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Hope Walz, the daughter of Minnesota Gov. and former Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz, admitted there was "enough truth" to the alleged billion-dollar Minnesota fraud scandal while addressing her father's decision to end his gubernatorial re-election campaign.
Walz to appeared on the One Hour Detours podcast hours after her father's announcement on Monday (January 5), a decision she claims he made "to kind of get that target off Minnesota."
“I think there was enough truth to the fraud claim,” she said.
Walz then claimed her father was the target of scrutiny "because he has that national profile [and President Donald] Trump just hates him for some reason, stating, "I think it's because he's everything Trump will never be."
"I think he was popular during the campaign last fall and he's still in office and he's running again, and so it's just kind of an easy thing for them to pick up on,' she said of her father.
"And I think there's enough truth to the fraud claims... that they were able to twist and amplify it and what not because it is being dealt with," Walz added. "They were just able to frame it in a way that benefitted them."
Gov. Walz said he still believes he could have won another term but decided "that I can't give a political campaign my all" following what he called an “extraordinarily difficult year for our state.”
“Donald Trump and his allies – in Washington, in St. Paul, and online – want to make our state a colder, meaner place,” Walz said via the Associated Press. “They want to poison our people against each other by attacking our neighbors. And, ultimately, they want to take away much of what makes Minnesota the best place in America to raise a family.”
Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services Jim O'Neill announced the Trump Administration decision to freeze child care funds to Minnesota and demand an audit on several day care centers following a series of reported fraud schemes involving government programs alleged to have taken place in recent years last Wednesday (December 31). Walz pushed back on his X account, claiming the state had spent several years cracking down on fraudsters but the decision to freeze child care funds was part of Trump "politicizing the issue."
"This is Trump’s long game. We’ve spent years cracking down on fraudsters. It’s a serious issue - but this has been his plan all along. He’s politicizing the issue to defund programs that help Minnesotans," Walz wrote in response to O'Neill's announcement.
O'Neill referenced a video shared by a right-wing influencer claiming that day care centers operated by Somali residents in Minneapolis had committed up to $100 million in fraud and demanded Walz submit an audit of the centers alleged to have been involved in the schemes, which would include attendance records, licenses, complaints, investigations and inspections.
“We have turned off the money spigot and we are finding the fraud,” O’Neill said.
The administration's announcement came one day after U.S. Homeland Security officials were reported to be conducting a fraud investigation in Minneapolis, which included visiting unidentified businesses and questioning workers. Several fraud investigations have been launched in Minnesota in recent years including a $300 million pandemic food fraud scheme centered around the nonprofit Feeding Our Future, which resulted in 57 people being convicted.