push through, investigate the fraud, and stop the fraudulent payments that were going out. That is not what we’ve experienced here in the state. That is the change that we need from the very top. We’re grateful that we’ve got federal partners that are coming in to truly investigate a number of these cases and look into the records. But accountability stop starts at the top. So that’s with the governor and with his commissioners. That’s not what we’ve experienced here in Minnesota. Well, speaking of the top, of course, Governor Waltz has been questioned about this now that it’s been uncovered. And here he is talking about why he believes this took place in Minnesota. Watch this. Do you take responsibility for failing to stop this fraud in your state? Well, certainly I take responsibility for putting people in jail. Governors don’t get to uh just talk theoretically. We have to solve problems. And I will note it’s not just Somali. Minnesota is a generous state. Minnesota is a prosperous state, a well-run state. We’re AAA bond rated, but that attracts criminals. Those people are going to jail. We’re doing everything we can. But to demonize an entire community on the actions of a few, um, it’s lazy. So, he says that this took place in Minnesota because he’s doing too good of a job. What do you think about that? AAA bond rating is not what criminals look at if they’re going to come and do criminal behavior here in the state. What I would say is a well-run state, a generous state, and a prosperous state. But a well-run state does not attract criminal behavior. It means that the dollars that are collected from taxpayers go to the people that need it the most, not to fraudsters. Yeah. And these people stole a billion dollars for themselves while claiming it was going to autistic and hungry children. So, let’s hope that the the punishment here truly meets the crime. Lisa Damuth, speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives. We thank you so much for joining us speaking out about this. Minnesota Governor Tim Walsh says his administration is addressing a fraud scandal that has cost taxpayers more than a billion dollars. Correspondent Garrett Tenny has the latest tonight from our Midwest bureau. The amount of fraud investigators are uncovering in Minnesota is growing by the day. Two days into the Small Business Administration’s probe, investigators finding at least a million dollars in COVID loans to individuals indicted in the state’s massive fraud schemes. This looks like a complex scheme that was set up to defraud taxpayers, our federal government. Congress and multiple federal agencies are now probing what’s become the largest pandemic fraud scheme in the country with prosecutors finding more than a billion dollars stolen so far. It’s unbelievable what they were doing with all of these people and the crimes that had been committed for so very long. Several whistleblowers in the state tell lawmakers the total fraud could swell to more than$8 billion dollar and claim they repeatedly tried to sound the alarm. Either the Walls administration is incredibly incompetent or they’re complicit. At this point, I don’t see how you see it any other way. Governor Tim Walls insists his administration never ignored reports of possible fraud and are taking steps to keep it from happening again. We’ve acknowledged that this is serious, needs to stop. It is stopping. People are continuing to go to prison. DHS says federal immigration agents in the Twin Cities have arrested at least 12 criminal illegal aliens as part of the newly launched Operation Metro Surge, targeting Somali in the country illegally. That operation and the president’s renewed attacks on the Somali people has the community on edge, including this business owner who voted for the president. We don’t want to our president, you know, saying all the Somali they are bad. We’re not bad. The FBI’s investigation into Minnesota’s massive fraud is ongoing. So far, more than 50 people have been convicted with nearly 80 others charged. And this morning, Attorney General Pam Bondi said there are going to be a lot more arrest coming. Brett Garrett, thank you. Hey, Sean Hannity here. Hey, click here to subscribe to Fox News YouTube page and catch our hottest interviews and most compelling analysis. You will not get it anywhere else.

The Small Business Administration is investigating a network of Somali groups in Minnesota that it says is tied to a massive COVID fraud scandal as photos of Gov. Tim Walz and Ilhan Omar with an illegal immigrant convicted of fraud surface. #fox #media #breakingnews #us #usa #new #news #breaking #foxnews #minnesota #somali #groups #covid #fraud #scandal #crime #crimenews #crimestory #criminal #police #sba #smallbusinessadministration #timwalz #walz #ilhanomar #omar #immigration #illegalimmigrant #government #politics #political #politicalnews

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