The Daily Signal - Victor Davis Hanson: COVID-19-Era Grants Show How Identity Politics Can Shield Corruption

Episode Date: December 10, 2025

There’s a big discussion taking place in this country about immigration, and “one of the themes has been whether a person came legally or illegally,” and what their attitude toward the country they came to is. A U.S. federal attorney recently uncovered fraud occurring in Minnesota where fraudsters in the Somali community there stole billions of dollars from American taxpayers over a period of years, and the state government did nothing to stop it. “ There were a variety of state and local laws that were violated, but there were no prosecutions. Gov. Walz cannot explain why the feds had to step in and why he never even investigated this until the media and the Trump administration drew his attention to it. [Minnesota Attorney General] Keith Ellison allegedly has talked about expecting campaign contributions from the Somali community in some kind of quid pro quo fashion,” argues Victor Davis Hanson on today’s edition of “Victor Davis Hanson: In a Few Words:” 00:00 COVID-19 Fraud in Minnesota's Somali Community 01:01 Immigration and Gratitude Debate 04:07 Ilhan Omar's Controversial Actions 06:38 Financial Discrepancies and Allegations 07:48 Concluding Thoughts on Immigration and Gratitude 👉Don’t miss out on Victor’s latest short videos by subscribing to The Daily Signal today. You’ll be notified every time a new piece of content drops: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/dailysignal?sub_confirmation=1⁠  Also on Spotify: https://megaphone.link/THEDAILYSIGNAL9753340027  👉Want more VDH? Watch Victor’s weekly, hour-long podcast, “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words,” now! Subscribe to his YouTube channel, and enable notifications:  https://www.youtube.com/@victordavishanson7273?sub_confirmation=1 👉More exclusive content is available on Victor’s website: https://victorhanson.com 👉The Daily Signal cannot continue to tell stories, like this one, without the support of our viewers: ⁠https://secured.dailysignal.com/⁠  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In Minnesota, during the COVID years, the Somali community got a billion dollars or a multi-billion dollar grants. We don't really know the depth of this scandal, supposedly to supply food and meals and even in some cases health services to people who were impacted negatively by COVID. And apparently under the nose of Governor Tim Waltz, under the nose of the Attorney General Keith Ellison, under the nose of the point person, for the Somali community, Representative Ilyan Omar and the Minnesota Congresswoman, this fraud went on and on and on. But what's interesting is nobody who was a political representative in the Somali community ever bothered to see what they were actually doing. Hello, this is Victor Davis Hansen for the Daily Sources.

signal. We're having a big discussion in this country about immigration, both legal and illegal. And one of the themes has been whether a person came legally or illegally, what was their attitude about the country they came to? And did they show appreciation or gratitude? And that could be defined as obeying our laws or professing a love for this country, aside for showing gratitude by becoming legal. And this came up in a variety of context. We had a great number of licenses here in California, 17,000 that were issued to people who were illegally in the United States, and they weren't even residents of California. We had a lot of drunk driving incidents and violence, murders from people who came across the border. In the south, we had people on

campus from the Middle East who were overtly expressing support for Hamas, Hezbollah, anti-Semitic sloganeering. And most importantly, in Minnesota, during the COVID years, the Somali community got a billion dollars or a multi-billion dollar grants. We don't really know the depth of this scandal, supposedly to supply food and meals, and even in some cases, health services to indigent people or people who were impacted negatively by COVID. And apparently, under the nose of Governor Tim Walts, under the nose of the Attorney General Keith Ellison, under the nose of the point person for the Somali community, Representative Ilya Omar and the Minnesota Congresswoman, this fraud went on.

on and on and on. And it was only due to a federal attorney who uncovered it because it was a matter of many, much of it was a federal matter because the funds came from Washington and there had been indictments and they're still occurring. But what's interesting is nobody in the Somali community who was a political representative or supposedly told us what a great community this was ever bothered to see

what they were actually doing. There were a variety of state and local laws that were violated, but there were no prosecutions. Governor Walts cannot explain why the feds had to step in and why he never even investigated this until the media and the Trump administration drew his attention to it. Keith Ellison allegedly has talked about expecting campaign contributions from the Somali community in some kind of quid quo, quid pro quo fashion. Ilyan Omar is on a video where she points to one of the restaurants in question allegedly for serving these fraudulent, I shouldn't say serving, not even serving the meals at all.

