Victor Davis Hanson: Consequences Await Tim Walz After Somali Fraud Scandal

Hoover Institution Senior Fellow Victor Davis Hanson said Friday on Fox Business that Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz faces serious political fallout as public frustration mounts over the state’s massive Somali-linked welfare fraud schemes.

Walz defended his handling of the sprawling welfare fraud scandal on Sunday, saying Minnesota “attracts criminals” while insisting his administration should get credit for the prosecutions rather than blame for the more than $1 billion stolen.

Appearing on “Kudlow,” Hanson said voters have grown tired of what he described as evasions, excuses, and ideological talking points from the governor and his allies.

“They say everything, except that ‘Nobody in our community committed felonies. Nobody did.’ And they never say that,” Hanson told guest host David Asman. “I think people are sick of it. I think it’s really going to destroy the career, belatedly so, of Tim Walz. I think his days are numbered as a political figure.”

Asman said the scandal is the predictable outcome of pairing open-border policies with expansive welfare programs, arguing that the fraud operation milked “the welfare state to the tune of at least a billion dollars.” Hanson pointed to Walz’s public defenses as evidence that the governor refuses to confront the massive fraud honestly.

“You can really see it by the lame excuses that are offered. Tim Walz basically said, ‘I’ve been so successful and we’re such a great state, we’re so well run that we attract criminals,’” Hanson told Asman.

Just like Walz, Democratic Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar has downplayed the massive fraud by insisting most Somali migrants aren’t undocumented and suggesting that accusations stem from racism rather than wrongdoing.

“Don’t really have a lot of people who are undocumented. Majority of us came to the United States with a refugee status, which means you come in with documentation. And it means that we get our green card within a year,” Omar said.

Minnesota state employees said Walz is fully responsible for the more than $1 billion in social services fraud, alleging he retaliated against whistleblowers who tried to warn him. President Donald Trump blasted Walz over the Somali fraud crisis in a post, calling him a “seriously retarded Governor” who “does nothing.” Trump followed up by announcing he will end a federal designation that has shielded many Somalis from deportation.

City Journal reported that some of the stolen funds flowed to the Somali terrorist group Al-Shabaab, according to counterterrorism sources. The Al Qaeda-linked organization has killed several Americans and attempted a 9/11-style attack on the U.S., a plot that federal authorities foiled before securing a November 2024 conviction against an Al-Shabaab operative.

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