One of the proudest moments of my writing career was in August 2024, when I said that Kamala Harris' first big policy move of her campaign — selecting Tim Walz as her running mate — was a bad one. I stand by that, because Walz did nothing to help Harris' campaign (then again, nothing would), but I'm beginning to understand why she chose him over a candidate who might have helped her electoral chances even a little bit.
My working theory is that the Kamala Harris team was aware of the massive Minnesota fraud scandal and on board with it. After all, a campaign that spent as much as she did just 107 days needed some ongoing source of revenue, and nothing Walz has done since the fraud scandal ended his political career has proven me wrong yet.
Walz was elbows-deep in the fraud scandal. Whistleblowers exposed him ages ago, alleging that Walz not only willfully disregarded rules and laws to keep fraud reports quiet, but also actively worked to silence and retaliate against whistleblowers.
"Instead of partnership, we got the full weight of retaliation by Tim Walz, certain DFL members, and an indifferent mainstream media," Minnesota DHS, a group of state employees committed to ending fraud, wrote on X. "It's scary, isolating, and left us wondering who we can turn to."
"In addition to retaliating against whistleblowers, Tim Walz disempowered the Office of the Legislative Auditor, allowing agencies to disregard their audit findings and guidance. Media and politicians supporting Tim Walz or the DFL-agenda attacked whistleblowers who were trying to raise red flags on fraudulent activities,"
During a recent Oversight Committee hearing, Rep. Jim Jordan also exposed Walz as a liar.
"I didn't ask that question," Jordan said during the hearing, "I said why didn't you tell the truth about why you restarted the payments. The payments stopped, because there were concerns obviously, or you wouldn't stop the payments, then they're restarted a month later. What were the reasons for restarting the payments?"
"My understanding was the agency believed that the court had required them to make those payments," Walz replied.
"And that was false, wasn't it?" Jordan asked. "You repeated that ... you said the reason you restarted is because the court ordered you to do so. Is that right?"
"I don't believe that is settled yet, to the best of my knowledge," Walz replied.
"Well, I think it is," Jordan said. "Because the court did something that I don't know if I've ever seen it. They issued a statement saying you were wrong in what you were saying."
Yet, despite the numerous times Walz has been busted defending, lying about, or covering up the fraud, he persists in pushing his own narrative that he's somehow the hero of this story.
This time, he's saying the only reason we know about the fraud is because of him.
🚨 LMFAO! Tim Walz says the only reason you hear about fraud in Minnesota is because he’s ENDING all the fraud
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) March 10, 2026
NOBODY believes you, Timmy. That’s why you’re being forced into RETIREMENT at the end of the year.
People know about it because of how UNBELIEVABLY obvious it is. And… pic.twitter.com/tXeobEycsW
"I think Minnesotans have to recognize this. You're hearing about fraud in Minnesota because we're prosecuting people," Walz said.
"No other state has gone to a more decentralized model ... of accountability," he added.
He also had the audcaity to say he'd taken steps to combat the fraud.
Tim Walz — who lost billions in taxpayer dollars to fraudsters:
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) March 10, 2026
“Over the past several years we have taken major moves to combat the fraud..."
Walz is an incompetent, unserious Governor. pic.twitter.com/2GDkxADy5T
I must admit I admire how easily Walz is able to lie about all of this. It's an impressive skill.
No, if Walz had his way, we wouldn't have heard about the fraud at all. It's clear his administration did everything it could to silence whistleblowers, quietly restart payments to fraudulent programs, and look the other way while the hard-earned money of Minnesota taxpayers went to fund fake daycares, phone autism centers, and very real terror groups in Somalia.
If Walz had taken any of this seriously, if he was doing such a bang-up job combating fraud, why did he drop out of the gubernatorial race and say his political career is over? Well, because he's a) guilty and b) already has a backup plan in place. Despite his insistence that he will not appoint himself to fill Amy Klobuchar's Senate seat if she's elected governor, many speculate he's lying about that, too.
Tim Walz can keep insisting that the only reason Minnesotans are hearing about the fraud scandal is because of his commitment to transparency and accountability. But the facts tell a very different story.
Minnesotans (and the rest of us) didn’t learn about the fraud because Walz exposed it or put an end to it. We learned about it because whistleblowers refused to stay silent, investigators and real journalists like Nick Shirley followed the evidence, and the scale of the scandal became impossible to hide. Walz didn’t bring the fraud into the light — he spent years trying to keep it there in the dark.
And that makes Walz the biggest fraudster of them all.