Mike Allen Saturday Mid-Day -- 12/20/25

Mike Allen rants about the latest news and takes your calls. Kevin Burton discusses political races and issues impacting voters across the country. Janice Hisle joins the show.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, Alan, and Saturday midday on another cold Saturday morning.
I'll tell you what this was one of those weeks
where it's like, Wow, what do I talk about?

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Where do I begin? So much going on.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
I'll tell you a lot of stories, but the one
that I want to follow and keep following closely is
the unfolding fraud in the state of Minnesota.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
And it just gets bigger and bigger and bigger by
the day.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
It's just amazing to me how this could go on
and nobody. You'd want to say nobody knows about it,
but they do, but nobody does anything about it. Along
those lines, eleven o'clock, we're going to be talking to
our friend Janis Heisel of the Epoch Times. Janis is
on the ground there. She filed no less than I
believe it's five separate stories this week about it, and

(00:53):
we will be talking to Janis at eleven o'clock about it.
It's just it's really unbelievable. It grows by the day.
As I said, it's now up to as I understand it,
eight about eight billion dollars. And this is not just
from one or two programs, but numerous benefit programs, which

(01:17):
of course you know where the dough comes from. That
doesn't grow on trees. It comes out of your and
my pocket. The Department of Labor is involved now. They're
sending investigators out. They call them strike teams, and I
guess there's a suspicion that there's some hanky panky and
monkey business going on with unemployment funds.

Speaker 2 (01:40):
So they're on the ground out there.

Speaker 1 (01:42):
The Department of Education, Lenna McMahon is on top of
it as well as all federal agencies are because this
thing is just unprecedented.

Speaker 2 (01:52):
But never fear though.

Speaker 1 (01:54):
I guess it's all just a big reaction because this
week Governor Tampon Tim Waugh has named a new.

Speaker 2 (02:02):
Anti fraud czar.

Speaker 1 (02:05):
I think you're just a little bit late on the
draw there, Governor. This person is now the new quote
Director of Program Integrity close quote Again, probably could have
used him about ten years ago. The IRS is not
now involved as well. They're looking into the money that

(02:26):
is going to al Shabab, which of course is a
terrorist group. Boy, when the IRS gets their hooks into you,
look out. Small Business Administration involved as well. They're looking
at who got small business loans and why. The House
Oversight Committee, thank goodness. They are now involved as well,

(02:50):
and it's kind of specific at this point. They're looking
into whether Governor Waltz and Attorney General Keith Ellison, and
you may recall I will remind you every time I
have to utter his name that he is a good friend,
very good friend of none other than lovable Louis Farrakhon,

(03:11):
who arguably is the biggest anti Semite in the history
of this country.

Speaker 2 (03:16):
Their buddy buddies. At any rate.

Speaker 1 (03:19):
The House Oversight Committee is going to look into whether
Governor Waltz and Attorney General Ellison ignored fraud reports from whistleblowers.
I think that's an easy one to answer.

Speaker 2 (03:31):
You know, they did.

Speaker 1 (03:33):
But I'll tell you what, when that committee gets their
hooks into you, they're going to find some things out.
The question is, what, if anything, can they do about it?
And there is some good news coming out of Minnesota
Operation Metro Surge from ICE. They have snared more than
four hundred illegal alliens since December, the first in the

(03:55):
state of Minnesota. So obviously that's a good thing. You know.
The thing is this is so screwed up, and Janis
is going to talk about this. They actually found a
person who was already indicted. And I think there were
seven indictments for fraud this week. We're going to talk
about those in a minute. But anyway, they found a

(04:17):
person who was already indicted for this fraud but is
still receiving payments.

Speaker 2 (04:23):
From the state.

Speaker 1 (04:24):
Of course it's federal money, but the payments go through
the state, still receiving some money from another fraudulent program.
You can't write this stuff up. I mean, you can't
make it up. You just can't. And again, with respect
to those new indictments, according to AI, which I have
found to be accurate, on Thursday, this Thursday, December eighteenth,

(04:48):
federal prosecutors unsealed new indictments against six additional individuals in
Minnesota as part of an expanding probe into multi million dollars,
in this case medicaid fraud. And this is if it
weren't so sad, it would be funny. A new term
has been coined as a result of this stuff. And

(05:12):
that term, and you know, I look at this stuff,
I keep up with it. I'm seeing it. With respect
to the story, the term is fraud tourists. Fraud tourists.
They are people that apparently there's quite a few of
them who traveled to Minnesota specifically to exploit these state
funded social service programs fraud tourists. So again, thank you Democrats,

(05:36):
Thank you tampon, Tim Keith Ellison for that fraud tourist. Okay,
here's the new programs that are getting scrutiny and where
the indictments came out of Housing Stabilization Services HHS fraud.
Five individuals assign And let me just say from the beginning,
if I mispronounce these words, I could care less these names.

(05:58):
Hassan Ahmad, who said Ahmad abadibidab Mohammad, Kamil, Omar Salah, Anthony, Well,
here we go, some normal ones, Anthony Waddell, Jefferson and
Lester Brown. They're all charged with the frauding programs that
provide housing assistance for people with disabilities and mental illness.
So I mean, if you're going to screw somebody, I

(06:20):
guess in their warped mind, these kind of people, these
vulnerable people are okay to screw. Well anyway, our buddies
Hussein and Mohammed and you know, by the way, and
I'll probably catch some crap for this.

Speaker 2 (06:35):
I don't care.

