Whoa! GOP Hearing Backfires as Dems Expose Witnesses

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0:55Ben Meiselas:was fraud in Minnesota, which was largely being prosecuted by the former Biden DOJ with the key architect of that fraud being a white lady who was prosecuted. But this is what MAGA wanted to focus on. Let me be very clear. Fraud needs to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. But the biggest fraudster is the one living in the White House right now or Mar-a-Lago or wherever the hell he's at. He certainly doesn't know where he's living based on the cognitive decline that we're seeing. I think he thinks that he's living in imperial Rome as he tries to destroy our country, playing the fiddle like Nero as our country burns.

1:34Ben Meiselas:But you'll see as Democrats completely turn the table on the MAGA Republicans during this hearing. And so the MAGA Republicans call in their fellow MAGA Republican colleagues from Minnesota, mind you, on the very same day that Trump's ICE Gestapo murdered a United States citizen in South Minneapolis. Let me show you what goes down when Democratic Congress member Maxwell Frost is cross-examining the MAGA Republican representatives from Minnesota who were called by the MAGA Republicans in D.C. to try to propagandize and distract the American people from Trump's cover-up of the Epstein files and Donald Trump's cover-up of the disastrous economy here that he's caused to 99 % of the American people.

2:19Ben Meiselas:Watch what goes down here. Play this clip. That's great. Do you think it's appropriate for the president of the United States. I am not going to engage in the silly condemnation. No, no, no. This is not. No, no, no, no, no. In a context. This is not silly. This is the president. What did you have to say about the assassination of Charlie Kirk? What did you have to say about Jay Jones? He's the chief law enforcement officer in the state of Virginia. I'll reclaim my time. I'll reclaim my time. I'll reclaim my time. I will reclaim my time. The gentleman will stop talking on my time. I'm not playing this game in that context ever.

2:47Ben Meiselas:The gentleman will stop talking on my time. Order, order, order. Next up, you have Democratic Congresswoman Ansari. Watch as she cross-examines the MAGA Republican state representative from Minnesota, Christine Robbins and others, and says, can people here raise their hand? If you think it's appropriate that Donald Trump is spreading conspiracies, that Governor Walz murdered the Hortmans, Melissa Hortman, the former speaker of the House in Minnesota, and her husband, do you think that's acceptable behavior? None of the Republicans raise their hands to say that they thought it was unacceptable because they are so fearful of upsetting their dear fearer, their dear leader, their head of the Gestapo who's killing citizens in their states.

3:32Ben Meiselas:Watch what goes down here. Play this clip. So I want to start with this question for the lawmakers here from Minnesota. As you know, Donald Trump has been posting these conspiracy theories about the linking Governor Walz to the killing of your former speaker and insinuating that Governor Walz had something to do with it. Can you please raise your hand if you think this is an appropriate action by the president of the United States? Raise your hand, please. I'm not doing a raise your hand. I'm happy to comment on it. Sure. Is it appropriate for the president to do that? So the person who murdered our colleague, Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, had in his vehicle evidence saying he thought against him was ordering him to do it.

4:17I know the facts will come out in the case and we need to be respectful of the Hortman family and we need to let this play out in the courts. That is unacceptable. It is inappropriate to the highest degree for the president of the United States to be sharing conspiracy theories that are obviously going to lead to violence directed at Governor Tim Walz.

4:37Ben Meiselas:Next, I'll share with you as Democratic Congresswoman Presley also then says, okay, you want to talk about fraud? Let me show you some examples of fraud. So she shows George Santos, for example. Watch this, play this clip. That is not the standard that is being set by Donald Trump, who is wielding his clemency authority to allow fraudsters to escape accountability altogether. Last month, my office published a clemency report titled Trump's Clemency Gap, how Trump's pardons are ignoring the people who need them the most. So ask unanimous consent to enter this into the record. Thank you. Now to the witnesses who serve in the Minnesota State Legislature on the Fraud Prevention Committee, let's walk through these pardons for fraudsters.

5:20And we all care about fraud. So Ms. Robbins, Mr. Hudson, and Ms. Rarick, Donald Trump pardoned George Santos, who defrauded voters and owed them$370 ,000 in restitution to victims. Raise your hand if you oppose this pardon. Thank you, Mr. Balloon. Ma 'am, I would have to look at the law and the facts of the case. We cannot know the facts of all these individual cases. Please don't deflect. This is a very public case. You know who George Santos is. You know exactly what he did. We just agreed that fraud is unacceptable. And you just talked about accountability. You said if people commit fraud and exploit the public good, that they should be incarcerated.

