Latest / The Ben Ferguson Podcast / High-Tech Heroics plus Waltz Hunts Whistleblowers in Minnesota

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High-Tech Heroics plus Waltz Hunts Whistleblowers in Minnesota · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: I'm on family vacation and Center Cruz did me as
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: solid and join me so we could do a dual show.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: We do our show Verdict with Tech Cruise wherever you
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: hit your podcasts. But he said, yeah, we'll do a
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: dual show together. Give me a little more time with
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: my family. And we had two big subjects we talked about.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: First up, an incredible rescue of some Americans that were
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: shot down by Iran by a drone boat. We have
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: the details on that for you. And also more exposure
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: with fraud in Minnesota, but this time it was government
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  Speaker 1: officials harassing government employee whistleblowers who were telling about the
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  Speaker 1: fraud they were witnessing. All right, so Senator, let's get
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: into this first story. And you said it best. Welcome
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: to just Technology. In twenty twenty six, for the first
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  Speaker 1: time in history, you had a drone boat that saved
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: the lives of two Americans that were shot down by Iran.
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: There's no pilot, like, no one on board.
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  Speaker 1: This is a boat just like a drone in the
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  Speaker 1: sky that is controlled by you know, a joystick, and
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  Speaker 1: it was able to go extremely fast, get these guys
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  Speaker 1: and get out before the enemy could touch them.
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  Speaker 2: This is unbelievable.
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  Speaker 1: And the best part is this technology is coming out
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  Speaker 1: of the United States, American fact, it's coming out of Texas.
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  Speaker 3: Well. It's not even directly controlled by a joystick. It's
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  Speaker 3: actually AI that controls this. And this is a company
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  Speaker 3: based in Austin. I've been to their factory. I've seen
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  Speaker 3: their factory. It's amazing that they're building these ships. And
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  Speaker 3: the ships are and they have all sorts of different sizes.
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  Speaker 3: They have bigger ones, they have smaller ones. They're going
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: to have drone ships that are over one hundred and
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  Speaker 3: fifty feet long that are big ships, but they also
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  Speaker 3: have smaller military vessels, and then they have really small drones.
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  Speaker 3: And these drones can do all sorts of things. They're
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  Speaker 3: all boats, but they can do surveillance, they can do espionage,
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  Speaker 3: they can do military combat, they could be armed with weaponry.
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: They can transport supplies. If you're trying to say, resupply
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  Speaker 3: soldiers that are in a form forward combat position, they
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  Speaker 3: can resupply them. So this is all coming out of Austin, Texas.
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  Speaker 3: It's amazing technology. And what precipitated it is that that earlier, earlier,
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  Speaker 3: today an armed Iranian shah Head drone struck a US
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  Speaker 3: Apache helicopter and it went down in the sea off
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  Speaker 3: the coast of Oman on Monday. US Central Command reported
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  Speaker 3: that the helicopter was on patrol when it was struck
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  Speaker 3: by the drone, but the two pilots who were aboard
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  Speaker 3: the Apache helicopter were safely rescued with it about two
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  Speaker 3: hours of the strike. And and and it's worth here
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  Speaker 3: we're going to play the Fox News report that covered it.
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  Speaker 3: And for those of you who are watching this on YouTube,
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  Speaker 3: you can watch the video of this this drone ship
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  Speaker 3: that was responsible for rescuing our soldiers in combat. Give
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: a listen, give a watch. Deron's under attack.
• 3:06
  Speaker 4: Trump ordered Sentcom to launch self defense strikes after an
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  Speaker 4: enemy drone took down an Apache helicopter patrolling the strait.
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  Speaker 4: The two pilots were rescued out of the water by
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  Speaker 4: an unmanned sea drone operated by Task Force fifty nine
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  Speaker 4: in Bahrain.
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  Speaker 3: The drones Texas made.
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  Speaker 4: It's twenty four feet long and can travel one thousand
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  Speaker 4: miles and hit speeds of thirty five knots. And it's
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  Speaker 4: the first sea drone rescue in combat history. Trump was
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  Speaker 4: on the phone with the press when he gave the order,
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  Speaker 4: Poda said, this is a retaliation for the helicopter hit,
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  Speaker 4: and it's important that our response is strong and powerful.