Speaker 1 (06:36):
You know, wasn't it to deal with originally with people
coming into our country, citizens coming into Ellis Island, that
not all of them, not all of them, but many
of them americanized their names. Well, you don't see any
of that anymore. It's obvious, just throwing that out there anyway,

(06:56):
Hussein to Mohammed, they are the owners of Pristine Health LLC.
They allegedly used seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars in
stolen Medicaid funds for extensive international travel that you and
I are paying for. Jefferson and Brow reportedly moved to
Minnesota after being told the state's programs were a quote

(07:19):
good opportunity to make money.

Speaker 2 (07:21):
You know, there's your fraud tourist submitting up.

Speaker 1 (07:24):
To three point five million in false bills despite having
no network in the local community. And we learned about
this one last week. The autism program fraud abadibidab Hassan
was indicted for allegedly registering a company to channel state
resources intended for families of children with autism. Isn't that great?

(07:49):
Let's screw those people over. He is accused of stealing
it its only six million and using a portion of
the funds to purchase are you ready, not a luxury vehicle,
but a semi truck. Now you know what I could
see where you would probably need a semi to fight autism.
Of course, I say that very tongue in cheek. Allegations

(08:14):
of terrorists funding federal authorities. As I said before, are
investigating claims that a portion of these defrauded tax dollars,
your dollars, my dollars may have been diverted to the
terrorist organization Al Shabab in are you ready Somalia? So again,
just another word about these fraud tourists. They travel to

(08:36):
Minnesota after a friend told them that state programs were
again quote, a good opportunity to make some money. That's
what the prosecutors say. That's what they are alleging. They
are saying that Minnesota has become a magnet for fraud,
so much so that we have developed a fraud tourism industry. So,

(09:00):
like I said, it's hard to imagine this getting any worse,
but it probably will. Okay, Now at this point you're
probably asking yourself, how could this have happened? Why didn't
someone do something about it? Well, you know, I think

(09:20):
I have at least a partial answer to that, and
I'm going to talk about an article that appeared on
Fox on the website, not I don't think it was
on TV, but on the website. And I just want
to read a few passages from me because it answers
the question how could this have happened? And why didn't

(09:41):
somebody do something about it? Okay, it's by Andrew Miller,
and it's entitled how fears of being labeled racist help
provide cover for the exploding Minnesota fraud scandal. I really
probably don't have to read anymore just from that headline,
but I will. Aftermath of the massive Feeding our Future

(10:03):
scandal and broader allegations of systemic fraud in Minnesota's social programs,
a troubling theme has emerged. Accusations of racism repeatedly used
to deflect scrutiny, intimidate investigators, install accountability rumors, and reports

(10:23):
of fraud in Minneapolis, primarily within the cities exploding Somali community. Now,
I gotta be careful about about saying that. You really
got to be careful, you know, you just you're not
allowed to do that, because not all of them are
doing this stuff, only about ninety percent of them, I guess.

(10:43):
But he just that's something that they've been beating a
drum on anyway, primarily within the cities. Exploding Somali community
have been circulating at least for a decade, but criticism
of the fraud has been largely dis missed by elected Democrats.
Two wit tampon tim as racist or being underpinned by

(11:09):
animosity towards foreigners. News stories focused on Somali fraudsters in
recent years were shot down as racist. So you wonder
why nobody's done anything about it. I think, at least
in part that is Your answer goes on to say
the whole story kind of died under these accusations that

(11:31):
people were being called racist. This guy named Bill Glen,
he's a policy fellow with the Center of the American Experience.
He told Fox News quote, Oh, maybe somebody stole a
little bit here, a little bit there, but there's nothing
systemic going on close quote.

Speaker 2 (11:48):
I don't know if he said that tongue in cheek
or not.

Speaker 1 (11:51):
Former US Assistant Attorney Assistant US Attorney Joe Tarab, who
helped take on federal prosecutors in the Eating Few Future
case that was the first one they found out about,
described to Fox News digital how individuals implicated in the
fraud leaned on racial accusations as a shield.

Speaker 2 (12:12):
Listen to this.

Speaker 1 (12:13):
According to to read, suspects explicitly invoked race during a
sleep secretly recorded meeting with none other than a dear
friend of lovable Louis fair con Attorney General Keith Ellison,
asserting that investigators were targeting them only because of their race. Well,

(12:36):
there you have it, folks, once again, once again, the
American citizens and taxpayers come last. You just throw these
idiotic accusations out there, and let's just see where it
goes from there.

Speaker 2 (12:52):
You know, it's just disgusting.

Speaker 1 (12:55):
Well, you know, again there's your answer as to how
this could have happened and nobody did anything about it.

Speaker 2 (13:02):
You look at the players.

Speaker 1 (13:03):
Tim Waltz, what a buffoon of the highest degree. You're
gonna tell me that he's governor of this state and
he doesn't know this crap's going on. Please the attorney general,
he doesn't know what's going on. I mean, there's just
no way that that can be. And like I said,

(13:27):
once again, the American taxpayers, you and I we take
it on the chin a big time.

Speaker 2 (13:34):
And again you're gonna hear this over and over.

