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10 Minute Drill
Minnesota’s shocking fraud scheme; Election Day in Tennessee, National Guard Shooting Fallout
00:15:49
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- [00:00]
Host
The Latest in the D.C. national Guard shooting and the fallout from it. We're going to talk about a special election taking place today in Tennessee and what it might mean for the House majority. And there is a bombshell report out of Minnesota about fraud and the role Governor Tim Waltz might have played in it. All of that and so much more today on 10 Minute Drill. Everybody get up. Get up.
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Conservative Commentator
The story of America is the story of an adventure. I can hear you. The rest of the world hears you. We are a nation under God, and I believe God intended for us to be free.
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Host
Last Wednesday, right before Thanksgiving, an Afghan national opened fire on National Guard troops that are deployed in D.C. stationed just blocks from the White House. The shooter came into the United States after Joe Biden's botched withdrawal from Afghanistan as a part of the Operation Allies welcome program that brought Afghan nationals to the United States, many of whom had worked with our forces on the ground in Afghanistan over the last 20 years. This tragedy has started a conversation about that operation to bring Afghan nationals to the United states. More than 70,000 were brought here under that program. And President Trump and others have already started talking about needing to reassess the lack of vetting that went into that.
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Conservative Commentator
We must now re examine every single alien who has entered our country from Afghanistan under Biden, and we must take all necessary measures to ensure the removal of any alien from any country who does not belong here.
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Host
There was a heated debate in Congress at the time of the botched withdrawal about what kind of vetting could be done for these nationals that we were air flighting in. There's also been reports that the Biden administration tried to bring in as many as possible as they were taking credit for a record airlift out of Afghanistan in an attempt to sort of paint a positive picture of what had otherwise been the biggest calamity of Joe Biden's presidency. And while there's clear agreement that there was a failure in vetting, this isn't the first Afghan national who's attempted to carry out terrorism in the United States. After being let in after Joe Biden's botched Afghanistan withdrawal, some Democrats are already trying to point fingers or change the subject.
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Democratic Politician
I just think, you know, the president looks everywhere except inward to blame his own policies. We need to make sure that we don't have our military deployed in our cities.
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Host
That was Florida Congresswoman and former DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who has decided that instead of talking about all the other failures that clearly went into this, she wants to make this a conversation about the politics of the deployment, which has been a fraught topic for Democrats over the last few weeks. You'll remember just last week, Michigan Senator Alyssa Slotkin warned that National Guard members and law enforcement officials might randomly start shooting people.
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Legal Expert
People in law enforcement, people in uniform, military get nervous, get stressed, shoot at American civilians.
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Host
You'll also remember that for the last several months, Democrats have attacked these National Guard members who are out on deployment. Here's Jasmine Crockett.
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Legal Expert
Donald Trump's mass deportation system makes me think of what a modern day slave patrol would look like.
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Host
The two members of the West Virginia National Guard who were shot are Sarah beckstrom, who was 20 years old, who passed away last week, and Andrew Wolfe, age 24, who is still in critical condition. We send our prayers to the Beckstrom family and to the Wolf family and Andrew Wolfe as he continues to fight. Today, Tennessee's 7th district is holding a special election. It pits Democrat Afton Bain vs Republican Matt Van Epps. Now, Afton Bain, the Democrat candidate in this race, has gotten a lot of attention for crazy things that she said in the past and strange policy positions that she's taken that seem out of step with the Nashville area, which is a little bit more reddish purple. But to highlight that over the weekend, she campaigned with none other than Al Gore and Alexandria Ocasio Cortez. But perhaps the defining issue of this special election has been comments that she made about the place that she is running to represent.
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Political Candidate
I hate the city. I hate the bachelorettes. I hate the pedal taverns. I hate country music. I hate all of the things that make Nashville apparently and its city to the rest of the country.
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Host
Yikes. If you are trying to run for a place, you do not want to be on the record for hating it. She was pressed over the weekend from CNN's Manu Raju about those comments. And here's what she said.
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Political Candidate
Once again, I was a private citizen. Nashville is my home. Do I roll my eyes at the bachelorette parties and the pedal taverns that are blocking my access to my house?
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Host
Yeah. Now, whoever told her that was a good defense is not really helping her out because she still is on the record hating Nashville, even if that admission only came in her status as a private citizen. But it also suggests that as an elected official, she might be more comfortable being dishonest with her true views. But perhaps even more important than her hatred of the place and people that she wants to represent are some of the crazy policy positions she's taken. Here are her views on the police.