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  Speaker 4: Sentcom called our response proportional. But sources say we're taking
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  Speaker 4: out Iranian air defenses, radar systems all along the Straight
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  Speaker 4: and we're not finished technically. I know it doesn't seem
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  Speaker 4: like it, but we're still in a ceasefire. And the
• 3:58
  Speaker 4: President continues to say we're close to a.
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: Deal where in the final throes of what will be
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: a very very good deal that will not allow in
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: any way, shape or form, nuclear weapons, etc.
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  Speaker 2: And then Straight will open up right away.
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: It'll open up immediately upon signing, which could be in
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: two or three days.
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  Speaker 4: Trump's made the terms clear. The uranium must be turned
• 4:20
  Speaker 4: over and destroyed. Enrichment must stop for two decades at least.
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  Speaker 4: All nuclear sites must be completely dismantled, and the United
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  Speaker 4: States is able to conduct snap inspections whenever the heck
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  Speaker 4: we want.
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  Speaker 1: You listen that report and it goes back to the
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  Speaker 1: bigger issue in the war and what we're trying to
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  Speaker 1: accomplish their senator, but you go back to just the
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  Speaker 1: beginning of it thirty five knots. That's about forty miles
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  Speaker 1: an hour in rough seas. That's incredibly fast, especially if
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  Speaker 1: you're twenty five foot boat.
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  Speaker 2: As they described here.
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  Speaker 1: This technology allows these boats to go faster than what
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  Speaker 1: most like. If you're a human riding in a boat
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  Speaker 1: and heavy seas and rough seas, going at that speed
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  Speaker 1: is going to be very risky to you. This takes
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  Speaker 1: that away as well, which again talks about how the
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  Speaker 1: speed they were able to actually get to these two
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  Speaker 1: pilots that have been shot down.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, and look, it's a manifestation of the new age
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  Speaker 3: of warfare where where these drone ships are not massively expensive.
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  Speaker 3: You look at aircraft carriers and expensive ships that can
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  Speaker 3: cost hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars that
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  Speaker 3: are powered with nuclear reactors. That's been how we've approached
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  Speaker 3: naval power for seventy years. And now we have a
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  Speaker 3: scenario where these drones are not terribly expensive to be built.
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  Speaker 3: They can be built at scale, and you can deploy
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  Speaker 3: one of them, or ten of them, or a thousand
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  Speaker 3: of them or ten thousand of them, and the ability
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  Speaker 3: and with AI you can control Look, ten thousand in
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  Speaker 3: a normal world, you'd have to have ten thousand captains
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  Speaker 3: piloting them, have AI and you can assign. You could assign,
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  Speaker 3: for example, ten thousand drone ships patrol this area. AI
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  Speaker 3: can direct them, but they're searching and they'll they'll engage
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  Speaker 3: in espionage and gain engage in reporting on what they find.
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  Speaker 3: You can train them to protect protect a particular ship,
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  Speaker 3: protect something that's going on, protect a port or harbor.
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  Speaker 3: They can do that. You can assign them go intercept
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  Speaker 3: this vessel. And if they're armed with ordnance that they
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  Speaker 3: can fire torpedoes, they could have explosives. And because the
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  Speaker 3: ships themselves are not super expensive, it also means that
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  Speaker 3: that if you lose one ship or ten or one hundred,
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  Speaker 3: it's not the end of the world. It's not that
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  Speaker 3: is risks. Yeah, and it's Look, we're saying the same
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  Speaker 3: thing with aerial drones where we're headed very quickly to
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  Speaker 3: a world and some of this we're actually getting some
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  Speaker 3: foreshadowing of this with the War in Ukraine where the
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  Speaker 3: battle between Ukraine in Russia, much of it is involving
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  Speaker 3: drones and the ability to have thousands or tens of
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  Speaker 3: thousands of drones and instead of one big, really expensive thing,
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  Speaker 3: lots and lots of smaller, less expensive things which can
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  Speaker 3: overwhelm the previous technology. And I got to say that
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: having been to the factory. Look, these guys are a
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  Speaker 3: startup at Austin, Texas. I know, I know the CEO,
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  Speaker 3: I know the lead funders, and they're you know, young
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  Speaker 3: techies who are entrepreneurial, who have a vision and and
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  Speaker 3: and their desire to scale this. It is very cool.