Speaker 1 (13:36):
I think we're only scratching the surface so far at
the six to eight billion. I'm gonna talk to Janis
about that and ask her her thoughts. Here's an example.
I just want to give you a practical example of
what's driving this stuff. Okay, this week, when a reporter
asked Governor Waltz if he wanted the Somali community to

(13:58):
step up and take some ownership of this problem. Can
you imagine that being held accountable take ownership? Anyway, when
they ask him about that, here's what he said, and
I'm quoting him, Governor Waltz tampon, Tim, Look, it's not
law abiding citizens. If that were the case, there's a

(14:19):
lot of white men. Should be holding a lot of
white men accountable for the crimes that they have committed.
He goes on to say, I think for the community
to maybe educate their population, because I think what you're
seeing here is there's secondary victims in this that there's

(14:41):
providers inside the community that are then victimizing the community
themselves by signing up. Because when you're going when you're
going to some of the some of these people they're
like this is amazing. They're like I had no idea.
I was in this program, so I think it's asking

(15:03):
this then, you know, for every crime, which of course
the majority being committed, the majority are being committed by
white men, asking us to do more about that, I
think it's crime in general. Folks there, It is the
typical liberal solution when they don't have a legitimate answer

(15:27):
for anything.

Speaker 2 (15:28):
Two things, scream racism, blame white men.

Speaker 1 (15:33):
I can't believe this buffoon actually said that.

Speaker 2 (15:40):
You see, you know, white men are.

Speaker 1 (15:42):
The punching bag for just about everything, it seems like
these days. You know, I want to look at the
cast of characters involved in this, but we don't have
time to do it now, but maybe sometime later in
the show. But it's you got your il han omar
as I said Keith Ellis, and boy there's some other
shady characters and we're going to take a look at them.

(16:04):
But for now, hey, you know, that's what I think.
I want to know what you think. Seven four nine,
seven thousand, eight hundred The big one are the numbers.
Mike Allen Saturday, Mind Now, nine thirty nine, News Radio
seven hundred WLW.

Speaker 2 (16:20):
Mike Allen Saturday.

Speaker 1 (16:21):
Midday talking about the growing and unfolding scandals plural in
the state of Minnesota where they're doling out your taxpayer
dollars because again most of it's federal to just about
anyone for just about anything. Hey, I'm going to get
to the calls here in just a minute. By the way,

(16:43):
open lines of course, from nine thirty to ten, also
this morning from ten till ten thirty and eleven thirty
to noon, so lots of time to talk today if
you would like to do that. Seven four nine, seven thousand, one,
eight hundred, the big one are the just for a
minute or so here, I wanted to give you an

(17:03):
idea to cast the characters involved in this. And again
this is just a small part of the fraud. These
people have been identified so far. These are mainly, as
I understand it, from the Feeding our Future program alleged
program where all these meals for kids were supposed to

(17:24):
be prepared and given to the kids. Apparently almost none were.
And then another particularly onerous one is the Kid's Autism
Program or the purpose of it was to help kids
with autism, but again it was just a front for theft. Okay,

(17:45):
with respect to those two programs, you got a guy
named Salim Ahmed said, he's the former owner of a
popular restaurant. I think it's called Safari Restaurant. Okay, well
if you look at it, then you take Ilhan Omar.

Speaker 2 (18:03):
We all know about her and who she is.

Speaker 1 (18:05):
She held her twenty eighteen congressional victory party at are
you ready the Safari Restaurant, and she has appeared with
mister Salim Ahmad said at numerous political and civil events.
Now does that necessarily mean that Ilhan omer Omar has

(18:25):
her hand in the cookie jar? No, it does not,
but I think it's appropriate and there's nothing wrong with
pointing things like that out.

Speaker 2 (18:35):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (18:37):
Then you have a person by the name of Hadji
Asman Salad. He claimed to be a vendor for more
than are you ready fifteen million dollars of meals delivered
next to none, next to none, fifteen million. There have
been some good meals.

Speaker 3 (18:55):
Oh.

Speaker 1 (18:55):
Then let's see a guy named Abazi beizuz Od Shafari
Farrah that a little bit of a part of this thing.
His company allegedly stole more than forty seven million bucks.

Speaker 2 (19:09):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (19:10):
Then you go to Gandhi Yusef Mohammad oh he donated
to Keith Allison, Attorney General, Keith Ellison, friend of Louis Farrakhan,
Keith Ellison's reelection campaign. Hey, he was charged with laundering
about one point one million bucks. Then you go to
an individual by the name of Lebon Ali Shier donated

(19:35):
again to Keith Ellison's campaign. He was charged in the
Meal program scheme. Then of course you got Keith Ellison.
He took donations, as I just said, from Gandhi and
Lebon And again, does that mean that because he took
money from them for his campaign that he did anything illegal.

(19:57):
I think he can argue it's damn improper, but no,
it does not. But again, I think it's appropriate and
I think it's helpful to point those things out. Just
another couple of things here I can get to real quick,
but I think they're important. This two hundred and fifty
million dollar fraud scheme that I was just talking about,
where the funds were meant to go to, what they

(20:20):
were meant to do. Okay, feeding our Kids program, that's
the main one it was supposed to help. It was
supposed to help recovering addicts find a place to live.
We talked about that last week. A hell of a good,
noble cause, but again next to nothing was spent on that. Also,

(20:41):
the funds were supposed to help disabled adults live independently,
again another good cause. And it was supposed to go
to help one on one therapy for and this is
particularly disgusting autistic children. And I think it's probably about
zero dollars. When to that, Now where the funds did

(21:03):
actually go wire transfers to China and East Africa. Read
into that, whatever you want. They actually went to funding
a villa of money for a villa in the Maldives,
first class plane tickets to Istanbul and Amsterdam read into

(21:24):
that whatever you want. Also, stacks of cash apparently was
texted between defendants.

Speaker 2 (21:31):
That's the allegation.

