'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."

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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.

RELATED: Founder of Minneapolis autism center admits to paying kickbacks to Somali families in $6 million scam

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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