“He illegally fired 17 inspectors general and other key personnel,” Lee said. “He goes after whistleblowers, and he tries to roll back their protections. He routinely ignores the rampant corruption within his own administration.”

She continued, “Republicans have turned a blind eye to all of this. They have held no hearings on these actions, and this hearing today isn’t even about fraud generally within the federal benefits system, which we would welcome. Republicans have cherry-picked a blue state and an immigrant population vulnerable to demonize. To be clear, Minnesota is not the only state with a fraud problem.”

After Lee yielded back to Comer, the chairman addressed her comments about the fired inspector generals by saying, “Miss Lee, the IGs are hired to identify fraud. They haven’t identified fraud. The IGS have failed.”

Lee clapped back, “You all have failed,” leading into a screaming match between the two.

“You have the gavel, Mr. Comer,” Lee responded to Comer, who said Democrats have failed. “We barely do hearings on anything that actually affects change.”

“You want to spend more money, more money, more money,” Comer responded before someone in the room called decorum, ending the feud between the two.

Republicans and Democrats have been split along party lines in the hearing as both parties point fingers at who is at fault for the purported fraud.

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The first hearing also heard testimony from state Reps. Kristin Robbins, Walter Hudson, and Marion Rarick, all of whom are Republicans. Comer has invited Walz and Ellison to testify on Feb. 10.

This hearing comes after the committee expanded its investigation, calling on state officials to testify in closed-door, transcribed interviews, while also requesting suspicious activity reports from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, along with a staff-level briefing from the Justice Department.