Comer Accuses Walz Of ‘Enabling Fraud’ As Explosive MN Hearing Explodes
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer is set to accuse Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz of “enabling fraud” and retaliating against whistleblowers during a high-stakes congressional hearing examining alleged abuse of federal welfare programs in the state.
According to prepared remarks obtained ahead of the hearing, Comer will argue that Walz and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison were aware of significant fraud risks in state-administered federal programs years before acknowledging the scope of the problem publicly.
“While Governor Walz hesitated, taxpayers lost billions. Attorney General Ellison has likewise claimed his office was aggressively holding fraudsters accountable, but when his statements were tested against the record, they fell apart,” Comer is expected to say.
He will further allege that the committee has interviewed more than 30 whistleblowers, including current state employees and Democrats, who claim they were ignored or punished for raising concerns.
“We have spoken with over thirty whistleblowers, many of them current employees and Democrats, who say they were ignored, retaliated against, and even surveilled for raising concerns,” Comer plans to state. “Instead of protecting the whistleblowers, the Walz administration protected the system that enabled fraud.”
The hearing follows the release of a 53-page committee report asserting that Walz and Ellison knew about fraud in Minnesota’s Child Care Assistance Program and certain high-risk Medicaid programs as early as spring 2019. The report also claims state officials were aware of fraud concerns in food aid programs administered by the Minnesota Department of Education as early as April 2020.
“While the Committee continues to review documents and meet with whistleblowers, it is evident that Governor Walz and Attorney General Ellison knew about the fraud in federal programs administered by the State of Minnesota much earlier than they told the American people,” the report states.
Federal prosecutors have already charged multiple individuals in connection with the Minnesota-based nonprofit Feeding Our Future, alleging more than $240 million was stolen from the Federal Child Nutrition Program. Investigations have since expanded into additional state-run programs, including Medicaid and childcare assistance initiatives.
Comer is expected to characterize the situation as “one of the most extensive breakdowns of oversight this Committee has ever examined.”
“Billions of taxpayer dollars were stolen from social services programs while warnings piled up, whistleblowers spoke out, and state officials chose delay and denial over action,” his remarks say. “Federal prosecutors estimate that as much as $9 billion may have been stolen from just fourteen Medicaid programs administered by the State of Minnesota.
Republicans on the committee argue the failures were systemic rather than isolated.
“What we’ve uncovered in Minnesota is not a paperwork error or a few bad actors slipping through the cracks. It is a sustained failure of leadership,” Comer is set to say.
The committee’s report also alleges that state leaders were reluctant to aggressively confront fraud for fear of political backlash from segments of Minneapolis’ politically active Somali community, a claim likely to draw fierce rebuttal from Minnesota officials.
Walz and Ellison have consistently denied knowingly allowing fraud and have accused House Republicans of politicizing ongoing investigations. Walz has previously criticized the Trump administration for temporarily halting certain Medicaid reimbursements to Minnesota, calling it a “campaign of retribution.”
Tensions escalated during questioning by Rep. Jim Jordan, who pressed Walz over the decision to resume payments to entities connected to Feeding Our Future after a court dispute.
The hearing underscores the intensifying clash between House Republicans and Minnesota’s Democratic leadership over the scale, timing, and political implications of one of the largest alleged fraud schemes involving federal social service programs in recent memory. As investigations continue at both the federal and state levels, the danger of prosecution of the Minnesota governor continues to mount.
Obama Accuses JD Vance Of Promoting ‘Blood And Soil’ Politics
Former President Barack Obama rarely mentions Vice President JD Vance by name, but that changed this week with one of his sharpest public attacks since Vance took office.
The comments immediately fueled speculation that Democrats are beginning to focus more attention on the vice president as Republicans look ahead to the post-Trump era.
Speaking Thursday during a conversation with author Malcolm Gladwell, Obama accused Vance of promoting what he described as a “blood and soil” vision of America, despite being married to Usha Vance, the daughter of Indian immigrants.
Obama made the remarks while discussing the Reconstruction era and arguing that many of the same debates over citizenship, voting rights and national identity continue today.
“We have a politics now that at least one of our major parties has been captured by politics that is not that subtle about suggesting that ‘We the people’ means a certain kind of people,” Obama said.
“When you have the vice president, current vice president, making a speech that is basically a blood and soil version of ‘We the people,’ that it matters who your parents were and how long they’ve been here despite him being married to a daughter of an immigrant himself.”
The phrase “blood and soil” is historically associated with Nazi Germany and white nationalist ideology.
Obama went on to argue that debates over who belongs in America remain central to the nation’s politics.
“That echoes, then, ideas about who can be a citizen, who belongs, who gets to make decisions,” he said.
Gladwell followed by accusing Vance of hypocrisy, arguing that the vice president was making what he called a nativist argument despite his own family’s immigrant background.
Obama agreed.
“That is progress,” Obama said.
“Listen, hypocrisy is progress. It is, because it means that you feel guilty enough to either lie to yourself or others.”
Fox News Digital reported that it reached out to Vance’s office for comment.
Obama did not identify the specific speech he was criticizing, but Vance’s most recent nationally televised remarks came during Independence Day celebrations marking America’s 250th birthday.
In that speech, Vance encouraged Americans to reject what he called a “two-dimensional view” of the country focused only on its historical failures.
“So what I’d ask you to do, my fellow Americans, on our 250th birthday, is to reject the two-dimensional view of your fellow citizens and reject the two-dimensional view of your country,” Vance said.
“Reject the view of your nation that sees only its sins, but not its grace and its greatness.”
He also emphasized that America’s accomplishments were achieved by “a common people working towards a common future.”
Obama has generally avoided making Vance a regular target since the vice president took office.
One notable exception came during the 2024 presidential campaign when then-Vice President Kamala Harris selected Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate.
Without naming Vance directly, Obama contrasted Harris’ choice with the Republican ticket.
“When a presidential candidate chooses a running mate, it says a lot about who they are and what kind of president they’ll be,” Obama said at the time, Fox News reported.
Political observers have increasingly discussed Vance as a potential frontrunner for the 2028 Republican presidential nomination, though he has not announced any plans to run.
Against that backdrop, Obama’s unusually direct criticism is likely to fuel speculation that some Democrats are beginning to sharpen their message against a politician they view as a likely future standard-bearer for the Republican Party. While no Democratic leaders have publicly described their strategy in those terms, prominent figures often begin drawing contrasts with potential future rivals well before a presidential campaign officially begins.
Whether that proves to be the case remains to be seen, but Obama’s remarks marked one of his most pointed critiques of Vance to date and ensured the vice president once again found himself at the center of the national political conversation.
