Congressional Republicans call on Minnesota’s Tim Walz to testify

Congressional Republicans on Wednesday called Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to testify amid an ongoing social services fraud scandal, as the White House signaled it could expand its investigations into other blue states.

A day after the Trump administration said it would freeze hundreds of millions of dollars of child-care funds to Minnesota, House Oversight and Government Reform Chair James Comer, R-Ky., invited Walz and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, both Democrats, to appear before the panel on Feb. 10. 

“Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison have either been asleep at the wheel or complicit in a massive fraud involving taxpayer dollars in Minnesota’s social services programs,” Comer said in a Wednesday statement.

An earlier hearing, slated for Jan. 7, will feature Minnesota state officials who sounded the alarm or investigated the fraud.

“American taxpayers demand and deserve accountability for the theft of their hard-earned money,” he continued.

Walz, who took office in 2019, has come under fire in recent months over fraud scams that occurred during his administration. He has recently faced calls to resign. The scandals date back several years and may have cost taxpayers billions of dollars, according to prosecutors.

Republicans, including President Donald Trump, have seized on reports of fraud to target Walz and other Democratic leaders, as well as Somalis living in Minnesota.

Also on Wednesday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said during an appearance on “Fox & Friends” that other states could be next and that Trump was on board with revoking the citizenship of implicated Somali Americans.

“Minnesota is the top of the list, but we know there has been massive fraud in blue states across this country. Look at California. Look at New York. These states will all be under investigation and consideration as far as this administration is concerned,” Leavitt said.

“Much of the Minnesota Fraud, up to 90%, is caused by people that came into our Country, illegally, from Somalia,” Trump said Wednesday in a Truth Social post in which he also attacked Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota Democrat and the first Somali American to serve in Congress. Trump called Omar “an ungrateful loser.”

“Lowlifes like this can only be a liability to our Country’s greatness. Send them back from where they came, Somalia, perhaps the worst, and most corrupt, country on earth,” Trump said. He also called Walz a “crooked governor.”

A spokesperson for Walz, who was Kamala Harris’ running mate on the Democratic presidential ticket in 2024, responded on Wednesday: “We’re always happy to work with Congress, though this committee has a track record of holding circus hearings that have nothing to do with the issue at hand.”

 “While the Governor has been working to ensure fraudsters go to prison, the President has been selling pardons to let them out,” the statement continued.

The freezing of child-care money, as well as FBI Director Kash Patel’s Sunday…