Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz refused to appear before a state House fraud oversight hearing on Tuesday, even though he was inside the Capitol building preparing for his State of the State address that evening, Fox News Digital reported. The Republican lawmaker who chairs the committee called the governor's absence an act of "arrogance" toward the taxpayers of Minnesota.
State Rep. Kristin Robbins, who leads the House Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Committee, told Fox News Digital that her panel reached out to Walz on March 9, giving him weeks of notice and flexibility to pick from several hearing dates that week. Walz's team waited until 6 p.m. on Monday, less than a day before the hearing, to inform the committee that the governor would not attend.
Then, on Tuesday, Robbins said Walz was in the building anyway, preparing for a speech he would deliver that night. He simply chose not to walk down the hall and answer questions about what Robbins described as "the historic, unprecedented level of fraud in our state and in the country."
The hearing did not take place in a vacuum. That same Tuesday, federal authorities executed raids across Minneapolis targeting nearly two dozen facilities, including daycare centers and autism service providers, suspected of defrauding public assistance programs, Newsmax reported. The federal government said it directed and orchestrated the raids. Walz faced criticism over those operations, including from FBI Director Kash Patel.
So on the very day federal agents were raiding alleged fraud sites in his state, the governor declined to sit before his own legislature's oversight committee and explain how billions in taxpayer money could have been stolen on his watch.
Robbins did not hide her frustration. She told Fox News Digital plainly:
"The only reason he testified in D.C. is because he was under subpoena. And, you know, he doesn't have to come to our committee. I expected him to. I really did, because Minnesotans are owed an explanation of how billions of our tax dollars could be stolen on his watch."
The contrast is worth sitting with. When compelled by federal subpoena, Walz showed up. When asked politely by his own state legislature, with more than a month's notice, he ghosted them until the last minute and then stayed away.
Robbins posted on X after the hearing with a blunt summary: "He was in the building!" The committee had been seeking answers about Minnesota's sprawling fraud scandal, which has centered on taxpayer-funded childcare programs and related social services. The scale of the losses has drawn calls for an impeachment investigation, though Minnesota Democrats have blocked those efforts.
Hours after skipping the hearing, Walz stepped to the podium in the same Capitol building to deliver his final State of the State address. He used part of the speech to tout his administration's anti-fraud record.
"We've created additional checks and balances," Walz told the audience. He continued:
"We've brought on more investigators, more auditors, more law enforcement agencies, as well as an outside firm to take a look at high-risk programs. People who have ripped us off are getting caught and they are going to jail, just like today."
That last phrase, "just like today", appeared to reference the federal raids carried out across Minneapolis earlier that day. But the federal government said it directed those raids, not the state. Walz's attempt to claim credit for federal enforcement actions his administration did not lead has drawn sharp pushback.
Walz also claimed during the address that red states have more fraud than blue states and suggested the legislature needed to do more to adopt his proposal to fight fraud. Robbins dismissed the speech as deflection. She said Walz "somewhat said, 'Oh the buck stops with me,' but then he immediately pivoted to blame everyone else."
She described his proposed reforms as "nothing but create more bureaucracy" and offered a pointed assessment of his credibility:
"He can keep gaslighting people but nobody buys it anymore."
Walz is not the only prominent Minnesota Democrat avoiding the committee. Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., failed to appear before the same panel earlier this month. The committee had sought to question Omar over her ties to individuals and locations implicated in the Feeding Our Future fraud scandal in Minnesota.
Robbins sent Omar a letter demanding answers to a variety of questions, with a deadline of May 5. As of Tuesday, the committee had not heard back from Omar's office. Both Walz and Omar have faced sustained criticism over their handling of the fraud scandal and their connections to it.
Robbins was candid about her expectations:
"They do have till May 5, so I'm hoping they will. But, you know, they ghosted us all the way up to the hearing, so I don't know if they will respond."
A pattern is forming. The committee invites. Democrats decline. The taxpayers wait.
Robbins, who is currently running for Minnesota governor, framed the stakes in terms that go beyond partisan jockeying. She told Fox News Digital that the committee's work is not about legislative turf. It is about representing the people who paid the bills.
"But again, this isn't just because we're the legislature, it's because we are representing the taxpayers who deserve answers from their public officials. And the fact that they don't deign to come and answer questions on the record and just think that they can be above it all, it's really an affront to Minnesotans."
Fox News Digital reached out to Walz's office for comment. The source did not indicate whether the governor's office responded.
The broader picture is damning enough on its own. A governor who had weeks of notice. A committee that offered scheduling flexibility. A last-minute cancellation the night before. A governor physically present in the building on the day of the hearing. And then a primetime speech in which that same governor told the public he was cracking down on fraud, while declining to answer questions about it under oath or on the record from the legislature's own oversight body.
Robbins summarized the situation with two words she called indefensible. She said she "cannot defend his arrogance that he would not come and answer questions for the historic, unprecedented level of fraud in our state and in the country." The governor, she added, "just feels above it all and doesn't need to answer to the people of Minnesota."
This is the same Tim Walz who has found time to travel abroad for progressive summits and launched a political action committee that drew backlash from the very communities it claimed to represent. The question is not whether Walz is busy. The question is what he considers worth showing up for.
Robbins described the hearing she ran on Tuesday as "serious." She said the committee was seeking more answers in the fraud scandal. She said Minnesotans deserve an explanation. And she noted that this has been going on for years without resolution.
Public officials who preside over billions in alleged fraud do not get to pick and choose when they face questions. They do not get to skip the hearing, walk past the committee room, and then give a speech claiming credit for someone else's enforcement work.
If Tim Walz will only answer questions when a federal subpoena forces him to, that tells Minnesota everything it needs to know about his idea of accountability.
