Mark Levin Podcast: "Staggering Scale of Fraud: Minnesota’s Medicaid Crisis Explained"

Date: December 19, 2025
Host: Mark Levin
Podcast Network: Cumulus Podcast Network

Overview

In this episode, Mark Levin delivers a scathing analysis of the massive Medicaid fraud unfolding in Minnesota, reportedly involving billions in taxpayer dollars. Levin dissects official findings and indictments related to this "industrial scale" fraud, discusses its impact on vulnerable Minnesotans, and draws connections to wider failures in government oversight and immigration policy. The episode broadens to include commentary on U.S. and European struggles with Islamist extremism, the cultural and political climate, and features a substantive discussion with conservative commentator Josh Hammer on anti-Semitism, media disinformation, and the state of conservative discourse.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Minnesota Medicaid Fraud Exposed

• Staggering Numbers: Over half of the $18 billion paid out by Minnesota-run Medicaid programs since 2018 may be fraudulent ([01:00]).
  • "About half or more of the roughly $18 billion in claims paid out by Medicaid to Minnesota run programs may have been fraudulent, and at least 14 programs were likely exploited, a federal prosecutor said today." – Mark Levin ([01:00])
• Industrial-Scale Fraud: The fraud's magnitude is likened to a coordinated industry, not a few bad actors.
  • "It's staggering industrial scale fraud." – First Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson (paraphrased by Levin, [01:00])
• Mechanisms of Fraud:
  • Formation of shell companies providing no actual services, simply siphoning funds.
  • Use of funds for luxury travel, vehicles, and international destinations including London, Istanbul, and Dubai.
  • Instances of “fraud tourism”—out-of-state actors registering in Minnesota to exploit the system.
• Community & Political Response:
  • A significant proportion of those indicted are of Somali descent—a fact Levin highlights amid noting the lack of public condemnation from Democratic politicians, especially in Minnesota.
  • "I'm still waiting to hear from the Democrats. Still waiting to hear from Ilyan Omar. Still waiting to hear. But we won't. No, no, no. These are constituents. These are voters..." – Mark Levin ([08:27])

2. Fraud’s Consequences for Vulnerable Populations

• Loss of Services: Fraud has jeopardized critical supports intended for autistic children, the hungry, and disabled individuals in Minnesota.
• "All this money is stolen and that means not only are taxpayers ripped off, but people for whom the money was intended. Don’t see it. Like autistic kids, like people who are hungry." – Mark Levin ([02:52])

3. National Political Climate & Economic Outlook

• Midterms, Trump, and the Economy:
  • Optimism that Republican economic policies – especially tax cuts and deregulation – will yield growth similar to the Reagan years.
  • Analysis of polling showing Democrats with historically low approval, even among their own base ([11:31]).
  • "Democrats in the minds of the American public are lower than the Dead Sea." – Kate Baldwin (CNN, quoted by Levin, [11:31])
• Inflation Trends:
  • Harvard professor Ken Rogoff discusses better-than-expected inflation numbers and the potential for recovery ([13:14]).
  • "Inflation’s been very high. It stayed high. It has not been coming down. But... it was well below 3%. ...investors will think that interest rates will get cut more." – Ken Rogoff ([13:14])
• Healthcare as Political Football:
  • Levin critiques government-run healthcare programs and links systemic fraud to overarching Democratic policies.

4. Islamist Extremism and Terror Networks in the West

• Spread of Islamist Terrorism in Europe and the U.S. ([20:09]–[34:56]):
  • Extensive reading from Gatestone Institute on how terrorist networks exploit NGOs, campus activism, and diaspora communities in Europe and the U.S.
  • Highlights Hamas and other Islamist groups' operational cells, indoctrination in educational settings (funded by countries like Qatar), and money laundering operations.
  • Parallels drawn between the lack of governmental vigilance in Europe and similar vulnerabilities in the U.S.
  • "World War three — the Islamist war against the west, first battle with Israel, battles breaking open in Europe, Battles will break open in the United States. I mark my words." – Mark Levin ([30:35])

5. Brown University/MIT Shootings: Ongoing Updates

• Breaking Coverage ([35:04]–[40:01], [58:22]–[84:14]):
  • Levin provides ongoing updates on law enforcement activity surrounding an arrest warrant for a suspect potentially involved in shootings at Brown University and the murder of an MIT nuclear expert.
  • The podcast includes speculation about possible connections to anti-Semitic motives and larger security implications.

