A video clip of Rep. Brandon Gill (R-TX) taking a Democratic Ohio state senator to the proverbial woodshed over her attempt to skirt around tough questions that were asked during a hearing focused on fraud being perpetrated by Somali immigrants in the Buckeye State is going viral on social media. The clip starts off with Gill speaking with journalist Luke Rosiak who wrote a piece for conservative outlet The Daily Wire that dug deep into Medicaid fraud.
“Mr. Rosiak, you’ve identified multiple individuals and LLCs that you believe engaged in fraud. How many of these had Somali or Bhutanese or other African origin names?” Gill asked the reporter. Rosiak said that every single name or LLC he looked into had names originating from the areas Gill mentioned. “One-hundred percent. And how many did you look through? I mean, that’s one-hundred percent of how many, roughly?”
“I looked at the names of hundreds of companies. I looked more deeply into maybe 50,” Rosiak told Gill. “More deeply into 50, you looked into hundreds of companies, and 100% you’re telling me, had names that were Somali, Bhutanese, or other sort of African origin?” the Texas Republican responded. Rosiak said that was correct.
“I thought I saw an American, and I was very excited, but it turned out to be the teenage son of that money launderer who was actually just a proxy for this woman from Ghana,” the reporter said during the hearing. “What are some of these names that you come across? Do you hear the same names or are they different names?” Gill asked Rosiak.
“A guy named Robert Acheampong, and then I found a different scammer named Roberta Acheampong, and I thought they were related, but they weren’t. It’s just that’s how common it is to scam Medicaid when your name is Acheampong, and then I did the same thing with a guy named Alieu Conteh, who has 30 criminal charges in Cuyahoga County or in Franklin County, and threatened my family, malicious wounding, crazy stuff,” Rosiak recounted to Gill.
“And then there was a different guy named Alfred Conteh, who was convicted of Medicaid fraud, but Ohio Franklin County expunged his record. They let him plead down, and then they expunged his record. He didn’t have to pay any money back except like 500 bucks. And the Ohio Nursing Board let him keep his license. So you’ve got the Conteh, the Acheampongs, and it just seems to be the family business is billing Medicaid,” he continued.
Later in the hearing, Gill turned his questions toward state Sen. Nickie Antonio (D-OH). “It’s been fantastic reporting. So we really appreciate this, Senator Antonio. Thank you for being here. Has Somali immigration been good for Ohio?” Antonio responded by saying, “You know, that’s really outside of my purview.”
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Gill wasn’t about to let Antonio slide. “You’re a state senator,” he said, pressing the matter. “As far as I’m processing your question, and I have to say that I was almost brought to tears just now,” she said, attempting to play the emotion card to avoid providing the Texas Republican with a straight answer to his question.
“Because the rate and level of hateful rhetoric based on this situation is astounding. Shocking,” she continued. In the background of the clip, Gill can be heard simply repeating the facts that have been uncovered about fraud happening in the state and the fact that it’s being perpetrated by one specific people group. “The lack of even humanity to a group of people…I’m shocked. I’m horrified. In every community there are good people and there are bad people –” Antonio said, trailing off as Gill’s time came to an end.
Featured Image: screenshot from embedded video