Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, told Newsmax that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison, and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey shamefully declined to testify at the Senate hearing he chaired Wednesday.
Cruz said, "They're all running and hiding because they were complicit in a grotesque abuse of public trust."
Appearing on Newsmax's "Rob Schmitt Tonight," Cruz said, "The hearing that I chaired this afternoon was focusing on the massive fraud we saw in Minnesota" and on "fraud that I believe is replicated in states across the country."
Asked how widespread he believes the problem is, Cruz said that "in Minnesota alone" there has been "a total of $18 billion" spent through welfare programs in recent years, and "upwards of $9 billion of that may well have been fraud."
He added that "we've got federal prosecutors prosecuting Somali fraudsters."
The Senate Judiciary Committee lists the hearing as "Somali Scammers: Fighting Fraud in Minnesota and Beyond," held on Wednesday, with Cruz presiding.
Cruz described what he said the hearing examined, saying, "Look, these are day care centers that had no kids, that had no play toys, that had no playground equipment," and that "the windows are all blacked out" while the buildings were "dark and empty."
"And yet the Democrats were sending millions and millions of dollars to these fraudulent centers," and he alleged, "the reason the Democrats were doing that is that they benefited politically." Cruz added, "It was corrupt."
The Committee on the Judiciary chairman, pointing to what he said happened in the room, said, "The Democrat senators who came to the hearing, they wanted to talk about absolutely anything except for the fraud in Minnesota."
Cruz singled out Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., who's the ranking member on the subcommittee, saying he "gave a long speech about how Donald Trump is terrible and about global warming."
Cruz added that Whitehouse "was even quoting Jesus."
Cruz said Democrats were avoiding "the fact that Somali fraudsters and Democrats stole $9 billion from the taxpayers."
He added, "And by the way, they didn't just steal it."
"Those Somalis sent billions back to Somalia," and he alleged "much of it flowed to al-Shabaab, the radical Islamist terrorist group."
Cruz also said, "The worst single largest funder of al-Shabaab was a Minnesota taxpayer."
Cruz said he sought testimony from top Minnesota officials, telling Newsmax, "I invited the governor, Tim Walz, to come testify before the hearing.
"I invited the attorney general, Keith Ellison, to testify. I invited Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey to come testify. They all said no," Cruz said.
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Jim Thomas ✉
Jim Thomas is a writer based in Indiana. He holds a bachelor's degree in Political Science, a law degree from U.I.C. Law School, and has practiced law for more than 20 years.
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