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Democratic Politician
Here's a post quote good morning especially to the 54% of Americans that believe burning down a police station is justified. Those are her words. She also asks where is the proposal to dissolve the Nashville police?
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Host
Yikes. I'm not sure that the people of Tennessee are looking for a AOC aligned climate activist defund the police supporting radical to represent them right now. But for Republicans, this is a little bit of a warning sign because this is a seat President Trump won, a district President Trump won by more than 20. The fact that it is even competitive is a bit of a warning sign that Republicans need to take some of these midterm flashing lights seriously. Moving on to Minnesota City Journal had a bombshell report last week highlighting one of the most intricate fraud schemes we have ever seen. The largest funder of Al Shabaab is the Minnesota Taxpayer. How some of the State's Welfare funds Ended up in the hands of a Terror group. In the report, Chris Rufo and Ryan Thorpe describe how these welfare programs, intended to feed the hungry or help children with autism, have been manipulated and defrauded to take millions, hundreds of millions of dollars from taxpayers and eventually make their way to terrorist organizations in Somalia. First founded in 2016, Feeding Our Future was a small Minnesota nonprofit that sponsored daycares and after school programs to enroll in the federal Child nutrition program. The organizations that Feeding Our Future sponsor were primarily owned and operated by members of Minnesota's Somali community. According to two former state officials with connections to law enforcement, in 2019, Feeding Our Future received 3.4 million in federal funding dispersed by the state. In the months after the COVID 19 pandemic began, however, the nonprofit rapidly increased its number of sponsored sites using fake meal counts, doctored attendance records, and fabricated invoices. The perpetrators of the fraud ring claimed to be serving thousands of meals a day, serving seven days a week to underprivileged children. In 2021, Feeding Our Future received nearly 200 million in funding. In reality, the money was being used to fund lavish lifestyles, purchase luxury vehicles, and buy real estate in the United States, Turkey and Kenya. That's the first part of this. The second part of this is a housing program. If you were to design a welfare program to facilitate fraud, it would probably look a lot like Minnesota's Medicaid Housing Stabilization Services Program program. The HSS program, the first of its kind in the country, was launched with a noble goal to help seniors, addicts, the disabled, and the mentally ill secure housing. It was designed with low barriers to entry and minimal requirements for reimbursement. Nonetheless, before the program went live in 2020. Officials pegged its annual estimated price tag at 2.6 million. Costs quickly spiraled out of control. In 2021, the program paid out more than $21 million in claims, and in the following years, annual costs shot up to 42 million, then 74 million, then 104 million. During the first six months of 2025, payouts totaled $61 million. Now, that housing Stability program was shut down in August after credible reports of fraud were made. But in the months that have followed, it's gone much further. Just over a month after the program was shut down, then acting U.S. attorney for the District of Minnesota Joe Thompson announced criminal indictments for HSS fraud against six members of Minnesota's Somali community. Thompson said at a September news conference the issue went beyond over billing. Rather, they often involved purely fictitious companies solely created to defraud the system. Furthermore, those perpetrating the scam often targeted vulnerable individuals, such as people recently released from rehab, and signed them up for services they allegedly did not plan to provide. Now one big part of this is fake autism diagnoses, which led to a boom in autism providers who were stood up to to collect this Medicaid funding even though they had no ability to treat people and no actual cases they were addressing. Prosecutors now say that cohorts approached Somali families and promised them kickbacks at between $300 to $1,500 a month per child if they enrolled in the state's autism treatment programs. Autism providers soared from 41 across the entire state in 2020 to 328 by 2025, all of them applying for and receiving Minnesota's Medicaid fund. Now perhaps the most damning part of this entire report from City Journal is the fact that when they follow the money and try and see where all this went, a lot of it went to Al Shabaab, which is the Al Qaeda aligned terrorist group operating out of Somalia. Now one constant theme throughout this report and in subsequent reporting about these dynamics in the state of Minnesota, when anyone tried to raise a flag on this, when any whistleblower came forward, they were labeled racist and shut down. Now one important undercurrent of this Minnesota story is the Democrat leaders in the state who either allowed this to happen by simply turning a blind eye or openly supported it because of the growing power and influence of the Somali community. The New York Times, in a rare, rare moment of clarity, called out Tim Waltz for his role in this how fraud swamped Minnesota's social services system On Tim Waltz's watch And the New York Times isn't the only group calling out Tim Waltz for his role in this. A Twitter account run by the Minnesota Department of Human Services employees posted this Tim Waltz is 100% responsible for massive fraud in Minnesota. We let Tim Waltz know of