During a heated Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing concerning the massive, rampant fraud discovered in Minnesota being perpetrated by members of the Somali community and taking advantage of government programs such as Medicaid, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Public Citizen Co-President Robert Weissman got into an intense back-and-forth after Weissman tried to blame the fraud on Trump.
Cruz started off the conversation by providing a little background about Weissman and then asking him if he was surprised by the amount of fraud that has thus far been uncovered by the Trump administration in the state of Minnesota. “Weissman, you’re co-president of Public Citizen, which describes itself as a consumer advocate and a pro-democracy organization. Would you agree that the fraud in Minnesota was staggering and shocking?” Cruz asked in a clip of the interview going viral on social media.
Weissman responded by saying that he agreed with the findings that fraud exists in the state, but expressed skepticism about the $9 billion figure. “I agree that there is fraud in Minnesota. I don’t believe these estimates are grounded in any evidence that I’ve seen. The $9 billion figure was based on a claim. Well, I think that half of them must be fraudulent,” Weissman told Cruz.
“I just heard a comment just saying boost the number up, but to be clear and with respect, you missed my testimony. No question, there’s fraud in Minnesota, and absolutely, I share your righteous anger about whatever degree of fraud there was there,” the Democrat added. “Do you agree that any Democrat politician, or let me be clear, any Republican politician that had knowledge of the fraud and was complicit should be prosecuted?” Cruz followed up.
“I’m not sure what they’re being prosecuted for, but also in my testimony, I described also outside of Minnesota the manifold ways that this administration is enabling fraud,” Weissman said, putting the blame for the fraud at the feet of President Donald Trump and his administration instead of on the actual individuals perpetrating the fraud.
Cruz was not about to allow any blame shifting during the hearing, so he took Weissman to school. “Your organization describes itself as a pro-Democracy organization. I’m going to try to find out if you actually are pro democracy or if you’re simply pro democrat and are a partisan. We’ve seen the Democrats who want to change the topic,” Cruz said, scolding the Public Citizen co-president.
“So I get you want to testify how much you hate Donald Trump, but I’m quite certain Donald Trump was not running a fraudulent daycare center or a fraudulent autism center in Minnesota,” Cruz fired off at Weissman. “So all of the talking points about how you dislike Trump, set them aside. We will see the Democrats on this committee go down those talking points.”
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“Do you believe elected politicians in Minnesota who were aware of this fraud and were complicit in it, should be prosecuted. Should there be accountability?” Cruz asked. Weissman quickly responded, “There absolutely should be accountability. It is not normal to prosecute government officials for not prosecuting fraud. That is not a standard I’m aware of that you’ve advocated or that anyone else has advocated in the Senate.”
“So do you think it’s perfectly okay?” Cruz asked. “I did not say that,” Weissman responded. “If, let’s say, Governor Walz or Attorney General Ellison knew about the fraud, benefited from the fraud in terms of bundling votes, benefited from the frauds in terms of collecting campaign finance violations, and deliberately looked the other way, you think that’s not criminal conduct?” Cruz pushed back against Weissman’s assumptions.
“In that hypothetical, it is not okay. One hundred percent not okay. But also, if you’ll permit me, that hypothetical is in fact happening throughout –” Cruz interjected and shut down the direction that Weissman wanted to take the conversation. “Yes, I get it. You dislike Trump. I understand you dislike Trump.”
Weissman started to talk over Cruz, saying the whole thing is about whether he has a standard of accountability. The two men talk over each other, with Cruz asking Weissman not to interrupt him while he is speaking, reminding the man that he is free to answer questions after they have been asked. Cruz then continued drilling Weissman.
“You’ve heard the evidence and testimony about daycare centers with no children, with no toys, with no facilities, with windows that are blacked out. Do you believe it is possible that the officials sending millions of dollars to those fake daycare centers and fake autism centers didn’t know what was going on?” he asked the Democrat.
“Well, what I heard was claims about that, and I too have watched the video. We’re both parents. I’m glad that the childcare centers don’t open their door for someone who’s knocking there,” Weissman responded. “I don’t view that as evidence that the child care centers are fake child care centers. Although I’m sure there are some, my understanding is that state investigators have gone to do their duty at those exact same child care centers and have found that most of them actually are operating correctly.”
Cruz finished the confrontation between the two men by saying, “Well, I will say it is disappointing that you had a chance leading a nonprofit that is supposedly pro-democracy to take a principled stand, instead you decided to defend the Somali fraudsters because it benefits elected Democrats. That’s disappointing.”
Featured Image: screenshot from embedded video