(Tibrina Hobson / Getty Images)

Patriot Brief

• Walz deflects Somali fraud accountability questions by shifting blame to “white men.”

• Minnesota faces scrutiny over massive Somali-linked welfare fraud scandals.

• Governor accused of minimizing fraud while attacking immigration enforcement efforts.

Tim Walz’s response to questions about Somali-linked fraud wasn’t leadership — it was misdirection. Faced with legitimate concerns about accountability in the wake of billion-dollar welfare fraud schemes, the Minnesota governor defaulted to a familiar Democratic reflex: racial deflection. Instead of addressing oversight failures, enforcement gaps, or community responsibility, Walz pivoted to attacking “white men,” as if that somehow absolves state leadership of its obligations.

This isn’t about collective blame — it’s about accountability. Fraud on this scale doesn’t happen without institutional negligence, and Walz’s administration has been repeatedly accused of suppressing warnings and ignoring red flags. Dodging the issue by reframing it as a racial talking point only deepens public distrust.

Meanwhile, ICE enforcement and federal prosecutions are being painted as political stunts rather than necessary responses to documented crimes. Voters don’t want ideological spin — they want answers, safeguards, and consequences. Walz’s remarks suggest he’s more interested in narrative control than confronting uncomfortable realities his state helped enable.

From Western Journal:

Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz started criticizing white men on Friday in response to whether Somalis will be held accountable for a massive fraud scandal.

Somalis in Minnesota have been involved in several fraudulent schemes, including dozens of Somalis who have been charged for stealing $1 billion in taxpayer money from state and federal social services programs, including those intended to feed children from low-income households. In response to a question on whether Somalis should hold themselves accountable, Walz said that there are many white people who have also committed crime.

“What do you want to hear more from instead of just saying don’t blame us? Do you want to see more ownership and oversight from within the Somali community?” a reporter asked.

“Look, it’s not law-abiding citizens. If that were the case, there’s a lot of white men should be holding a lot of white men accountable for the crimes that they have committed,” Walz said. “I think for the community to maybe educate their population, because I think what you’re seeing here is there’s secondary victims in this, that there’s providers inside the community that are then victimizing the community themselves by signing them up, because when we’re going to some of these people, they’re like, I had no idea I was in this program. So I think it’s asking us then, you know, for every crime, which of course the majority being committed by white men, asking us to do more about that. I think it’s crime in general.”

Walz has faced scrutiny from state officials who accused him of “willfully” disregarding “rules and laws to keep fraud reports quiet.” The governor accused President Donald Trump of engaging in a “PR stunt” and of “indiscriminately targeting immigrants” while Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has ramped up operations in Minnesota to detain Somali nationals.

Qalinle Ibrahim Dirie, a Somali national living in the U.S., was sentenced to 12 years in prison in July for abducting and raping a 12-year-old girl in Minneapolis in 2024. Another avoided jail time despite being a serial rapist and has been charged with kidnapping and sexual assaulting a woman for several days, according to the New York Post.

Trump wrote in a Nov. 27 Truth Social post that Walz was “seriously retarded” for allowing Somalis to commit such heinous crimes.

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