GOP Whip Unloads On Tim Walz Over Rampant Fraud: ‘I’m Not Going To Be Minnesota Nice’

House Majority Whip Tom Emmer on Wednesday tore into his state’s governor, Tim Walz, saying that the Democrat “should resign” and would likely “leave office in cuffs” if he chose not to do so.

Emmer made his comments on the latest episode of the Republican Study Committee’s “Right to the Point” podcast, where he was joined by his fellow Minnesota Republican Reps. Brad Finstad and Michelle Fischbach about the still-unfolding situation in their home state. The trio called out the leadership in their state, saying that whether they were complicit in the rampant fraud or had simply failed to deal with it, the full price of their actions had fallen on the people of Minnesota.

Among the issues on the table were the dozens already tried and convicted for fraud schemes connected to Feeding Our Future, many of them part of the Somali immigrant community; the additional fraud being investigated in the daycare and healthcare systems, also connected to the Somalis; and Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) efforts to crack down on illegal immigration in the state.

Emmer began by noting his sadness that so many different and massive fraud schemes — which a number of people have known about for years — were able to flourish in his state, and he credited President Donald Trump for finally forcing it into the headlines.

“The three of us and those that are testifying today have been calling out this fraud for years, and nobody would report it,” he said. “Joe Thompson, the first Assistant U.S. Attorney for Minnesota, estimates the total fraud could amount to $9 billion.”

Emmer referenced Nick Shirley, the independent journalist who brought the fraud into the spotlight, saying that even though Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison (D-MN) had been in office for seven years, Shirley had been able to root out more fraud in a day than they had since they were elected.

Finstad noted that Emmer and Fischbach had co-signed a letter he sent to Walz in 2022, calling on him to address the situation.

“‘This fraud has been going on in Minnesota for years. It’s time to get, you know, put a stop to it,'” Finstad said, paraphrasing the letter.

“This is criminal on all levels, you know, to no response. That was three or four years ago. And you know, this goes back to 2014, 2015, when we, you know, the news media was at that time covering when there was literal duffel bags of cash going through the Minneapolis Airport to Somalia. So fast forward. You know, we’ve been pounding this drum forever, and to this day, he has not responded to those letters or those calls for us to demand accountability.”

Emmer went on to say that while he was sad to see what was happening to his state, he was also angry at leadership for failing to step up and do the right thing.

“It hurts. I’m mad. I am very angry about this, because this didn’t have to be this way,” he said. “I mean, nobody seems to want to talk about the fact that we had a Democrat attorney general by the name of Laurie Swanson, who was literally investigating and prosecuting Somali daycare fraud back in 2017 and -18, nobody wants to talk about.”

But as Emmer noted, her investigations were cut short when she lost the gubernatorial primary to Walz — and then Ellison was elected to succeed her as attorney general.

“And what was his first action? His first action was to create a rule that there will be no more investigations without Keith Ellison’s express approval, and since then, there have been no investigations,” he explained.

“It is not racist to call out criminal activity,” Emmer continued. “It is not xenophobic to identify the group of people who are involved, and in this case, 90% of the people who have been charged in the largest pandemic fraud case in the country, the $250 million Feeding Our Future fraud scandal are from the Somali community.”

Emmer then turned on Walz, who just recently suspended his reelection campaign amid the growing fraud scandal: “Tim Walz, by the way, this thing is growing. I’m not going to be Minnesota Nice. I’m going to be Minnesota Real. Tim Walz should resign, and if he doesn’t resign, he’s probably going to leave the office in cuffs.”