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  Speaker 3: This is the first drone rescue at sea in combat
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  Speaker 3: in the history of the world. And you know what,
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  Speaker 3: this is not going to be the last. We're going
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  Speaker 3: to see a lot more. By the way, there are
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  Speaker 3: civilian applications of this that that have nothing to do
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  Speaker 3: with combat. Look, look, the coast Guard.
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  Speaker 1: I would just say, I literally was talking the Coastguard
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  Speaker 1: as we were on FAMI vacation and weren't the eyes
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  Speaker 1: I saw and you know, just saying things. But one
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  Speaker 1: of the things that was cool they were talking about
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  Speaker 1: is technology. They said a lot of times the helicopters,
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  Speaker 1: when there's the worst weather and boats get in trouble,
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  Speaker 1: they can be commercial vessels, they can be recreational, they
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  Speaker 1: can be commercial fishing boats. When things get really bad
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  Speaker 1: with weather. Unfortunately, sometimes the weather's too bad to go
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  Speaker 1: out right at that moment in a helicopter because it's
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  Speaker 1: so bad. But if you have drones that you can
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  Speaker 1: risk no life going out there, it changes the entire
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  Speaker 1: way that it works. And there's some of that are afraid, like, hey,
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  Speaker 1: well that's gonna take jobs and in a way human beings.
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  Speaker 1: But if you can't be there in that moment and
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  Speaker 1: you can send out a drone that could quite possibly
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  Speaker 1: save your life, that a normal if it's if it's
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  Speaker 1: if it's you know, man controlled, you just can't take
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  Speaker 1: that risk and you come back it's too rough. You
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  Speaker 1: can throw drones out there and save countless lives in
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  Speaker 1: that scenario.
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  Speaker 2: That this is technology that is life changed.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, and I will say Ben, have you ever met
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  Speaker 3: Coast Guard swimmers.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, they're unbelievable.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I mean they're kind of they're the equivalent
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  Speaker 3: of Navy seals or Delta Force green Berets. They're the
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  Speaker 3: most badass coasters. Yeah, and I met a number of them,
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  Speaker 3: particularly in the wake of Hurricane Harvey. So Hurricane Harvey
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  Speaker 3: was a twenty seventeen was at the time the second
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  Speaker 3: most costly natural disaster in American history, did massive damage
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  Speaker 3: all the way down from Corpus Christie all the way
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  Speaker 3: up hundreds of miles up the Texas coast to the
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  Speaker 3: border right with Louisiana, and it just was devastating damage
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  Speaker 3: and the coasts that these swimmers would go out, and
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  Speaker 3: these guys you meet them, and they're like twenty year
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  Speaker 3: old guys and sort of imagine like g I Joe
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  Speaker 3: combined with a California surf dudeep. So they're guys. They
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  Speaker 3: have these, you know, enormous chests because they're like massive swimmers,
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  Speaker 3: and so imagine Michael Phelps with these like long ass
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  Speaker 3: arms and like massive swimmers, but with sort of bleach
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  Speaker 3: blonde hair, and they've got like shades hanging from their
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  Speaker 3: head and they're like, yeah, Brook, like it's it's it's
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  Speaker 3: They're not like.
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  Speaker 1: Guys that you also met that save people's lives and
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  Speaker 1: the flooding that happened in Texas not that.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, yes, look last summer fourth of July. But these swimmers,
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  Speaker 3: they will get on helicopters in the middle of a
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  Speaker 3: hurricane where you've got waves in the ocean that are
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  Speaker 3: ten twenty feet high, that are terrify, and these guys
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  Speaker 3: will jump out of a helicopter into the crashing waves
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  Speaker 3: and go rescue someone. And it is there's a fearlessness
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  Speaker 3: to not only jumping in crashing twenty foot waves, which
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  Speaker 3: which most of us, if we're in those waves, are
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: going to die. Yeah, but they'll don't jump in when
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  Speaker 3: they are people in harm's way and they'll go grab them.
