Governor Tim Walz (D-Minn.) was in front of the Oversight Committee this week when he was confronted by Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) about fraud in his state — and his reaction did not make him look good.

“Governor Walz and Attorney General Ellison, you have presided over one of the worst government fraud scandals in American history. This was money intended to feed hungry children, help kids with autism, provide food and shelter and health care to the needy, and more,” Mace began.

“You both allowed billions in these American taxpayer dollars to be pillaged and plundered by Somali pirates. You knew this was happening. You chose to do nothing about it. And in some cases, you even enabled it,” she continued.

“My questions this morning, my first go to Governor Walz. And I hope you learned some lessons from your last hearing with me on the Oversight Committee. Have you learned anything since then?” Mace asked.

“I did,” Walz responded angrily. “That if I didn’t speak up, two of my people would be dead, Congresswoman, and I warned you.”

“Governor Walz, what is a woman? Have you learned that lesson? Do you know what a woman is?” she asked, ignoring his previous response.

“I’m not here to be your prop for your obsession,” Walz said.

“If you can’t define what a woman is, you certainly can’t define what fraud is,” she responded, before asking Walz how much money was spent on autism in Minnesota in 2017.

“I don’t have those numbers in front of me,” he answered.

As Mace continued to question him on the fraud, Walz repeatedly answered that he wasn’t there to be Mace’s “prop.”

“Congresswoman Nancy Mace held him to account,” BlazeTV host Liz Wheeler comments.

“Of course, you remember his nickname, Tampon Tim. The reason that we call him Tampon Tim is not to be vulgar. It’s not because we’re petty and we’re hurling an ad hominem at him,” Wheeler says.

“It’s because Governor Tim Walz put tampons in boys’ bathrooms in Minnesota. Because he won’t answer the question, ‘What is a woman?’ Because he’s so captured by leftist ideology,” she adds.

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'Why didn't you tell the truth?' Republicans grill Walz over Somali fraud and CDLs for illegal aliens

Lawmakers heavily pressed Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) during a hearing on Wednesday regarding fraud taking place in his state.

The 'Feeding Our Future' scandal

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) questioned Walz about taxpayer payments to the nonprofit Feeding Our Future, an organization that has been at the center of a massive COVID-era fraud scandal involving Somali operators. The Minnesota Department of Education suspended those payments in March 2021 but "voluntarily" resumed making them weeks later, according to a 2022 press release from the Minnesota Judicial Branch.

'He's here illegally, he can't read, and he got a license under your provisions!'

"Why didn't you tell the truth about why you restarted the payments?" Jordan asked.

"The agency believed that the court had required them to make those payments," Walz responded.

Jordan countered that the claim was false, stating that the judge never ordered the resumption of payments. "So the court's lying?!" Jordan asked.

"I can't tell you, Congressman!" Walz said.

"Could it be you were trying to hide behind the court, Governor?" Jordan asked.

After the interaction, Walz struggled to come up with a response.

The press release from the Minnesota courts stated that the judge "never ordered the Department of Education to resume payments to FOF in April 2021, or at any other time."

Non-domiciled commercial driver's licenses

Later on in the hearing, Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) ripped into Walz on commercial driver's licenses.

"According to the secretary of transportation, one-third of Minnesota's non-domiciled commercial driver's licenses were issued illegally," Perry said.

Perry then presented a clip of a person driving a semi-truck the wrong way on a divided Missouri highway in late February. The video shows that the truck was eventually stopped by a trooper.

Perry claimed that the suspect driving the vehicle was given a Minnesota license despite being unable to pass the driving test because of a law Walz signed that allows applicants to obtain a CDL regardless of immigration status.

Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Walz talked about the safety of Minnesota's roads and claimed that he doesn't "understand the connection" between driver's licenses and immigration status.

"He's here illegally, he can't read, and he got a license under your provisions!" Perry said. "And he's driving all across the country, imperiling everybody else! That's the connection!" Perry concluded.

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Deace: The Pam Bondi Show needs to be canceled

I know you thought the Super Bowl halftime show brought to you by a double-digit-IQ reprobate was bad, but Pam Bondi appeared before Congress this week and said "hold my beer."

She’s playing the Republican base for suckers with her constant night-at-the-improv act. That future gig as a Fox News contributor ain’t gonna happen all by itself.

The memes cataloguing her jackassery simply won’t stop despite Trump’s mightiest efforts to bail her out. I mean, how do you explain away "don’t worry about the Epstein rape island because have you considered where the Dow is?"

Yikes.

The midterms called and said the blue wave is a-coming! We’ve clearly come a long way from "lock her up," but in exactly the wrong direction. The message is highly radicalized, but the perception increasingly seems to be that we are not delivering on it and perhaps we never intended to.

