There is a little something brewing in the Democrat Party that deserves both mention and monitoring.
Donald Trump and Republicans have been hammering Democrats over all sorts of alleged fraud taking place in blue states, and now Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) has joined in.
While California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office has been pushing back against emerging claims about potential wrongdoing in his state, Khanna is now calling for a congressional hearing on the matter.
The viral video recently released by independent journalist Nick Shirley has created some significant problems for Gov. Tim Walz in Minnesota, but now we are starting to see the butterfly effect of his work.
Suddenly, California is also being tossed into the mix in terms of allegedly widespread fraud. Trump has since ripped both states, posting, "There is more FRAUD in California than there is in Minnesota, if that is even possible. When you add in Election Fraud, then they are tied for first. Two Crooked Governors, two Crooked States!"
He later added, "Much of the Minnesota Fraud, up to 90%, is caused by people that came into our Country, illegally, from Somalia. ‘Congresswoman’ Omar, an ungrateful loser who only complains and never contributes, is one of the many scammers.”
Trump also tried to revive allegations that Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) married her brother in an act of immigration fraud, which is a subject I think he needs to leave to the trolls online. It does not help his credibility to continue raising the issue.
I truly would have suspected Khanna to defend his state's reputation amid recent claims, but he is getting extremely aggressive in the opposite direction. This has me more convinced than ever that he is testing the waters for a future presidential run.
Khanna stated, “Today, I am announcing that in 2026 I will be working on a bipartisan basis on Oversight to request hearings on state governments’ high risk programs, including California, that have led to illegal payments and eligibility errors.”
He continued, “I also will work on legislation to call for a full independent audit of California’s budget.”
Putting party aside for a comment, I love this. I want to see more of this in every state, a fact that also goes to some of my prior reports arguing that congressional oversight should have already been underway. Budget spending oversight and monitoring for fraud is literally the job of the House Appropriations and Budget committees. I would love to know why more people are not pursuing that angle of attack, as it impacts both parties.
The day only got worse for Newsom, as the state attorney general admitted that the newly proposed wealth tax in California would negatively impact revenue if it were enforced.
Attorney General Rob Bonta conceded that the measure may give the state a temporary boost, but he then added that it would likely create an “ongoing decrease in state income tax revenues of hundreds of millions of dollars or more per year.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) not only supports the wealth tax, but he also wants to see it imposed around the country, posting, “I strongly support the grassroots effort in California to impose a 5% wealth tax on 200 billionaires worth $2 trillion. This is a model that should be emulated around the country, which is why I will soon be introducing a national wealth tax on billionaires.”
If such a tax were to go into effect, I believe a mass exodus would take place from the affected states and possibly from the country. The top 1% in the U.S. already pay roughly 40% of the overall taxes collected, and those individuals are not just going to willingly give up more. Not only that, these fraud cases prove that the government has no clue how to properly manage the money it already has, let alone pouring billions more into the kitty. If Newsom allows that law to go into effect, he is likely killing his state and his chances of winning the Democrat Party's 2028 presidential nomination.
