Things got more than a little heated in the Senate on Thursday, February 12, when Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) went nuclear on Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, demanding that the AG resign and saying he could face criminal charges. Particularly, Sen. Hawley pointed to AG Ellison allegedly assisting some of the fraudsters caught in the sprawling Minnesota welfare fraud schemes.
For reference, the confrontation came during a hearing in the Senate Homeland Security Committee in which AG Ellison testified. As part of that, Sen Hawley questioned AG Ellison about his actions as connected to the Feeding Our Future scandal, in which primarily Somali fraudsters stole $250 million from the child nutrition program during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Specifically, Hawley pointed to a meeting held in December of 2021, well after the fraud had started, in which the Minnesota AG met with a number of the fraudsters who were later indicted in connection with their theft of tax dollars as part of the scandal. Sen. Hawley argued that AG Ellison had attempted to corruptly help them.
During the heated exchange, Sen. Hawley pointed to that meeting and AG Ellison later allegedly receiving a large political contribution from a connected party. Ellison kept denying the accusations, leading Hawley to shout, “It’s my hearing, pal!” AG Ellison, refusing to acknowledge the point, fired back, “I’m not your pal. Don’t call me pal!”
Hawley then shot back that Ellison should be in jail over his connection to the fraud scandal, angrily snapping, “Well, I should call you ‘prisoner’ because you should be in jail.” AG Ellison then vowed defiance and dared Hawley to try to arrest him, saying, “Well, see what you can do about it.”
Further noting the fraud accusations directed at Ellison over the situation, the senator then referenced a report in the Minnesota Star Tribune about AG Ellison’s alleged connection to the fraudsters, saying, “In 2019, whistleblowers came to you in your office and referred to you fraud allegations from feeding our futures and you blow them off.” Ellison angrily denied it, saying, “That’s a lie. They did not come to my office. You’re completely wrong about that. I did not take anybody’s money.”
The two then continued to bicker and battle, particularly over the $10,000 donation that AG Ellison allegedly received from a party connected to the scandal. After hurling more specific accusations, Senator Hawley then insisted that Ellison ought to resign over his general connection to the scandal.
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“You’ve been right at the center of this fraud thing from the beginning, and you’ve enabled it. And sir, you should resign,” the Senator snapped. Ellison, firing back, tried to fight back by just saying “no, you”, like a little child, snapping, “Sir, you should resign,. I was thinking the same thing about you.” Still not done, the obviously flustered blue state AG kept repeating his point about having wanted to say that to Sen. Hawley, looking utterly absurd. “I was thinking the exact same thing about you,” AG Ellison insisted.
Watch him here:
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video