A lot of politics is perception. That’s just the plain reality of it. It’s why one of my Ten Commandments of political warfare is "never attack what you aren’t prepared to kill." So if, for example, we pull out of Minneapolis right now and declare victory but Tim Walz, Don Lemon, and Ilhan Omar pay no discernable cost, what has actually been gained?

In fact, the right will have managed to disappoint both sides of its political coalition. First the establishment thought the optics were too violent, and now the base thinks the optics are too cowardly. Then add to that mix elitist talk about the Dow papering over the need to expose the perpetrators of global sex crimes, and prepare for a dire electoral judgment day.

You can personally admire the president and everything he has done for this country (and I do) but still remember that Trump lost about 40 House seats in the 2018 midterms. What about this time? You have to live in the world of actual realities and outcomes. So when the pollster calls you about the current direction of the country and your personal situation includes homes that you still can’t sell and schools that are still trying to trans your kids, you are going to need your affinity for Trump to be doing a lot more heavy lifting than whatever Pam Bondi is bringing to the table on his behalf.

When the base starts to ask why protecting Howard Lutnick is more important than protecting base voters, Houston, we have a problem. But perhaps I’m wrong. Let he who has not brought his family to Epstein Island cast the first stone!

Given that the attorney general is arguably the most important position in the executive branch other than president, I wish I had more to analyze for you than the level of stupid now before us. What would we have said if Hillary Clinton tried something like what Bondi just did before Congress? I don't know that I have ever seen a figure on the right being more justifiably and savagely ridiculed by her own side.

Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images

Does everyone understand what a self-own it was for Bondi to try to own the libs by accusing Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) of being a crooked inside trader? Because what position in the federal government is uniquely equipped and empowered to find out if Raskin should be punished for abusing his position within the United States Congress? Could it be Attorney General Bedazzler Bondi herself? Good grief.

She’s playing the Republican base for suckers with her constant night-at-the-improv act. That future gig as a Fox News contributor ain’t gonna happen all by itself, is it, Pam?

Meanwhile, and maybe I’m weird this way, I just want to win. And by that I don’t mean something as trite as the final score of a football game. No, winning means saving America for our children to live safe and free. The existential stakes of our current political moment fall nothing short of that.

The cold truth is that Pam Bondi at this point is clearly an embarrassing impediment to that goal. She's not only not helping us win, but I've got a set of binders right here and they all say it's more likely that she'll be the reason we lose.

Tom Homan signals seismic shift in Minneapolis operation

Border czar Tom Homan announced that he will be making significant changes to the federal presence in Minneapolis, citing major progress made on the ground.

Homan recapped the administration's efforts in Minneapolis, including locating 3,364 unaccompanied migrant children who were lost under former President Joe Biden's leadership. Homan also touted progress made with local and state officials, thanking both Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey (D) and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D).

'We have a lot of work to do across this country.'

In light of the progress made, Homan announced that Operation Metro Surge was ending and that he has begun withdrawing federal agents from Minneapolis.

"I have proposed, and President Trump has concurred, that this surge operation conclude," Homan said.

Photo by John Moore/Getty Images

"A significant drawdown has already been under way this week and will continue through the next week," Homan added.

Homan clarified that the federal resources previously sent to Minneapolis will either return to their original post or be reassigned to continue their efforts in another city.

"We have a lot of work to do across this country to remove public safety risks who shouldn't even be in this country and to deliver on President Trump's promise for strong border security and mass deportation," Homan said.

"Law enforcement officers drawn down from this surge operation will either return to their duty station or be assigned elsewhere to achieve just that."

Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

Homan also dispelled several inaccurate narratives about ICE's presence in Minneapolis.

"During this surge operation, ICE has not arrested anybody inside a hospital," Homan said. "We have not arrested anybody inside of an elementary school. We have not arrested anybody inside a church.”

“However, those locations are not off the table.”

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What Minneapolis Cops Are Saying That News Ignores | Michele Tafoya

Anti-fraud GOP candidate for Minnesota governor suspends campaign after daughter's savage murder

Former St. Cloud City Councilman Jeff Johnson, a Republican candidate for governor in Minnesota, suspended his campaign on Monday after his 22-year-old daughter was savagely stabbed to death.

The Republican Party of Minnesota confirmed Johnson was dropping out and stressed that the group is "heartbroken by the tragic loss of Dr. Jeff Johnson's daughter, who was killed in a violent crime Saturday night in St. Cloud."

"There are no words that can adequately express the sorrow we feel for Jeff and his family," continued the Minnesota GOP. "The loss of a child is unimaginable, and our thoughts and prayers are with them as they grieve this devastating tragedy."

The City of St. Cloud Police Department indicated that officers responded on Saturday evening to a report of a medical emergency at the apartment of Johnson's daughter, Hallie Marie Tobler, where they found her dead with multiple stab wounds.

