Minnesota Governor Tim Walz appeared prepared with a series of explanations when asked on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” whether the massive fraud scandal that plagued his state just months ago was a baseless rumor or whether it had taken the governor an “extraordinarily long time” to uncover it.
Walz argued that fraud a common issue in more generous states, and suggested that President Trump was using the situation to target immigrant communities and undermine welfare programs. However, the governor never addressed whether the fraud itself was reprehensible or whether he regrets that it occurred under his administration.
🚨 JIMMY KIMMEL: Did it take a long time for you to know fraud was happening?
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) April 23, 2026
TIM WALZ: It happens in other states! Trump used it as an EXCUSE! It was perfect for him to do. Demonize the Somali community! We ARE a generous state!
Tim Walz should just resign. What a DISGRACE and… pic.twitter.com/IED0lyenkr
"In all this is these multiple cases of benefits fraud that were happening," Kimmel said. "Now I want to ask you did it take an extraordinarily long time for you to know that that was happening? Is that just something that has been spread?"
"No," Governor Walz replied. "It happens in other states. We were going back to many of these people are prosecuted in 2021. He used it as an excuse because it was a perfect thing to do to say there was fraud, imagine that, you know, coming from this guy. He would know fraud where it was at."
"So he used it to demonize the immigrant community, especially the Somali community, and I said what he was doing was is the programs in Minnesota look, we are a generous state. We're also like California. We're a payer state. We pay more, and then we get back to support red states that don't support their people, but they came in to try and destroy those programs. And you know that that's again, rich, destroy programs that don't help them by billionaires who commit this fraud. But no, it was an excuse for them to do it."
This comes as officials in states like California and Minnesota have flatly denied that fraud is widespread, and in some cases have been accused of turning a blind eye to it. California Governor Gavin Newsom initially dismissed a wave of fraud allegations leveled at his state, only to later claim that his administration leads the nation in rooting out fraud after independent journalists, the federal government, and others reported hundreds of billions of dollars in alleged fraud.
To make matters worse, California officials have largely avoided directly addressing the specific allegations, refusing to confirm or deny any of the reports. Meanwhile, pressure on states like California continues to build, as concerns over fraud become increasingly difficult to ignore.