Republican House Majority Whip Tom Emmer expressed that he believes Minnesota Democrat Governor Tim Walz could “leave office in cuffs” amid the ongoing fraud scandals involving billions of dollars in state-administered social programs, with federal investigations underway.
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He later echoed the same remarks in interviews with Fox News and the New York Post.
During the podcast, Emmer called for Walz to resign and further declared that he wasn’t “going to be Minnesota Nice. I’m going to be Minnesota real. Tim Walz should resign, and if he doesn’t resign, he’s probably going to leave the office in cuffs.”
Emmer continued to point the finger at Walz, blaming him for failing to hold his administration accountable and for what the congressman described as blatant criminal misconduct, highlighting years of mismanagement of state social services programs and claims by whistleblowers that they were punished for speaking up about concerns under Walz.
“I think perhaps this is a lot deeper, a lot larger than we knew,” Emmer told Fox News. “Tim should do the right thing and resign. And if he doesn’t, I think he might be leaving the offices in cuffs.”
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Leading government attorneys estimate that as much as $9 billion in state and federal funding has been stolen — a staggering figure that Governor Walz and Democrat leaders have dismissed as a politically motivated exaggeration.
These recent investigations, and prior related ones, have exposed a series of sophisticated schemes, most notably the “Feeding Our Future” scandal. Labeled the largest COVID-era fraud case in the nation, the $250 million scheme involved 78 defendants — the vast majority of whom are of Somali descent — who used fake child nutrition sites to fund their lifestyles.
In response to the growing crisis, the Trump administration has taken aggressive federal action:
- USDA Funding Freeze: Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins recently suspended nearly $130 million in federal awards to Minnesota and the city of Minneapolis, citing “massive fraud” and a lack of local accountability.
- Treasury Task Force: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced a new IRS task force and enhanced reporting requirements for money transfers to Somalia to prevent stolen taxpayer dollars from reaching foreign terrorist groups like Al-Shabaab.
- Political Fallout: Amid the mounting federal pressure and the prospect of a House Oversight hearing, Walz announced on January 5, 2026, that he would not seek a third term, even as he continues to defend his administration’s response to the scandals.
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“Tim Walz, he said he was running for a third term and that he was going to fight for Minnesota. And then what he did was, he said, ‘Well, I’m not going to run for a third term anymore, but I’m going to fight for Minnesota.’ And he came out the next day, had to have a press conference to say he wasn’t resigning,” Emmer added. “It’s just wild. He’s coming unglued.”
As the scale of the Minnesota fraud continues to unfold, Emmer took to X on Thursday to announce a new legislative push for accountability. He explained that he is now “drafting legislation to denaturalize and deport anyone who comes to our country and commits fraud against the American taxpayer.”
Speaking at an event to celebrate the launch of Minnesota’s new paid family and medical leave program, the animated Democrat defended his administration while accusing Republicans of weaponizing these investigations for partisan gain.
“Republicans want to tell you everybody with brown skin is stealing money or that they’re not welcome here. They want to do nothing to improve this state. Their idea of improving this state is being a parrot for Donald Trump, agreeing to everything that he agreed with,” Walz stated. “Right now they are hiding behind a veil of innuendo. They’re protecting the biggest fraudster in the White House.”
The next day, Walz also hosted a second press conference addressing demands for him to resign early.
“You can make all your requests for me to resign – over my dead body will that happen,” Walz added, visibly enraged.
During the podcast, Emmer also expressed that he was completely dumbfounded by Walz’s second press conference, emphasizing that it was a “bizarre set of events.”
“How often have you seen that?” Emmer questioned. “It’s just a bizarre set of events, and he was totally coming unglued. He was spiraling out of control in that second press conference.”
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“I think it’s worse than we believe it is. And I think he knows that,” Emmer continued. “Keep in mind, we’ve been trying to sound the alarm on this for years, and nobody in the Twin Cities media would report it.”
Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) has invited Walz to testify at a follow-up hearing scheduled for next month.
Comer stated that while the January hearing featured state lawmakers who “sounded the alarm,” the February hearing is intended to question Walz and Ellison directly on whether they were “asleep at the wheel or complicit” in the estimated $9 billion fraud.
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