6. Conservative Media, Anti-Semitism, and Internal Critique

• Josh Hammer Interview ([86:35]–[106:43]):
  • On Conservative Podcasting: Hammer decries rising extremism and "podcast pornography" on the right—content playing to bigotry, conspiracy, and revisionist history.
    • "A lot of folks in our space... don't seem to actually be on the right in any meaningful sense...one of the things they share with the left is...they just hopscotch from one thing to the other." – Josh Hammer ([89:56])
  • Anti-Semitism and Israel: Deep concern about a new mainstreaming of anti-Semitism among both far-left and certain self-proclaimed right-wing influencers, emphasizing how this threatens the Jewish-Christian alliance foundational to Western civilization.
  • Charlie Kirk: Hammer recounts his friendship with Kirk, pushing back against claims Kirk was anti-Semitic or anti-Israel in his final months.
    • "No one who's abandoning the Jews or Israel would have me and Rabbi Pesach Wolicki be one of his final conversations." – Josh Hammer ([99:34])
  • Turning Point USA, Ben Shapiro, and 'Team Sanity': Hammer and Levin celebrate public pushback from mainstream conservatives against fringe voices.
  • Notable Quotable:
    • "It's almost like podcast pornography, isn't it? And it gets worse and worse and worse..." – Mark Levin ([89:34])
    • "Team Sanity is starting to punch back, and it’s starting to punch back with fervor." – Josh Hammer ([103:02])

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Medicaid Fraud:

  • "Minnesota has become a magnet for fraud. So much so that we have developed a fraud tourism industry. People coming to our state purely to exploit and defraud its programs. It’s deeply unsettling reality that all Minnesotans should understand.” – Mark Levin, paraphrasing US Attorney ([06:28])

• On Political Silence:

  • “I'm still waiting to hear from the Democrats. Still waiting to hear from Ilhan Omar. Still waiting to hear. But we won’t. No, no, no. These are constituents. These are voters, Mr. Producer. Why would we hear from them?” – Mark Levin ([08:27])

• On Internal Right-Wing Feuds:

  • "You know, intellectual pornography, it’s not even intellectual, is not something that I think we want our kids listening to and our kids’ kids listening to ... it pollutes their minds and so forth, rots their minds." – Mark Levin ([59:39])

• On Western Civilization’s Jewish-Christian Foundations:

  • "We use this [group chat] to kind of hash out on a daily basis how to heal these wounds...who are trying to drive a stake...through this ecumenical biblical alliance, this Jewish Christian alliance that founded Western civilization and that alone can, can preserve it and save it." – Josh Hammer ([98:58])

TIMESTAMPS FOR IMPORTANT SEGMENTS

| Timestamp | Segment | |-----------|--------------------------------------------------------------------| | 00:59 | Introduction of Minnesota Medicaid Fraud Story | | 06:00 | Details of Fraud Tourism & Shell Companies | | 10:00 | General Political Climate and Democrats’ Approval Ratings | | 13:14 | Inflation discussion w/ Prof. Ken Rogoff (CNN coverage) | | 20:09 | Islamist extremist threat in Europe & U.S. (Gatestone Institute) | | 35:04 | Breaking coverage: Brown University & MIT shootings | | 58:22 | Ongoing police operation in Salem, NH, linked to MIT/Brown case | | 86:35 | Interview with Josh Hammer – Conservative media, anti-Semitism | | 99:34 | Hammer on Charlie Kirk, Turning Point, and pushback against the fringe | | 104:10 | Discussion: Future of Conservative Movement, combatting extremism |

In Summary

This episode tackles the massive scale and consequences of Medicaid fraud in Minnesota, using it as a lens on deeper failures in government accountability, border security, and cultural assimilation. Mark Levin ties these crises to broader Western vulnerabilities: unchecked Islamist networks, an eroding sense of shared national principle, and a fracturing conservative movement contending with its own radicals. The show’s latter half features a robust dialogue with Josh Hammer, who underscores the perils of anti-Semitism’s mainstreaming and celebrates a new wave of conservative resistance to both leftist and far-right excesses.

For listeners seeking insight into Medicaid fraud, U.S. security threats, and the bitter cultural-political battles defining the right in 2025, this episode is an unvarnished, urgent dispatch from Mark Levin’s ‘underground command post’.