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  Speaker 3: To be clear, if you or I were in twenty
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  Speaker 3: foot waves and drowning, someone came, we'd grab on them
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  Speaker 3: and pull on and you're terrified, Like they know they're
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  Speaker 3: gonna go rescue someone who's freaking out, who's gonna not intentionally,
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: but it's gonna effectively try to pull them under. And
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  Speaker 3: they're just they're really cool. But you're right. There are
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  Speaker 3: times where the weather is so bad you can't send
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  Speaker 3: the chopper in, and and and the ability to send
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  Speaker 3: a drone in to have something to rescue, say, you
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  Speaker 3: know someone that's out, you know, just just on a
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  Speaker 3: boat and gets in trouble. That is game changing. And
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: that's coming out of Tech Texas and all of the
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: new tech that is based in Texas.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it really is an incredible story.
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  Speaker 1: Every once in a while, you get a feel good
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: story like this, and we should celebrate it. It also
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: is a reminder I think of Whine, it's so important
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: to make sure that we're adequately funding technology. You've talked
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: about this, and I've talked about this a lot. Center
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  Speaker 1: This is a perfect example of us when the war
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: on AI, to make sure that our adversary, China, is
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: not leading the way on AI. If this is AI controlled,
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: this goes and this is one of those examples. I
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: do think we should highlight it for a second. This
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: is why America has to win the AI race. You
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: have less us and you've been warning on this issue,
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: and I think we should just take them out. Remind
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: people if we are in charge of this, our adversary
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: would be and that's a scary world as well.
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  Speaker 3: And by the way, if China masters this technology before
• 12:31
  Speaker 3: we do, that is a generation skipping advance in technology.
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  Speaker 3: And if they have the ability to send a thousand
• 12:41
  Speaker 3: or ten thousand or one hundred thousand AI controlled drones
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: at one of our aircraft carriers, there's a real risk
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: that you know, the weapons we have to take out
• 12:51
  Speaker 3: say surface surface to surface missiles or bombs, we have
• 12:58
  Speaker 3: you know those Our aircraft carriers are ritibly expensive and
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: powerful tools, but they were made to take out a
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: limited number of ordinance and not just massive drone assaults.
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: We're shifting to a new technology where where look, if
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: we're in a conflict with a smaller rival, that's less dangerous.
• 13:20
  Speaker 3: Although you know what, in times even terrorists and smaller rivals,
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: we're going to see. We're going to see more and
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: more military attacks using drones. We're going to see things,
• 13:29
  Speaker 3: We're going to see assassinations, We're going to see people
• 13:33
  Speaker 3: killed using drones. That that is, unfortunately where the future
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: is heading. One of the things the US military is
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: investing in heavily with American technology is counter drone technology.
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: How do you take out how do you take out
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: drones that are attacking you? And some of what is
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: working is lower cost ordinance that that that you can't
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: fire a patriot missile at every drone coming in, It
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: just cost differential. They can swarm you. So you know,
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: is at another Texas company where they're building basically the
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: equivalent of a really big, badass machine gun that is
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: power that is firing like fifty cow rounds, but is
• 14:16
  Speaker 3: firing them with AI where they could target hundreds or
• 14:20
  Speaker 3: thousands of drones. But the cost of a round is
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: not very expensive. So instead of spending an entire patriot
• 14:28
  Speaker 3: missile or something that you have limited supply of, we
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: have essentially unlimited supply of rounds and so but using
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: those robot powered with AI to take out takeout attacks
• 14:42
  Speaker 3: in scale, More and more of that is coming in.
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: There are different ways to take out drones. You've got ordinance,
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: you've got laser and microwave, and we're exploring all sorts
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: of different technologies to take out a hostile drone. But
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: if we lose this race, we would be at a
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: series military disadvantage to China. We can't let that happen,
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: and I don't think we're going to.
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: All right, I want to move on to this other
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: incredible story center coming out of Minnesota, and in life,
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: especially in government work, you're told that if you're a
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: whistleblower that you have protections and that if you're a
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: whistleblower you should not be afraid for your job or
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: that someone's going to come after you, certainly the government
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: that you work for. Well, apparently that's not the case
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: in Minnesota. And if you want to know how the
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: Somali fraud got so bad. It might actually be because
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: the governor was coming after the whistleblower, not those that
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: were committing the crimes in Minnesota with his new shocking report.