'Join us in lifting up the Johnson family.'

Dylan Tobler, her 23-year-old husband, was also found at the scene with life-threatening injuries that police believe to have been self-inflicted. Although initially taken to St. Cloud Hospital for treatment, police indicated Dylan Tobler — who is now in stable condition — will later be transported to the Stearns County Jail, "where he will be held for court on charges related to the homicide."

Stephen M. Katz/South Florida Sun-Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images

Last month, Dylan Tobler pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct in connection to a June 2025 incident in which he choked his wife, reported the Duluth News Tribune.

By Tuesday, Johnson's campaign page had been stripped down to its header.

The former councilman, who served for two terms in the 2010s, announced his candidacy for governor in March 2025, vowing to tackle Minnesota's fraud and crime problems, keep businesses from fleeing the Gopher State, work with federal agencies to combat illegal immigration, and stand up to radicalism from the left.

"Quite frankly, Minnesota has been operating in full crisis mode under Gov. Tim Walz for years," Johnson said at the time in an interview with the St. Cloud Times.

The Minnesota GOP asked for residents of the state "to join us in lifting up the Johnson family during this incredibly painful time."

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The real villains aren’t in the movies. They’re looting America’s welfare system.

Somali pirates. Dead people “billing” taxpayers. Foreign terror networks thriving on Medicaid scams. Hackers stealing identities to collect benefits.

That lineup sounds like an over-the-top Hollywood heist movie. Americans now read versions of it on the front page.

Americans should treat this caper as a wake-up call. Elected leaders should treat it as an emergency.

Federal prosecutors charged 78 Somali immigrants with allegedly stealing more than $1 billion from taxpayers. National outlets noticed, including the see-no-immigrant-evil New York Times. Prosecutors also say suspected Medicaid fraud in Minnesota may top $9 billion, with new allegations and evidence surfacing by the day.

Hollywood can’t compete with numbers like that. In “Die Hard,” the crooks chased $640 million. Danny Ocean’s crew in “Ocean’s 11” made off with a mere $160 million. Minnesota’s real-life scammers allegedly went after far more, and they exploited programs meant to help the vulnerable.

Americans should treat this caper as a wake-up call. Elected leaders should treat it as an emergency: Prosecute the thieves, close the loopholes, and change the incentives that let fraudsters treat public benefits like an ATM.

For perspective, the fraud under investigation approaches the size of Somalia’s entire government budget and equals roughly 12% of Somalia’s economy, based on recent estimates. Minnesota’s Somali population equals about 0.5% of Somalia’s population and about 2.5% of the Twin Cities metro. Yet prosecutors say a small number of people allegedly moved sums that rival major industries back home.

Worse, investigators say some stolen money went overseas. In the Feeding Our Future case and related investigations, federal prosecutors have alleged that some proceeds flowed to al-Shabaab, a terrorist group the United States has targeted for years. If those allegations hold, taxpayers didn’t just fund fraud. They helped bankroll an enemy.

Minnesota’s scandal also exposes a national contradiction. Washington wages war abroad, welcomes refugees at home, and writes checks through the same federal programs that criminals can exploit — while the national debt nears $39 trillion.

Minnesota’s political class added its own layer of absurdity. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D) built a profitable career calling America racist. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey (D) delivered his re-election victory speech in Somali just days before the scope of these cases made headlines. Symbolic gestures came easy. Basic oversight did not.

Gov. Tim Walz (D) still owes voters answers. Did incompetence drive this disaster, or did indifference do the work? Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem argues both played a role. Reports now suggest state employees blew the whistle years ago about lax controls and sloppy management. Voters heard little of it when elections still hung in the balance.

Photo by: Michael Siluk/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Walz reportedly knew about major fraud risks as early as 2020. His administration later resumed funding after recipients sued, accusing the state of racism. The Walz administration also handed an “outstanding refugee award” in 2021 to a woman now charged in connection with fraud — facts that undercut today’s alibis.

Federal investigators deserve credit. The Departments of Justice and Treasury have pursued these cases aggressively. House Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) has opened another congressional probe. Prosecutions matter, but prevention matters more.

A new law President Trump signed this summer aims to make fraud more difficult to pull off. It requires states to recheck eligibility for able-bodied adults on Medicaid every six months instead of annually. For the first time, it also forces states to absorb more of the cost when they let fraud run rampant.

Those reforms should move quickly from paper to practice. States, red and blue, should implement them immediately. Fraudsters thrive on delay, confusion, and political excuses.

Taxpayer fraud deserves full prosecution. Political leaders who enable it deserve accountability too — whether they turned a blind eye, ignored whistleblowers, or refused to enforce the law. Every state in the Union should move now, or Minnesota’s scandal will spread.

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