Speaker 1 (21:33):
The funds went to luxury cars, lakefront property in Minnesota,
and designer jewelry. Well, there you have it, folks, there's
your tax dollars at work. And this is exactly exactly
what happens when you put liberals in charge of money.

(21:55):
This scene is not a new one. The extent of
it is probably new, but not the facts of what happened. Really, Okay,
let's go to the phones. Let's stop with start with
kurt in Madisonville. He wants me to be careful with exploiting. Kurt,
how you doing?

Speaker 4 (22:14):
Hey more, Mike, how are you?

Speaker 2 (22:16):
Jude?

Speaker 4 (22:17):
Yeah, so you need to be very very careful with
the language that you're using.

Speaker 2 (22:22):
Okay, you're talking about tell me.

Speaker 4 (22:24):
What exploding Somali populations. That's a real possibility.

Speaker 5 (22:30):
I think.

Speaker 3 (22:31):
Okay, well, let.

Speaker 2 (22:32):
Me stop you there.

Speaker 1 (22:33):
Obviously I didn't mean detonating explosives for them, you know,
I know, Okay.

Speaker 4 (22:40):
I know, I'm just I'm just giving you.

Speaker 2 (22:42):
A hard go ahead. That's fine.

Speaker 4 (22:45):
But honestly, this entire Minnesota thing is just it's how
much more of it is going on and where Kurt everywhere? Yeah,
we gotta get rid of these people. I mean, I'm sorry,
we just we every last one of them that came over.
We got to get rid of these people and take

(23:08):
this country.

Speaker 1 (23:09):
Back exactly exactly as far as getting rid of them,
we have to do. We have to do that within
you know what the laws says that we can do.

Speaker 4 (23:17):
But I think I'm not I'm not suggesting that we
go out, you know, And I get that, I get
that saying we need we need to send them back where.

Speaker 6 (23:28):
They came from.

Speaker 1 (23:28):
You know, and the other thing too. And I've already
gotten some crap on this one, you know. Uh tampon
Tim said, well, you know, these white males, if it
were that, it would be different.

Speaker 2 (23:38):
Blah blah blah.

Speaker 1 (23:39):
I read something and I'm gonna I think it was
one of Janis Heisel's articles.

Speaker 2 (23:43):
I'm gonna ask her.

Speaker 1 (23:44):
It's like, she's great, very good, very good, thank you
for I'll pass that on to her. Uh, it's ninety
something percent of the people indicted are of Somalian background.
I mean, why aren't you allowed to say that? Why
are these people in our country? I don't I'm gonna

(24:05):
say that until the damn cows come home.

Speaker 4 (24:08):
Yeah. I couldn't agree more. Yeah, I mean, but until
you know, we we we just got to get rid
of them. We need to start deporting all these their
their interlopers. They are just here just feeding off of us.

Speaker 2 (24:30):
Of us.

Speaker 1 (24:31):
And you know, it's been pretty well thick of it,
pretty well documented. Uh so far at least that you know,
people scratch their heads like you and I say, how
could this have happened and nobody knew and or did
anything about it?

Speaker 2 (24:46):
Well, it's the accusations of racism.

Speaker 1 (24:49):
Let's just throw and then you know, guys like Tampon,
Tim and Ellison, they go cower in their corner. Oh,
we can't do anything about that. And with respect to
Ellison and probably Waltz too, they probably got campaign dough
from them. So look, I think we're only at the
beginning of this thing, Kurt. But I appreciate the call.
I appreciate the tongue in cheek nature of what you said, too.

Speaker 2 (25:12):
I really do well.

Speaker 4 (25:14):
Like I said, be careful when you start talking about
exploding small.

Speaker 1 (25:17):
I hear you, buddy, hear you, thank you? Okay, thanks, Yeah,
you know. And guess, in a way, he's right. You
do have to watch what you say. But I ain't
holding back and I don't care. I could care less
if some live out there and say, oh, he's saying this,
he's mispronouncing their names.

Speaker 2 (25:39):
Guess what, I don't care. Like so many Americans, I'm
sick of it.

Speaker 1 (25:47):
Why should we the taxpayers have to fund this and
put up with it? You know, Ellison and mainly uh
Governor Waltz, they should resign immediately. And they I don't know,
there's a federal criminal charge for just about everything, and
negligence can be It frequently is not, it's rare, but

(26:12):
negligence can be the basis of a criminal charge. I
think this is at least negligence, and probably much much
more than that. And again, what are we like three
weeks into this thing. It's just gonna keep getting worse
and worse. And it's a shame with all the legitimate
needs that we have. And you know, I just read

(26:33):
to some of them. I mean, kids with autism. You're
gonna screw parents of kids with autism, you to take
money away from them. It's just again, it would be
hard to write a worse script than it truly is. Hey,
let's talk to Fred down in Saint Petersburg. Hey, Fred, how.

Speaker 2 (26:53):
Are you doing.

Speaker 7 (26:54):
I'm doing fine. Uh you mentioned the Safari restaurant. Yeah,
about eight six, eight months ago, there was a guy
testified in court on one of these cases and they
brought up the Safari restaurant. He said, well, you can't
do anything, you can't run for political office or anything
without going through the Safari restaurant that was in court.

Speaker 8 (27:14):
Yeah, and uh so it's it was it's like the mob.
You know, mobs Havealian restaurants, you know, what I mean. Also,
and that Wall statement, you know that he's a racist,
you're in simple and another thing. Uh uh, they're gonna
go after all the money. And I'd be curious to

(27:34):
find out how much money went through some of these
d md W dealers. You mentioned fancy cars and the
Mercedes dealers.