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: Well, that is inevitably number one the law, federal law
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: and typically state law that protects whistleblowers. That gives you
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: legal protection because you want whistleblowers to call attention to fraud.
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: But number two, if a government official goes out after
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: the whistleblowers, attacks the whistleblowers, refuses to follow the law
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: and whistleblowers, that is powerful indication of a guilty mind
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: that you're covering something up. It's sort of like if
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: if someone is is murdered in Central Park and and
• 16:16
  Speaker 3: you catch a person burning their clothes from that night
• 16:21
  Speaker 3: and destroying the murder weapon. Yeah, that is powerful, powerful
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: evidence that they're the murderer. That that that that that
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: that it is typically the guilty who destroys evidence who
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: tries to cover it up. That that that that if
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: you're not guilty, you have far less motivation, far less
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: likelihood to try to silence whistleblowers, to try to destroy evidence.
• 16:43
  Speaker 3: So here's the story that broke in the Daily Caller.
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: The headline is Tim Walls's staff hired private investigators to
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: silence fraud whistleblowers. Committee report finds senior Minnesota state officials
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: allegedly hired outside investigators to silence whistleblowers in an attempt
• 16:59
  Speaker 3: to cover up widespread state social services fraud. A House
• 17:03
  Speaker 3: committee report released Monday found The two hundred page staff
• 17:07
  Speaker 3: report by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: found that Democrat Minnesota Governor Tim Waltz's state's administration intimidated
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: and retaliated against state employees who raised concerns about fraud,
• 17:22
  Speaker 3: soliciting private investigators investigators to reveal employees' personal details. Report
• 17:30
  Speaker 3: titled The Cost of Doing Nothing, How Tim Waltson Keith
• 17:33
  Speaker 3: Ellison Fueled Minnesota's fraud explosion, exposed that senior state officials
• 17:39
  Speaker 3: as high as allegedly Governor Waltz, were aware of widespread
• 17:44
  Speaker 3: fraud for years and neglected to respond to reports. A
• 17:49
  Speaker 3: Minnesota Department of Education official who contacted the FBI told
• 17:52
  Speaker 3: federal investigators she was pressured quote at every turn by
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: her superiors to stop raising fraud concerns and was quote
• 18:03
  Speaker 3: handslapped when she continued to investigate. According to the report,
• 18:08
  Speaker 3: the official also reported that she was warned by state
• 18:10
  Speaker 3: administrators to quote stop digging into things, as it would
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: appear that she was quote targeting certain groups. This is
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: DEI and fraud all coming together along with corruption to
• 18:25
  Speaker 3: elect Democrats, the article continues. Dozens of other whistleblowers reported
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: dozens that they were told to stay silent about fraud
• 18:34
  Speaker 3: concerns by the Minnesota Department of Human Services because they
• 18:38
  Speaker 3: would be labeled quote racist or Islamophobic. DHS also told
• 18:44
  Speaker 3: state employees that raising fraud concerns would harm the state,
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: the report said. Whistleblowers reported the DHS conducted arbitrary investigations
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: to photograph their cars and houses, monitor their phones, and
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: and asked employees where their kids attended school. Now that's
• 19:06
  Speaker 3: going to get worse, then, Temporary Commissioner Sharene Gandhi. By
• 19:12
  Speaker 3: the way, I'm going to give you some foreshadowing that
• 19:14
  Speaker 3: that that miss Gandhi did not behave like Gandhi. Instead,
• 19:22
  Speaker 3: she confirmed, and a testimony copied in the report that
• 19:26
  Speaker 3: the state department used outside entities to conduct these investigations
• 19:33
  Speaker 3: of employees, but could not confirm whether independent law firms
• 19:37
  Speaker 3: were used. Gandhi also confirmed in her testimony that DHS
• 19:41
  Speaker 3: management would regularly meet and quote check in on employees
• 19:46
  Speaker 3: who had reported fraud concerns. Gandhi continued to conduct these
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: check ins on DHS whistleblower Fay Bernstein quote a year
• 19:55
  Speaker 3: or two after her investigatory leave. So they hunted them
• 20:00
  Speaker 3: down and they stayed harassing them. Bernstein alleged that Gandhi
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: quote shamed her in a meeting after she raised concerns
• 20:08
  Speaker 3: about fraud and quote excluded her from further meetings on
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: the topic. Whistleblowers also alleged that former State Commissioner Jody
• 20:15
  Speaker 3: Harpstead held a division wide meeting and told attendees that quote,
• 20:20
  Speaker 3: employees would be punished if they reported concerns about fraud
• 20:26
  Speaker 3: and DHS programs. According to the report, DHS employee Emmanuel
• 20:31
  Speaker 3: Nuala told colleagues that he quote did intelligence research within
• 20:36
  Speaker 3: the army and appears to have threatened to provide IP
• 20:40
  Speaker 3: addresses to former colleagues in order to find the locations
• 20:47
  Speaker 3: of whistleblower's email addresses. An email obtained through a public
• 20:52
  Speaker 3: data request showed, now it's about to get even worse.