6:04So this is not a complicated question. So I will give you all one more opportunity, Ms. Robbins, Mr. Hudson and Ms. Rarick. Raise your hand if you oppose the pardon of George Santos. Not playing this game. It's not a game. It's real life. It's not a game at all. But I will take your refusal to go on record, not only as cowardice, but that you do agree with that pardon of that fraudster. Moving on, Donald Trump also gave, and this has never been done before, presidential pardons to corporations that committed fraud. One example is the crypto company BitMEX that violated U.S. law and was fined$100 million.

6:46Now, raise your hand if you oppose Trump's pardon of this crypto company.

6:50Ben Meiselas:Not participating. Thank you, Mr. Ballou. OK, again, I'll take your refusal to not to raise your hand in opposition. that means that you support this pardon of this corporation that frauded folks to the tune of $100 million. Refusal to participate is not an expression. Refusal to participate is not an expression one way or the other. I know that I am here as a member of the public. Reclaiming my time. You are not in order with the rules of the committee. This is my time. This is my time. I ask the questions and you answer, but you're too much of a coward to answer. So we're going to move on. Now, actually, I should show you that full clip of Congress member Maxwell Frost cross-examining these MAGA witnesses.

7:37Ben Meiselas:Watch it play this clip. And I have one more thing I want to talk about that Representative Ansari brought up. President Trump reposted conspiracy theories on his Truth Social account about the murder of Minnesota state legislators Mark and Melissa Hortman that suggests that Minnesota Governor Tim Walz had the Hortmans assassinated. Governor Walz says this behavior will get more innocent people killed. And the Hortman children have come out on the president and said and called on the president to take the statements down. I think it is very important that we are very clear that we condemn this type of behavior.

8:10So I just want to go down the line in here. If you agree with the Hortman children that we should condemn and we ask the president to take down this post. Mr. Bayou. Yes, Representative. So as the longest serving member on this panel in Minnesota, I am so offended that anybody would accuse anybody of the assassination other than Lance Bolter, because this was a deep, deep scar in the state of Minnesota and all of us personally. I served with Melissa Horner in my entire 13 years, and it is just unbelievably beyond the pale. Do you agree that we should call on the president, take down the post? That's it.

8:48I said what I said. I think that it's beyond the pale that anybody. Okay, you can't come to call the president, take down the post. So it's okay, we'll move on. Representative Hudson, we'll move on. Thank you, ma 'am. Thank you, ma 'am. We'll move on. You can't call the president, take down this post. We'll move on to Representative Hudson. It's just a yes or no.

9:04Ben Meiselas:I cannot deceive the committee by giving it a binary. I have spoken to this many times. I have renounced the content of these ridiculous conspiracy theories, and I've called them ridiculous on multiple occasions. That's great. Do you think it's appropriate for the president of the United States? I am not going to engage in the silly condemnation game. No, no, no. No, no, no, no, no, no. This is not silly. This is the president. What did you have to say about the assassination of Charlie Kerr? I'll reclaim my time. What did you have to say about J. Jones? He's the chief law enforcement officer in the state of Virginia.

9:31I'll reclaim my time. I'll reclaim my time. I'll reclaim my time. I will reclaim my time. The gentleman will stop talking on my time. I'm not playing this game. The gentleman will stop talking on my time. Order, order, order. We'll give you a few seconds to close, Mr. Frost. I have to comment on this because this is not silly. It is not silly to expect good behavior from the people at the highest levels of our government. Do you expect J. Jones? Not your time. Do you expect J. Jones? Not your time, including the president of the United States. I yield back.

10:02Ben Meiselas:Then you had Democratic Congresswoman Summer Lee turn the tables on MAGA Republican James Comer. Watch this. Just yesterday, Trump also froze approximately$10 billion in funding for programs supporting child care, social services, grants, and cash assistance in not only Minnesota, but in other Democratic-led states of California, Colorado, New York, and Illinois. No matter what party we're elected to, we represent the people of our district, Democrat or Republican. We represent, as the federal government, all people of all states, irrespective of how they voted. That's the charge that I took, and I would like and hope that you all would do the same.

