GOP Challenger Addresses Walz’s ‘Elephant in the Room’ in Major Minnesota Fraud Scandal [WATCH]

Minnesota Republican gubernatorial candidate Dr. Scott Jensen spoke to Fox News Digital as Minneapolis confronts what prosecutors have called the largest COVID-19 fraud scheme in the country.

The controversy centers on allegations that the nonprofit Feeding Our Future and its associates defrauded federal child-nutrition programs of hundreds of millions of dollars in COVID-19 aid.

Jensen said he believes Gov. Tim Walz is directly responsible for the failures that allowed the scheme to grow and suggested that a “cover up” that is “worse than Watergate” may be involved.

Jensen said the size of the scandal in Minneapolis raises questions about Walz’s leadership.

“In Minnesota, I don’t think that there’s any way to cut it other than to say the buck has to stop somewhere,” he told Fox News Digital.

“And it’s always been that the buck stops at the governor’s desk. Arguably, the governor is the CEO of the state of Minnesota and the business of the government. And Tim Walz has been derelict in doing his duties, and he’s absolutely corrupted common sense.”

Jensen pointed to what he described as a timeline that contradicts Walz’s account of when the state identified concerns surrounding Feeding Our Future.

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He said the Minnesota Department of Education knew there were problems in 2020 but did not refer the matter to the FBI until 2021.

“And yet they’ve made claims that as soon as they learned about it, they got the FBI involved,” Jensen said.

“That’s not true. Their timeline’s a year off.”

According to Jensen, the delay reflects a broader pattern of deflection by the governor’s office.

“At the end of the day, he’s demonstrated a very skilled approach to deflecting, so that he’s not being honest,” he said.

He cited moments following the first indictments in 2022 when Walz pointed to district court judge John Guthman as the reason the state continued payments linked to the program.

Guthman later issued what outlets described as a “rare public rebuke” and said Walz had made “inaccurate statements.”

Jensen said the governor then shifted blame again.

“When Judge Guthman did that, then you saw Tim Walz and Keith Ellison try for someone else they could blame it on,” he told Fox News Digital.

“So they blamed it on the FBI and said, ‘Well, the FBI told us we had to keep paying because we’re not supposed to interfere with their investigation.’ And the FBI said, ‘We didn’t make you continue fraudulent payments to the Feeding Our Future agency.’”

Jensen said the “elephant in the room” is whether new information will emerge about the extent of the “cover up.”

He said the possibility of “something more nefarious” has raised further concerns.

“Is there literally sequestration of funds that at some point in time could be paid back to people when things have calmed down? Is there some pay-to-play scheme that we haven’t yet been informed about?” he said.

He added that such questions could lead to discussions about “a need for criminal prosecution to take place of some Minnesota elected officials.”

Federal investigations around the scandal have widened. The Small Business Administration announced it is investigating a network of Somali groups in Minnesota that it says are tied to the fraud case.

House Oversight Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., has said that “because of Governor Walz’s negligence, criminals — including Somali terrorists — stole nearly $1 billion from the program while children suffered.” He is leading a probe into Walz’s role in the Feeding Our Future case.

President Donald Trump recently announced new actions targeting fraud schemes in Minnesota.

He called the state a “hub of money laundering activity” and said this was a factor in his decision to end deportation protections for hundreds of Somali migrants.

Senior administration officials said new investigations include a Treasury Department probe into allegations that taxpayer money was diverted to al-Shabaab, according to Secretary Scott Bessent.

Jensen said the evolving investigation has raised comparisons.

“With where it’s gone from the beginning to now, recognizing that there’s been an interest in covering this up, for many people it has some of the haunting reminders of Watergate,” he said.

“And yet, in this way, this time, it could even be worse, because it’s possible that there’s something far more nefarious than simply covering something up. It could be a pay to play scheme that involves elected officials.”

Fox News Digital asked Jensen about Walz’s legacy after two terms in office.

“Tim Walz’ legacy right now would be fraud at an unprecedented level, and I think from his policies, I think people would say he seemed to worship the ground that AOC and Bernie Sanders walked on,” Jensen said.

“He went from someone who many people who knew him earlier in life thought of as a moderate person to a person who was literally living on the five-yard line of the hard left part of the Democratic field.”

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