• 20:58
  Speaker 3: The report also alleged edged that DHS d anonymized an
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: internal fraud hotline for employees in an attempt to intimidate
• 21:11
  Speaker 3: fraud reporters. After whistleblowers later created an anonymous external email
• 21:16
  Speaker 3: to report fraud, DHS blocked the email address. Whistleblowers reported
• 21:23
  Speaker 3: that their fraud hotline tips were sent to human resources
• 21:28
  Speaker 3: and used against them. The hotline was originally anonymous, but
• 21:33
  Speaker 3: was de anonymised under Gandhi's tenure as deputy Commissioner of HR.
• 21:39
  Speaker 3: Governor Waltz appointed Gandhi a's commissioner of DHS in February
• 21:43
  Speaker 3: twenty twenty six, but removed her in May before her
• 21:47
  Speaker 3: confirmation hearing amid scrutiny of her response to fraud allegations.
• 21:54
  Speaker 3: This is anyone who claims, gosh, the elected officials of Minnesota,
• 21:59
  Speaker 3: they were victims. They didn't know. They wanted to go
• 22:01
  Speaker 3: after the fraud, which, by the way, both Waltz and
• 22:05
  Speaker 3: Ellison keep saying, oh, we wanted to go after the fraud,
• 22:07
  Speaker 3: we wanted to prosecute it. This demonstrates, I think powerfully
• 22:12
  Speaker 3: they are lying. Not only did they not want to
• 22:15
  Speaker 3: go after the fraud, they were doing everything they could
• 22:18
  Speaker 3: to silence the whistleblowers and prevent anyone from knowing about
• 22:22
  Speaker 3: the fraud.
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: If everything that we just mentioned turns out to be true,
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: there's obviously now an open investigation into this. If you
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: do these things, are you breaking the law? And if
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: it goes all the way the governor is he breaking
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: the law? And the people below them are they breaking
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: the law? And is there any accountability for this or
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: is this just well, Walt isn't running for reelection, so
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: it doesn't really matter anymore, and we'll just move on
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: and yeah, we may continue to do things like this
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: in the future without accountability.
• 22:53
  Speaker 3: Listen to the Department of Justice has created an entire
• 22:56
  Speaker 3: new division focused at going after fraud. And I hope
• 23:00
  Speaker 3: everyone who made these decisions faces accountability if they committed
• 23:04
  Speaker 3: criminal violations, that they are prosecuted. I am hopeful. I
• 23:08
  Speaker 3: can tell you I'm urging the Department of Justice hold
• 23:11
  Speaker 3: them accountable. That the way our constitutional system works, it's
• 23:15
  Speaker 3: not the legislature. Look, I'm in the Senate. I can't
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: prosecute anybody. I don't have executive authority. I have legislative authority.