10:38When so many of these social service programs are being gutted and defunded, fraud becomes even more harmful, is that means even less money is going to people who need it. People need these programs. This situation should be an opportunity to take a deep look at the programs and improve their oversight abilities, not an excuse to cut them entirely. If we care about the most vulnerable, if we care about the most marginalized, this is an opportunity to do so. And I welcome us to actually do that one day. Thanks, I hope you're back. Ms. Lee, the IGs are hired to identify fraud. They haven't identified fraud.

11:11The IGs have failed. But anyway, you all have failed. No, you all have failed. We've done nothing. You have the gavel, Mr. Comer. We barely do hearings on anything that actually affects change. You have power here and yet you don't do anything. Yes, he actually initiated this, sir. But thank you so much for your opinion.

11:33Ben Meiselas:You have failed. I yielded back. And look at this incredible moment where Democratic Congresswoman Melanie Stansberry. You know, we think that she's so great. Both her and Congresswoman Lee are amazing. Here's Congresswoman Stansberry torching James Comer. Play this clip. And you all are sitting here running legislation on showerheads while millions of Americans' health insurance is expiring, while millions of Americans can't even put food on the table right now. And you're over here parading around state officials, demonizing immigrants, talking about cutting basic programs, and you're passing legislation to redefine showerheads in Congress while the president of the United States is illegally invading foreign countries.

12:21Order.

12:23Ben Meiselas:I find it appalling. Then the Democratic ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, who's been doing an incredible job, Congress member Garcia. Watch what he says play this clip. We should fight fraud when people rip off programs designed to help working families. And also we should fight fraud when large corporations and wealthy individuals dodge their own taxes and rig the system for their own benefit. And especially we should fight fraud when figures in our government, particularly those in power within the White House or agencies, get rich and profit from their offices. Fraud is never acceptable, and it undermines public trust, whoever commits it.

13:07But let's remember that some of the worst fraud and corruption is actually found at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Republicans like to talk about fraud in states with Democratic governors, oftentimes exclusively. But Republicans also have a president who has pardoned or reduced jail time for 25 criminals convicted of fraud. in this year alone. Now, some of these fraudsters have made also huge campaign contributions to Donald Trump. And worst of all, Trump's pardons mean that these criminals can avoid paying back more than$1 billion, which they owe their victims and dwarfs much of the fraud that the House majority wants to talk about today.

13:49This is actually the opposite of accountability. Instead, the House majority wants to excuse and cut programs which they have done from the start. Now, Donald Trump's signature law cut money for health care and food programs. Medicaid and CHIP help almost half the kids in the United States see a doctor. And that we lost, of course, a trillion dollars in those programs. Over 10 million people could lose health care. Trump's law also cut 40 million people who use SNAP. And this includes, by the way, one out of every five kids. And this is happening not just in Minnesota. The president plans to freeze more than$10 billion for child care subsidies, social services, and cash support for low-income families in Minnesota, New York, Colorado, Illinois, and my home state of California.

14:35Of course, we know these states have Democratic governors that Donald Trump wants to punish. And we should look at those consequences if we want to talk about fraud. In Minnesota, which we're talking about today, Donald Trump is removing child care funding for the entire state. That frozen funding provides childcare for over 18 ,000 kids. These kids didn't commit fraud. So I want to know why they should be punished. Last night, he said he's withholding all possibly Medicaid funds from Minnesota, which could harm one in five residents. Now, in New York, another state he's threatening, that's over 66 ,000 innocent kids, while pardoning, of course, 25 fraudsters and robbing victims of over$1 billion.

15:20Donald Trump should have to face the kids and parents who will be hurt even though they've done nothing wrong. I want to know what the president and the House majority expect the parents of these kids to do.

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17:26Ben Meiselas:In contrast, you have MAGA Republican Congress member James Comer and the MAGA Republicans calling the Democratic Congresswoman Presley baby. They called her baby. You had Nancy Mace and others. While Congresswoman Presley was asking questions, started to shout at Congresswoman Presley and say, just be quiet, baby. Be quiet, baby. The hell is wrong with these MAGA Republicans play this clip. But really, he's just a criminal. So raise your hand if you oppose Trump's pardon of this Minnesota individual. Ma 'am, this grandstanding nonsense is exactly what Minnesotans hate about D.C. This is accountability and you are hypocrites.