Speaker 7 (27:42):
I'd love to be a salesman up there for a while.
But also there was a guy who was said he
was going to buy a bunch of land around Oak
Grove north of Minneapolis, and he was selling plots and
said he was going to build a bunch of houses.
And uh so this guy and he scammed everybody. And
he was a Somali or Muslim. I don't know if

(28:05):
it's Somali, but he's Muslim and it was going to
be a pure Muslim community, and he was scamming the
scammers because they were spending money, you know, like water.
And also, uh, I think they ought to look into
some of the major newspapers up there's a number of newspapers,
but those newspapers haven't been followed. They are now, but

(28:27):
for years other people have known about this, and the
newspapers weren't doing a damn thing about it. We weren't
talking about it, so they're getting their cut and uh
the uh, well, you know what I mean. I mean,
it's just, uh, I can't.

Speaker 8 (28:45):
Wait to see this open up.

Speaker 7 (28:46):
Man, It's going to be golden.

Speaker 2 (28:48):
It's unbelievable when you think about it.

Speaker 1 (28:50):
And you know, the point that you just made with
respect to reporters is very well taken.

Speaker 2 (28:55):
I've read so much about this this week.

Speaker 1 (28:57):
I'm flipping through my notes and paint here trying to
find it. There was some report where they looked at
exactly the lack of media coverage and it's the same
damn thing. These reporters, these editors, they weren't gonna touch
this because of they would be labeled as racist.

Speaker 2 (29:18):
That's crap.

Speaker 1 (29:19):
You know, these media outlets need to investigate this, and
I know one that has, and that's the Epoch Times.
I think, based on what I've seen, they're leading a
pack on this, and it's just a mess. I think
this time next year, honestly, Fred will still be talking
about it.

Speaker 6 (29:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (29:38):
There's a guy up there too. His name is Joe Souchera.
He runs a car right to call him up there. Yeah,
he's been following this for years he's been talking about
this for years. Yep, and you know, so it's it's
gonna be wild. I hope they and I hope they
traced a lot of this money down and so the
taxpayers can get get a break at least. I mean,

(30:00):
oh my goodness.

Speaker 9 (30:00):
Well yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (30:01):
One thing they can do.

Speaker 1 (30:03):
One of these dudes that was involved in the UH
I think it was the autism program goes out and
buys a semi tractor trailer. Maybe we can get that back,
you know, I mean, it's just a joke.

Speaker 7 (30:13):
When you said that, I hadn't heard about that. I
was thinking of what could they possibly use that for?

Speaker 8 (30:19):
Man, It's just you know, well, I take sure it
wasn't legal.

Speaker 1 (30:23):
I got to take a break for the news, Fred,
But I do have one, wait, wait, one last question.

Speaker 2 (30:28):
What is the weather today in Saint Petersburg.

Speaker 7 (30:32):
It's beautiful, man, sunshine.

Speaker 8 (30:34):
It's I think it's around sixty somethings. Oh maybe the seventy.
We're used to it, though, I.

Speaker 1 (30:40):
Don't us brother appreciate it. Thanks, bye, Okay, thanks Fred Man.
I'll tell you what I could definitely do with some
of that weather. Hey, we do have to take a
break for the news. But when we get back again,
open lines seven four nine, seven thousand, one, eight hundred.
The big one are the numbers. Mike Allen Saturday Midday

(31:00):
seven hundred WLW Mike Gallon an hour or two of
Saturday Midday.

Speaker 2 (31:06):
I'll tell you what people.

Speaker 1 (31:09):
Want to talk about this whole situation in Minnesota.

Speaker 2 (31:13):
People are not happy about it at all.

Speaker 1 (31:16):
A lot of questions today and a lot of questions
from Jump and I'm going to get to the phones
here in just a second about why people didn't know
about this and why the media didn't cover it. They're
covering it now because they have to. But just playing
around here, a Fox News article talking about a group

(31:37):
called NewsBusters. They're great, they're a media watch draw group.
And just to give you an idea, earlier this week,
Curtis Houk at NewsBusters found ABC and NBC only touched
on the Minnesota fraud in twenty one percent of their
Somalia coverage. Now, how can you when it's nicety something

(32:00):
percent Somalians?

Speaker 2 (32:03):
How do you do that?

Speaker 1 (32:04):
Well, of course, the obvious answer is they're liberals. They're
going to help their friends in the Democrat Party. But
it's again, it's just it defies all logic. But you know,
we that have been following this stuff forever, I think
pretty much understand. It goes on to say, in just
a couple more points on this, the vast majority of

(32:27):
verbiage was negative evaluations of Trump, negative evaluations of Trump.
The last I checked, he wasn't even president when this
stuff happened. Then finally they say add in CBS and
the fraud fraction went up to thirty five percent, in

(32:49):
part because and I wanted to watch this, but I
didn't because Face the Nation host Margaret Brennan, a very
good friend of the Democrat Party, interviewed Minnesota Democrat Representative
Ilhan Omar about it. Now, I'm going to go back
and watch it. I understand that the Treasure Secretary, Scott

(33:10):
Descent was also interviewed about his contention that they're pretty
sure that some of this money, at least some of
it is going to some all you terrorist groups, one
in particular Al Shabab, and she wanted to get into
him a while. You don't know that, blah blah blah.
And it was apparently a pretty good give and take.

(33:30):
So I'm going to go back and watch that. But again,
you know, you can write the script on this stuff
if it's at all sensitive in the liberal media's mind
about oh boy, if we cover this, we might be
called racist. They just don't cover it, and that is
a disservice. It's a huge disservice to the taxpayers of
this country. Black, white, green, brown or yellow, it doesn't matter.