But this opened a larger question. Shouldn't you if you were a immigrant and you came to the United States from a war-torn, impoverished, and dangerous place like Somalia, shouldn't you express gratitude? You know, Omar came here to take one example. and she's the most prominent example of this controversy right now. She came here at 13, and she was given every benefit of being a U.S. resident and then a U.S. citizen. She was given a generous scholarship to go to college. She was elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives.

She was elected to Congress. I think she's a four-term congresswoman. She insisted, even though she was American citizen, to wear the traditional Somali hijab, even though there was a rule in the house, an old rule that people don't wear headwear or gear or hats inside the Capitol chambers when Congress is in session. They made a special exception just for her.

But I mention this because she has a long line of, indiscretions, and they form a pattern. She said that the United States was a trashy country. She said that the dictatorship in America, i.e. the Trump administration, was not much different from the one that she left in Somalia. She said that Charlie Kirk was, right after his death, it was a scholastic terrorist. I don't know if that means a random terrorist or just an incidental terrorist or habitual terrorist. but that was a terrible thing to say right after his death. She also said that it's the Benjamin's baby when she was making the argument that, as she put it, we in the Congress don't have to have an allegiance to a foreign country

and implying that Jewish members put Israel ahead of the United States. So she's been part of the squad, and she's had to apologize for some of her anti-Semitic rhetoric. She's expressed overt criticism of the country that befriended her and allowed her to have to be educated, mostly at public cost, to be a representative of Congress to write a book with a major New York publisher. She's also, she put on one of her financial disclosers that she almost had a zero net worth. Now, after her marriage to Tim Manette, who seems to have made quite a lot of money through his association with politicians, she now says that her and her financial disclosure that their net worth may be as great as

$30 million. $30 million. There's also an accusation that allegedly, allegedly that she may have formalistically married her brother to ease his citizenship application, and then that marriage was legal and then it was dissolved as she married again, and we don't know what that's true. But one thing we do know it's true, she's never said under oath, I didn't do that. I did not do that, I swear under oath that I did never marry my brother, and this is the proof. So at least we don't have a testimony of that. She may have said it informally, but I don't think in a court of law she said that. My point is that in this greater discussion about the fraud that goes on in Minnesota

and our worry about immigrants on campus behind the wheel of a semi-truck administering a fraudulent food program coming across the southern border and then committing acts of violence, maybe just maybe we should ask of our immigrants a little gratitude that they left and voted with their feet to come the United States. And in this whole nexus, Ilyan Omar stands out as a person for two reasons as an immigrant example. This country has lavish no more benefits on anyone than her. Every imaginable opportunity was extended to her. And yet, in reciprocity for that, she's attacked the President of the United States.

She suggested that the country was trashy. She said that Charlie Kirk was a terrorist. She said 9-11. She said something happened on that day. Something happened. No, not something happened. Three thousand Americans were murdered. And now she mysteriously is a multi-multimillionaire. And we still don't know how the entire story of how citizenship was obtained from her brother and whether, as some people charge, she actually married him, which would be immigration fraud. And so Ilyan Omar is an example of what's wrong with legal and illegal immigration, that we allow people from countries that are, I don't want to use the word third world, but are in chaos and tumult. They come as refugees. They're extended every benefit, and very soon they realize that their advance or their success politically hinges on the degree to which they express themselves as victims or as hard leftist or as ingrates. And she's done all of that, and it's no surprise that she's very prominent among the hard left politicians, and she's a quite wealthy woman.

Thank you very much. It's Victor Davis-Hanson for the Daily Signal. Thank you for tuning in to The Daily Signal. and subscribe to be notified for more content like this. You can also check out my own website at victorhansen.com and subscribe for exclusive features in addition.