18:12So again, I will take your refusal to not - Thanks for demonstrating my opening statement. Mr. Chairman, order, decorum. She's off the rails. Reclaiming my time. I'm not off the rails, please. You are totally off the rails. Nancy, enough of your troops. Give me my time back. Order, Mr. Chairman. If Republicans were serious, if we claim you were out of time,

18:37we're down here. Mr. Chair, I'm off. Mr. Chair, she's out of time. We're so out of order and out of time. Ms. Presley, you've already secured your MSNBC spot tonight. I'm not looking for accountability. Chair recognizes Ms. Mace. You're going to be so good on MSNBC. Chair recognizes Ms. Mace. And this administration. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Chair recognizes Ms. Mace. And Mr. Chairman, I agree. She's going to be a great host on MSNBC. This is my time. I wouldn't want to jump in front of Ms. Mace if I were you, Ms. Presley. I reclaim my time. This is my time. I wouldn't want to interrupt Ms. Mace.

19:11It's her time. Chair recognizes Ms. Mace. Oh. Mr. Chair, she did not get all of her time. Mr. Chairman, she's still out of order. for 10 more seconds. What do we have to do to get this woman in order? Her time has expired. Chair recognizes Ms. Mace. You're gonna be great on TV. You're really good. No, baby, you're not. No, baby, you're not. You are not in order. You're out of order. Goodbye. You're done.

19:36Ben Meiselas:All right. Mr. Chairman is my third minutes. Chair recognizes Ms. Mace. Are we good here? And here's how Nancy Mace, the MAGA Republican, wanted to spend her time asking the one normal voice on this panel about whether Somalians who are citizens should be stripped of their citizenship. Play this clip. First question is this Mr. Baloo this afternoon. Should Somalians in Minnesota be required to speak English if they're citizens? Yes or no? Should they be required to speak English if they're American citizens? I think that question is really inappropriate. It's not inappropriate. This is the United States of America.

20:16Do you speak English? Should Americans speak English? So does it speak English? Yes or no? Point of inquiry is English the official language of the United States. I'm just I said a question. Mr. Chairman, I'm being interrupted. That's not a valid parliamentary inquiry. I would like to reclaim my time, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I'd like to reclaim my time. She's asking the witness. That's not a valid. That's not a valid. It's a point of inquiry. Women have a right to speak in this committee. Conservative women have the right to speak here and not be interrupted by my colleagues. Mr. Chairman, I would like to reclaim my time.

20:52I lost like 10 seconds there. Okay, we'll give you 10 seconds. Okay, my next question is, should Somalians who committed fraud be denaturalized and deported, Mr. Baliu? Again, I'm not sure that's an appropriate question because the majority of Somali - So if you commit fraud in this country and you are here from Somalia, you don't believe they should be denaturalized and deported. How much fraud would it take for you to want to denaturalize and deport someone who committed fraud in this country? How much? Again, a billion, nine billion, 19 billion. What would it take for you?

21:26Ben Meiselas:Most Somali Minnesotans are citizens. Then you had Tom Emmer, the MAGA Republican Congress member from Minnesota, who celebrates the fact that Donald Trump has revoked billions of dollars in child care services, billions of dollars in other essential services for the state of Minnesota. Great job, Congressman, throwing your own damn state under the bus, you despicable grotesque. I could just go on and on and on. I'll stop with the inhomitant attacks and just focus more on the clips. I apologize. Sometimes I get so angry from from these people. But Tom Emmer says, have you all seen on X, all the whistleblowers on X, the whistleblowers on Elon Musk's bot infested platform?

22:12Ben Meiselas:OK, Emmer, play this clip. Mr. Emmer. Thank you, Chairman Comer, for holding this important hearing. As I said on Monday, good riddance to Governor Walz, but he cannot escape accountability for the estimated nine billion dollars in fraud. How did this happen? And where the hell has the Twin Cities media been? The Star Tribune is complicit. They have had this story for years, if you just heard, and they've refused to report anything on it. In fact, they continue to try and cover up. Our Minnesota Republican colleagues have demanded answers and accountability for years, but have seen nothing from Walls, his administration, our Democrat colleagues like Tina Smith, Amy Klobuchar, Ilhan Omar, and Angie Craig or the worthless Star Tribune.

22:58Thank God for President Donald J. Trump for finally bringing attention to this issue. Representative Rarick, I'm going to begin with you. You've been working on this issue for years. You've spoken to the whistleblowers personally. Is that correct? That is correct. You have an understanding that 1 ,000 whistleblowers running an account on X have come forward to expose fraud in Minnesota state agencies, and they have been entirely ignored by Tim Walz and have even been retaliated against. Is that accurate? That is correct. Even this morning, I got another message. Well, in your experience, are their claims credible or are they politically motivated against Walz?