Speaker 2 (33:54):
Anyway. Back to the phones, Let's talk to Eddie up
in Columbus. Hey, Eddie, how you doing, Mike.

Speaker 3 (34:01):
I'm well, Mike.

Speaker 6 (34:02):
Thanks Mike. The mayor of Columbus and the police chief
of Columbus PD are on social media now talking about
their what the city of Columbus is not going to
do and what they will do as far as the

(34:22):
ice investigations and assisting the local immigrant population and assuring them,
assuring the immigrant population how safe they are, and Mike,
it sounds it goes on. It's much longer than that,
but it sounds very, very similar to what we heard
out of Minneapolis. And I just hope that the powers

(34:47):
that be in Ohio or whoever started it in Minnesota
are are looking at Ohio very very closely.

Speaker 9 (34:55):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (34:55):
I would hope so too, because I heard the same
thing and I saw I don't. It wasn't the Columbus
police chief. It was the Minnesota police chief saying what
you were saying too, that hey, we're not going to
cooperate with them.

Speaker 2 (35:07):
We're going to do this, that, this and that.

Speaker 1 (35:10):
And you know what it boils down to, which is
an amazing thing that I never thought I never thought
I would see this is it's in essence cop versus cop. Uh,
of course, you know, federal cop versus local cops. That's
not the way it has been or the way it
should be. Cops protect each other. I don't mean covering

(35:32):
for them when something's wrong, but they see that as
their job. And for that to have gone by the wayside,
and now it's even the dude in Minnesota, I think
it was said, well, you know what, if if they
get in some.

Speaker 2 (35:46):
Trouble, we're not going to cover for cover, cover over
on the run.

Speaker 1 (35:51):
Now that was not the exact words, but that that
was the import of what I heard. It's just sad.
I mean, these people ice like them or hate them.
They're enforcing the law. If you don't like the law,
lives change it. But it's there and it's enforceable, and
that's what they're.

Speaker 10 (36:10):
Doing, and it might help me out here real quick.
In very simple terms, the local government would not be
interested in investigating fraud if it's if it helps their
if their voters or who they think are voting for
them are going to be affected by it, correct, I
mean we're talking federal money.

Speaker 2 (36:32):
That's very very very true, very true.

Speaker 1 (36:35):
And I heard something this week that you know, I
think the person said there are only one hundred thousand
Somali American voters in I guess it's Dearborn County up there,
and you know what, that's a lot, but when you're
talking electoral it's not that much. However, they believe the

(36:56):
elected officials that it's very, very relevant, and I think
that's probably not. Probably it is one of the reasons
why they're reluctant to get involved in this stuff. And
you know, that's an abrogation of their duty as far
as I'm concerned.

Speaker 3 (37:12):
I agree, Mike.

Speaker 6 (37:13):
I appreciate you keeping it in the forefront.

Speaker 2 (37:16):
We will thank you. Thanks, Eddie.

Speaker 1 (37:18):
Yeah, you know it is it isn't it just so
typical of the mainstream media that well, you know, there's
a chance that somebody Keith Ellison or somebody else il
han Omar will call us racist if we aggressively investigate this,
So we're not going to do it. That's not right.

(37:39):
That's not what the media is supposed to do. That's
not their job. Their job, as somebody like janishis on
Epoch Times, their job is to report the facts and
then will make our own damn decisions about what it means.
It's But again, none of this is surprising. None of

(37:59):
it is surprised at all. But like I said, there
was supposedly a pretty good dust up between Treasury Secretary
Scott Descent and Margaret Running last Sunday. I'm gonna go
when I get home see if I can find it. Okay,
let's talk to Dennis in Annapolis. Dennis wants to talk
about something a little bit off topic, but that's fine.

(38:19):
Hey Doca, how you doing?

Speaker 5 (38:22):
Pretty good? Mike, and Marry Christmas and Happy.

Speaker 2 (38:24):
New York to you you too. Yeah.

Speaker 5 (38:27):
Well, I just have a very quick comment on the Somalies.
So if these alleged fraudster Somalies who contributed to Keith
Ellison's campaign, if they're convicted, is he going to give
back whatever they donated?

Speaker 1 (38:44):
You know what they should they should, and I think
there's precedent for that, Dennis. Some politicians have done that
and of course think, well, we didn't know that it
was for a bad purpose, but however we're giving it back.
I don't see it happening here. There's so freaking arrogant.
They'll stick their nose in the air and say, well,
you know, I didn't know this, and blah blah blah.

(39:05):
So I guess the answer the question is it could happen,
but I wouldn't hold my breath.

Speaker 5 (39:11):
Okay, But what I wanted I wanted to talk about
was the this uh, this absolutely stupid decision by her
named Connie Pillock to uh regarding this uh Elwood Jones case.
She needs this, She needs to get a remedial case
in logic and uh interpretation of statistics. Because this thing

(39:36):
about the hepatitis B test, Uh, that is some kind
of new the modern uh new new. How'd your character
as it? Uh medical new medical testing or modern medical
testing excluded him? It does not exclude him.

Speaker 1 (39:53):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (39:54):
He he has a he had a one, you know,
because the victim had hepatitis be right, The defense is claiming, well,
and he should have gotten it after allegedly punching her
in the mouth and getting the wound in his hand. Well,
he only had he had a one and three chance

(40:17):
of constracting hepatitis B that way, but he had a
two and three chance of not getting it. And so
I think this whole hepatitis B thing is totally irrelevant.
Well it's completely irrelevant.

