On Wednesday’s broadcast of NewsNation’s “The Hill,” Minnesota State Rep. Esther Agbaje (D) responded to a question on why Minnesota is the poster child for COVID fraud by saying that “Minnesota gets to be the poster child for a lot of things.” She also argued that “Minnesota has actually been on top of this and has been looking to make sure that we are clamping down on fraud when it happens and holding the individuals who do this accountable.”
Host Blake Burman asked, “Gov. Tim Walz (D) has overseen this for the last handful of years. and…he’s pushing back against the president. Why should he be trusted, given that there was this massive scheme that occurred?”
Agbaje responded, “I think that’s a good question about the fact that, actually, what has Minnesota done to prevent fraud in our state? We actually caught this case pretty early on and referred it to U.S. attorneys, who then took it over, and that’s why you see the prosecutions that you have. So, in that case, I would say that Minnesota has actually been on top of this and has been looking to make sure that we are clamping down on fraud when it happens and holding the individuals who do this accountable. I would say that that is what we’re doing here in Minnesota, and over the last couple of legislative sessions, we actually, in fact, have strengthened our laws to make sure that our agencies have the capability to tamp down on fraud when they see it happening.”
Burman then cut in to ask, “[F]raud during COVID was a nationwide problem, right? Red states, blue states, all over the country. Why was Minnesota the poster child?”
Agbaje responded, “Minnesota gets to be the poster child for a lot of things.”
Burman then cut in to say, “[Y]ou can laugh it off. But we’re talking about a billion dollars here.”
Agbaje then said, “I am not laughing it off, it’s very much a serious situation. And, like I said, our department saw it early. They flagged it for the U.S. attorneys. The U.S. attorneys started their prosecutions. And, as you even noted in your intro, we’ve had dozens of people sent to jail already who are being held accountable. So I think that that shows that we are doing our due diligence, and we know that we still have areas to do more. And that’s why we passed legislation to continue to do that work.”
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