Washington Examiner congressional reporter Lauren Green said Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) needs to address the “missteps” that allowed the Medicaid fraud to grow in his state, as his political future is unknown.
The House Oversight Committee is conducting a hearing on Minnesota’s fraud scandal on Wednesday morning, two days after Walz announced that he will not seek a third term as governor. Green said Wednesday there is “a lot of hearsay” amid the fraud investigation, and suggested the information being shared on social media “isn’t the hard facts that have come out yet.”
“Obviously, running a campaign is extremely time-consuming, but also being governor is extremely time-consuming, and so I think that he has a lot of work to do,” Green said on C-Span’s Washington Journal. “There’s a lot of fraud to uncover. There’s a lot of missteps that happened to have this fraud happen, and so I think that obviously running a campaign while doing this is going to be a tough job.”
“But then also this fraud happening in his state while he is governor is going to hurt him politically,” Green said. “I’m not sure how long that will hurt him. It could be a career thing, but also he said that he’s looking to stay in politics after this run.”
Green noted that while Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) hasn’t made a gubernatorial bid amid Walz’s drama, it is possible, as she is a prominent and recognizable senator. Green said Democrats would need to win the gubernatorial election “by a landslide” to keep their “foothold” in the 2026 midterm elections.
“She has pretty much said that she is looking at this run,” Green said. “There are other people in the race. She hasn’t made any official announcements yet, but obviously, she is a pretty high-profile senator in the Senate, and I think that that is definitely something she would take a look at running with an open seat, and a seat that Democrats really do need to keep. Obviously, Minnesota is a very blue state, and so they really do need to win that governor’s race by a landslide to keep their foothold on these 2026 midterms.”
The House Oversight Committee heard testimony Wednesday from Republican Minnesota state Reps. Kristin Robbins, Walter Hudson, and Marion Rarick as part of their investigation into fraud in the state. Green said it’s “up in the air” if Walz will testify before the committee regarding the state’s fraud investigation, but noted he has appeared before Congress in the past and said he has “a willingness” to do so.
HOPE WALZ SPECULATES HER FATHER DROPPED REELECTION TO MOVE ‘TARGET’ OFF MINNESOTA
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday that President Donald Trump believes Walz is “criminally liable” for the extensive fraud scandal. Trump has also suggested Walz could leave office before his second term ends early next year “because he was caught, REDHANDED.”
The scrutiny comes as the Department of Health and Human Services moves to cut $10 billion in funding for child care and social services programs across several Democrat-led states, citing allegations of welfare fraud. Minnesota is one of the states on the list, along with California, New York, Colorado, and Illinois.