fraud early on, hoping for a partnership in stopping fraud. But no, we got the opposite response. Tim Waltz systematically retaliated against whistleblowers using monitoring threats, repression, and did his best to discredit fraud reports. Leadership did not want to appear to discriminate against certain communities and were unwilling to take action such as stopping fraud that would have an adverse impact on their image. Now, that tweet calling out Tim Waltz was seen more than 30 million times and suggests that this isn't the end of the story and how Tim Waltz helped potentially cover this up or actively played a role in this. The reality, as we said before, is the Somali community in Minnesota has grown in power and influence. And Democrats in the state, instead of calling out fraud and criminal behavior when there's been clear evidence of it, has sought to either cover it up or actively support them in an effort to build their own political power. But as you hear this particularly massive, massive Medicaid fraud, remember that Tim Waltz was one of the many Democrats who attacked Republicans for trying to cut fraud, waste and abuse in Medicaid with audits and programs that would have identified things like this, where tens of millions of dollars, a billion of our tax dollars were wasted in fraudulent programs. Today, the United States Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in First Choice Women's Resource Centers versus Platkin, a case dealing with pregnancy resource centers in New Jersey who have been unfairly attacked by the state's Attorney General. Here's a video from Alliance Defending Freedom who are arguing this case in the Supreme Court.
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Democratic Politician
We received the subpoena on November 15, 2023.
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Legal Expert
So without any evidence of wrongdoing or a complaint against First Choice, the Attorney General in New Jersey issued a sweeping subpoena to First Choice asking for swathes of sensitive information, even constitutionally protected information.
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Host
Now, First Choice is a non profit, which means they get anonymous contributions and support to be able to provide the services they provide, which as a pregnancy resource center is providing counseling, some material support for women having babies and their children even after they're born. Now they're often pitted against abortion providers because they are intended to be an alternative to abortion for women who choose to have the babies.
- [12:51]
Legal Expert
Attorney General Platkin has made no secret of his hostility towards pregnancy centers. He issued a consumer alert warning New Jerseyans that pregnancy resource centers don't provide abortions. He even got Planned Parenthood to help him review and edit that consumer Alert. And he thanked them for their quote, unquote partnership.
- [13:10]
Host
Now I want to highlight that screenshot from the consumer alert from the attorney general. How can I spot a crisis pregnancy center? Now, Democrats in a lot of states have tried to take on these pregnancy resource centers and attack them for not providing abortions because they don't want there to be alternatives to abortions in their states. And this has been a crazy crusade we've seen from Democrats in Massachusetts, New Jersey and a number of states. And it's very chilling to see. Here's Kerry Severino laying out the terms of this case. This case is part of a broader campaign waged by Planned Parenthood's New Jersey affiliate in concert with state officials to target pro life pregnancy centers. She went on to say the recent climate of escalating political attacks and even violence only underscores how critical it is that pregnancy Resource centers and their donors have meaningful access to federal courts to vindicate their constitutional rights. I expect these concerns will surface during tomorrow's oral argument. Now, what the attorney general of New Jersey is trying to do here is trying to attack this pregnancy resource center and make it more difficult for them to carry out their role by trying to force them to expose their donors, cutting off funding and chilling any support that they might get. Which just to summarize all of this, when you hear these attacks on pregnancy resource centers, you have to remember that for Democrats, abortion went from safe, legal and rare under Bill Clinton to now we will use the full arm of the law and all of our power in government to shut down any alternative to abortion. And I think that's very chilling. For our you can't make it up segment today, we have Democrats try to do charts. Over the weekend, Amy Klobuchar tweeted, under President Trump, electricity prices are surging up 11%, leaving millions behind on their utility bills. With past due balances at an all time high, American families deserve better. Now, the problem here is Amy Klobuchar tweeted that with a chart that her staff either didn't read or didn't understand, which actually showed electricity prices skyrocketing under Joe Biden. Now, what Amy Klobuchar has done there is remind everybody that the electricity prices that they're feeling right now that are so high were much more driven up due to the policies of Joe Biden and Democrats. But this isn't the first time that Democrats have struggled with charts. Back in July, Democrats tweeted in 2025, Grocery prices reached an all time high. But the chart that they showed cut off before President Trump even got into office. Clearly they were told there would be no math. That is all the time we have today. Thank you so much for joining us on 10 Minute Drill. Please like subscribe, tell a friend and have a great.