House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, one of Washington’s top-ranking Republicans, says he is open to legal action against Minnesota’s Democrat leaders following the viral release of a video alleging fraud in state-funded day care centers.

Appearing on Fox News’ “Fox Report Weekend” on Sunday, Emmer praised YouTube content creator Nick Shirley’s recent report, which alleges that several state-funded day care and learning centers, largely operated by immigrants from Somalia, do not provide legitimate services.

“It’s amazing to me that a 23-year-old journalist, a YouTuber who’s now got over 80 million views on this thing, found more in a matter of hours than Tim Walz and Keith Ellison, our attorney general, found in seven years,” Emmer, R-Minn., said on Fox.

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“Whistleblowers are coming forward,” said Emmer, who added that he would support the prosecution of Walz and Ellison if there was documented evidence of their retaliation against whistleblowers.

“What they’re saying is they told Tim Walz, they told Keith Ellison about the fraud when it was happening. And they not only didn’t do anything, they retaliated against them,” Emmer said.

“If that’s true, if that can be documented, these guys need to be prosecuted—held accountable and prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”

Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., who chairs the House Oversight Committee, has already announced he intends to subpoena Minnesota state officials and whistleblowers in a wider probe of the day care fraud issue.

A spokesperson for Walz has called the oversight probe “a coordinated political attack to try to silence one of the President’s most effective critics” in a statement appearing in The Minnesota Star Tribune.

A Walz spokesperson also defended his conduct in a statement to The Daily Signal, saying, “The Governor has worked for years to crack down on fraud and asked the state legislature for more authority to take aggressive action.”

The spokesperson added, “He has strengthened oversight – including launching investigations into these specific facilities, one of which was already closed. He has hired an outside firm to audit payments to high-risk programs, shut down the Housing Stabilization Services program entirely, announced a new statewide program integrity director, and supported criminal prosecutions.”

FBI Director Kash Patel on Sunday revealed the bureau had expanded its investigation of alleged fraud schemes involving federal programs in the state.

AUTHOR

George Caldwell

George Caldwell is a journalism fellow at The Daily Signal. Send an email to George. George on X: @GCaldwell_news.

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RELATED VIDEO: Nick Shirley rips Democrat Governor Tim Walz for calling people exposing his state’s massive fraud ‘white supremacists’

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