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: I can write legislation, which I have, but I can't
• 23:25
  Speaker 3: the power to bring an indictment, the power to go
• 23:27
  Speaker 3: before a grand jury to get an indictment, to prosecute,
• 23:31
  Speaker 3: that is exclusively within the executive branch, within principally the
• 23:36
  Speaker 3: US Department of Justice at the federal level. And so
• 23:39
  Speaker 3: I can tell you this, I am urging the Attorney
• 23:42
  Speaker 3: General and DJ prosecute every single person who committed criminal acts,
• 23:46
  Speaker 3: who covered up this fraud, who benefited from it, who
• 23:50
  Speaker 3: knew what they were doing. And this is this is
• 23:53
  Speaker 3: a real smoking gun.
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: And at the age I go back Kellison there, we
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: know his name well, if he's involved in this and
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: is using and weaponizing the government to go after those
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: that were not committing the fraud, those that were trying
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: to whistle blow on the fraud fraud and they are harassed.
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: Is there any lane for the people that were being
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: harassed to somehow have like, you know, restitution for what
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: they went through. If you're being harassed for two years
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: after you put in a tip, that's got to put
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: a lot of stress in your life. I'm assuming it
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: puts stress in your career. I'm assuming it could have
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: affected a lot of people getting promotions that they deserved.
• 24:31
  Speaker 3: Yeah, look, and I would assume we're going to see
• 24:34
  Speaker 3: civil litigation of people fire filing lawsuits and seeking compensation
• 24:41
  Speaker 3: for this, and that litigation could well be successful. In
• 24:45
  Speaker 3: terms of criminal prosecution, this would not surprise me. I
• 24:48
  Speaker 3: don't know sitting here if Minnesota law makes makes doing
• 24:53
  Speaker 3: this a criminal violation in Minnesota. Now, of course, the
• 24:57
  Speaker 3: federal government can't prosecute violations of Minnesota the law. It
• 25:00
  Speaker 3: would take a a Minnesota district attorney UH to bring
• 25:04
  Speaker 3: that case. And and I got to admit, I'm very
• 25:06
  Speaker 3: skeptical that that there are any prosecutors in Minnesota willing
• 25:11
  Speaker 3: to hold the corrupt Democrats in charge of that state accountable. UH.
• 25:15
  Speaker 3: If they're not, then there's not really a mechanism to
• 25:19
  Speaker 3: enforce Minnesota law, which means you would be left with
• 25:22
  Speaker 3: with federal law. And given that these are federal funds
• 25:25
  Speaker 3: that were effectively being stolen and fund funneled to Somali
• 25:29
  Speaker 3: fund funneled to Somalian fraudsters, being sent, among other places,
• 25:34
  Speaker 3: to al Shabab, and we before on this podcast that
• 25:40
  Speaker 3: the single largest funder of al shaba law, which is
• 25:43
  Speaker 3: the Cataclaslamic terrorist group that is in Somalia. Their number
• 25:47
  Speaker 3: one funder was the taxpayers of Minnesota, and those are
• 25:51
  Speaker 3: also federal tax payer money. So look, I expect the
• 25:54
  Speaker 3: Apartment of Justice. They've already prosecuted a number of the
• 25:57
  Speaker 3: fraudsters at the lower level, but I hope they go
• 26:00
  Speaker 3: right up the ladder of accountability and any politicians that
• 26:04
  Speaker 3: are responsible. And to be clear, this happened because it
• 26:09
  Speaker 3: was in politicians' political interest for this to happen, because
• 26:13
  Speaker 3: they were getting money from campaign donations and they were
• 26:17
  Speaker 3: getting votes from allowing Somalian fraudsters to rob the taxpayers
• 26:22
  Speaker 3: of Minnesota and the American taxpayers. And look that this
• 26:27
  Speaker 3: has happened also in other states. It's happened in Maine
• 26:31
  Speaker 3: under the Democrat governor there. It's happened in California, It's
• 26:34
  Speaker 3: happened in Illinois. It's happened, I think, all over the country,
• 26:37
  Speaker 3: but predominantly in Democrat states where there are Democrat politicians
• 26:43
  Speaker 3: who were benefiting from turning the other way to fraud.
• 26:47
  Speaker 3: And I think everyone who committed a criminal act should
• 26:50
  Speaker 3: face prosecution and real consequences.
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: Don't forget Share this podcast with your family and friends,
• 26:56
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• 26:59
  Speaker 1: back here tomorrow.