Speaker 1 (40:29):
But it's causing a stir in this town. And I'll
be honest with you, when I was prosecutor, I was
only peripherally involved in it for some post conviction stuff.
But I think what people at least some people apparently,
and I didn't read this, I just heard this. She
made the comment that she believes he's not that he
didn't do it, and you know what is prosecutor. I'm

(40:51):
not gonna second guess. Frankly, I think she's done a
pretty darn good job of prosecutor so far. But I
was a little surprised at that, and I don't know
that I would have went that far. But at the
end of the day, you know, it's her call. And
the only thing is I mean, you know the taxpayers
are going to get wrung up on that too, on
an unlawful imprisonment charge, so.

Speaker 5 (41:14):
Yeah, yeah, right right, But but that to make a
big deal out of it, like it's like the whole thing,
the whole decision was hinging on. That was ridiculous. I mean,
what if?

Speaker 6 (41:26):
What if?

Speaker 5 (41:27):
What if if Jones had already had already had hepatitis
B before the crime, and so he suddenly they test him, Uh,
he's test positive, test positive, and she tests positive? Does
that mean he automatically did it? I mean you could
make that case too, you see what I'm saying unless

(41:48):
he tested yeah, yeah, so that that would Does that
make that make him guilty because now he had it?

Speaker 6 (41:55):
Well, the whole thing is ridiculous, I.

Speaker 2 (41:57):
Tell you what.

Speaker 1 (41:58):
And I appreciate the call, Doc, I'm gonna be honest,
I haven't followed it that far, but it's kind of
raising some hackles here. But I appreciate the call. I
appreciate your medical opinion. I'm gonna be honest, I didn't
really follow it that far, and I'm not gonna lie
about it. I think she's done a pretty good job

(42:19):
as prosecutors so far. I really do. I don't know
that I would have gone as far as to say
that I believe that he's innocent. I mean, I think
maybe an alternate to that was, well, I don't know
that the case was proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

Speaker 2 (42:34):
That's not saying you think he's innocent.

Speaker 1 (42:36):
That's just saying that ultimately at the beginning it was
because there was a conviction.

Speaker 2 (42:41):
But I don't know. It is a big deal.

Speaker 1 (42:45):
It is, But there's a hell of a lot of
other things too, I think to worry about. Hey, let's
talk to our friend Bobby. Haven't talked to him for
a while. Hey, good morning, Bobby.

Speaker 2 (42:53):
How you doing, my friend?

Speaker 9 (42:55):
God bless you and your family and friends. Is holiday season?
Very happy homiken.

Speaker 2 (43:01):
All of them. Thank you, Bobby, Thank you you too.

Speaker 9 (43:04):
What you got for well, I got I got a
couple of things. We talk about Minnesota, but people need
realize that reflect on the past of twenty twenty five
and every prediction that we made pretty well came true.
If you look at the smally issue, Columbus is number
two in the nation. Excuse me, with SMALLI population thirty

(43:28):
five forty thousand. I guarantee you that job and Family
Services is going to be well looked over.

Speaker 2 (43:37):
You would hope.

Speaker 1 (43:38):
So, I mean, you know, if there's evidence along those lines,
and I've had callers over the last couple of weeks
that are from Columbus and have kind of intimated that
I don't know. It just seems to me that where
there's smoke, there's fire, and I don't care.

Speaker 2 (43:53):
Oh that's horrible, Mike, blah blah blah blah blah.

Speaker 1 (43:55):
You know, you can't just turn a blind eye to
this stuff, well like they did Minnesota.

Speaker 2 (44:00):
So yeah, I think you've.

Speaker 1 (44:02):
Only heard the beginning of it from Minnesota and probably
up there too, But because a lot of people are
talking about it, I guess we'll just have to see.

Speaker 9 (44:12):
Well a lot of times too, when you talk about
the truth, people don't want to hear it, no, you know,
they want to go to hidden categorize you as a
racist and everything else and homophobic. But you know, there's
a difference between being prejudiced and being a racist. As myself,
I'm extremely prejudiced against fundamental Islamics. I'm extremely prejudiced against

(44:35):
these Somali grip heures and people in our country illegally.

Speaker 2 (44:40):
Well, yeah, yeah, you're right, that's it. I mean, you're
allowed to be prejudiced.

Speaker 1 (44:45):
You're allowed to at least you used to be allowed
to be prejudiced against criminals, brown, black, yellow, you know, Jewish, Catholic, Christian, Muslim, whatever.
But the first chance that you know, the mainstream media
is somebody else gets to latch onto that they think
they got a tiger by the tail. Well, you know what,

(45:05):
maybe fifteen, twenty, thirty, forty years ago they did have
a tiger by the tail. Not anymore. People can get
that grifted. It doesn't mean crap anymore. The word racist
and racism has lost all meaning because they've abused at
the left is abused it so much.

Speaker 9 (45:26):
I have friends of every color and creed my friend,
and they are good friends of mine, and I don't
I'm not that way. I've never been that way. But
I don't have a use of these people that are
against you.

Speaker 1 (45:36):
Well, and I hear you and I anything you want,
I appreciate it, Bobby, Thank you.

Speaker 2 (45:42):
Merry Christmas to you too. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (45:44):
You know, last time I checked, you were allowed not
to like lawbreakers. Maybe that's something they want to change.
How about Ken in Cincinnati?

Speaker 2 (45:55):
Hey? Ken, how you doing?

Speaker 5 (45:56):
Hey Mike?

