Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent didn’t bother with politeness when he called Minnesota Governor Tim Walz a coward during an interview with Christopher Rufo, bluntly accusing him of refusing to guarantee police protection for a planned visit to the State Capitol. The outburst came after Walz tried to sidestep accountability as federal investigators closed in on an industrial-scale welfare fraud operation in his state, and it was exactly the kind of unapologetic response Americans tired of soft leadership deserve.
This isn’t theater — the Treasury and its agencies have opened serious probes into social benefits fraud in Minnesota, with FinCEN issuing geographic targeting and the IRS auditing banks over suspicious transfers tied to billions of dollars in alleged diversion. When federal agencies say they’re going to chase down illicit money flows, they mean business, and it’s past time state officials stop playing politics and start cooperating.
The political fallout is already real: Walz abruptly abandoned his re-election bid amid mounting pressure and sinking approval ratings, and voters should see this as a wake-up call about the consequences of running a permissive, finger-in-the-wind approach to governance. Democrats who spent years preaching competence now find themselves answering for a scandal that threatens public safety and the integrity of federal aid.
Worse still, investigators are following money that may have been wired overseas through unregulated money service businesses, including transfers into and out of Somali networks — a national security red flag that no governor should treat lightly or try to deflect. The idea that huge sums meant for vulnerable children and families could be siphoned off and routed abroad ought to unite every American against the bureaucratic softness that allowed it.
If local prosecutors and mainstream outlets won’t do their jobs, federal officials and independent journalists will — and good. Honest reporting by grassroots investigators exposed troubling examples of misspent funds, and when the press ignores abuse, it’s citizens and federal watchdogs who must fill the gap. The feigned outrage from the left over federal involvement rings hollow when their own allies were asleep at the wheel while fraud blossomed.
Americans deserve leaders who defend taxpayers, secure borders, and prosecute wrongdoing without regard for political connections; Scott Bessent’s hard line is what accountability looks like. If Washington follows through with prosecutions and stronger reporting requirements, this scandal can become the turning point that restores fiscal responsibility and law and order in states where lax oversight allowed theft on an industrial scale.
