Tim Walz Pivots To Attacking White Men When Asked If Somalis Will Be Held Accountable For Fraud

Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz started criticizing white men on Friday in response to whether Somalis will be held accountable for a massive fraud scandal.

Somalis in Minnesota have been involved in several fraudulent schemes, including dozens of Somalis who have been charged for stealing $1 billion in taxpayer money from state and federal social services programs, including those intended to feed children from low income households. In response to a question on whether Somalis should hold themselves accountable, Walz stated that there are many white people who have also committed crimes.

“What do you want to hear more from instead of just saying don’t blame us? Do you want to see more ownership and oversight from within the Somali community?” a reporter asked. 

“Look, it’s not law-abiding citizens. If that were the case, there’s a lot of white men should be holding a lot of white men accountable for the crimes that they have committed,” Walz said. “I think for the community to maybe educate their population, because I think what you’re seeing here is there’s secondary victims in this, that there’s providers inside the community that are then victimizing the community themselves by signing them up, because when we’re going to some of these people, they’re like, I had no idea I was in this program. So I think it’s asking us then, you know, for every crime, which of course the majority being committed by white men, asking us to do more about that. I think it’s crime in general.” 

Walz has faced scrutiny from state officials who accused him of “willfully” disregarding “rules and laws to keep fraud reports quiet.” The governor accused President Donald Trump of engaging in a “PR stunt” and of “indiscriminately targeting immigrants” while Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has ramped up operations in Minnesota to detain Somali nationals.

Qalinle Ibrahim Dirie, a Somali national living in the U.S., was sentenced to 12 years in prison in July for abducting and raping a 12-year-old girl in Minneapolis in 2024. Another avoided jail time despite being a serial rapist and has been charged with kidnapping and sexual assaulting a woman for several days, according to the New York Post.

Trump wrote in a Nov. 27 Truth Social post that Walz was “seriously retarded” for allowing Somalis to commit such heinous crimes.