Speaker 11 (45:57):
First of all, I want to wish merry Christmas to
everyone out there, to you and your family.

Speaker 2 (46:01):
Thank you, you can thank you.

Speaker 11 (46:04):
And the main reason why I'm calling is that we've
got got a new brand name for You've got governor
of Minnesota, and it's right here on the Mike Allen Show.
We can call him kick Back Kill.

Speaker 2 (46:17):
I like it. I like it.

Speaker 11 (46:19):
I likely that hopefully that'll stick, and we'll refer he's
got his other moniker as well, hopefully to be able
to pick up on it and kick Back Tim will
get his start.

Speaker 2 (46:30):
I like it. I like it.

Speaker 1 (46:31):
You know, I'll tell you somewhere, somehow, sometime they're going
to shine a bright light on that guy. Bank records,
you know whatever. And I see no evidence whatsoever yet
that there's any criminal involvement with either him or I
think more likely Keith Ellison. But you know you've got

(46:52):
to send it over or excuse me, the House Oversight
Committee looking at it, and we'll see where it goes.
At an absolute minimum, it's negligent, it's gross negligence, but
we'll see and I like the idea.

Speaker 5 (47:06):
All right, Mike, God bless you.

Speaker 1 (47:07):
Okay, thank you you too, you know, and I was
thinking about that too this morning. No evidence whatsoever that
I've seen on the Governor's part and also Attorney General
Ellison's part, they did anything criminal, however, I mean, law enforcement,
whatever the branch is, would be foolish, foolish not to

(47:32):
demand bank records and other things. You better damn well
believe if it were Donald J. Trump or JD Vance
or some Republican they'd be doing it. It's just again,
it all boils down to it's unfathomable to think that
these people didn't know about it, and if they didn't
do anything about it, they're either negligent or they had

(47:55):
something to do with it. As far as money in
the cookie jar. Now, Joe Biden, of course, the Biden
crime family, they got away with twenty million dollars of it.
But these guys shouldn't if in fact that's the case.
And I think with respect to Walls, he's so damn
dumb that maybe he really didn't know what was going on.

Speaker 2 (48:14):
But it's kind of hard to believe that would not
be the case. Hey, listen, we got to take a break.

Speaker 1 (48:20):
But when we get back where there's some things interesting
things brewing throughout the country politically, we are going to
talk to our independent political analyst, Kevin Burton about them.
One being the Texas Senate race. Jasmine Crockett is jumping
into that. The Ohio governor's race that's heating up, and
as ironerstand some of the polling, it's tie and not

(48:43):
too long ago Vi Veik and a hell of a
lead healthcare vote this week for Republicans switch parties. And
there was a special election in the Kentucky State Senate
that I want to ask Kevin.

Speaker 2 (48:56):
About and we'll do that when we get back.

Speaker 1 (48:59):
Mike, You're to talk about talk about it and give
us an independent perspective, which is always good to have.
Is our good friend, Kevin Burton. Kevin, thanks so much
for joining us.

Speaker 2 (49:09):
This morning, Mike, thanks for having me my pleasure.

Speaker 1 (49:13):
Hey, listen, it looks like a barnburner going on down
there in Texas for the Senate race. None other than
Jasmine the Mouth Crockett has declared her candidacy and apparently
she's serious about it.

Speaker 2 (49:26):
You do have one Democrat.

Speaker 1 (49:28):
It looks like a former representative, Colin Aureed. He dropped
out just hours before Jasmine Crockett filed to run, which
sounds to me is probably some kind of a deal.
But she does have she does have opposition in state
Representative James Tallerico. Your thoughts on that race, Kevin, does

(49:48):
Jasmine Crockett she got obviously have a good chance in
the primary, but does she have any shot at winning
that Senate seat?

Speaker 12 (49:58):
Well, to me, this is a great micro cosm of
what democrats. You know, with Crockett you got a bullhorn,
you do. And with James, you know, he gained notoriety
of going on the Joe Rogan Show talking about how
faith shaped him. You know, a very compassionate, kind of
middle of the road, kind of like an Andy Sheerish type.

(50:22):
So to me, I'm very fascinated in this race because, well,
Democrat voters vote for someone who they think could possibly
pull an upset or someone who's just the loudest in
the room.

Speaker 2 (50:34):
Right.

Speaker 1 (50:35):
You know what's interesting about Jasmine Crockett in doing some research,
you know, probably a year or so.

Speaker 2 (50:41):
Ago, looking at it, she she's a lawyer.

Speaker 1 (50:45):
Not that that makes her it's smart anybody else, but
when she wants to be, she can at least appear
quite reasonable. It looks like she's pulling a Kamala Harris.
Sometimes when she's before a different kind of crowd, she'll
change her style and along those lines, there is a
poll that I saw she's got an eighty nine to

(51:08):
eight percent lead among African Americans. That's obviously very very substantial.
But I mean, do you see that as well, Kevin,
that she kind of crashs her message to whoever she's
talking to, and you know, you're not going to get
away with that very.

Speaker 12 (51:24):
Long well, and that's one of the problems when you
are a congress person because usually you are giving red
meat to your district. Yeah, it doesn't matter if you're
left or right, because they're also Jerrymander that like, you
don't really have someone who actually has to run towards
the middle. And you know, I think one thing, and

(51:45):
it's Texas, So you know, the Hispanic.

Speaker 13 (51:49):
Vote's gonna be very very important.

Speaker 12 (51:53):
You know, James and I always butcher his last name, Tellerico.
You know, Obama even called him, you know, one of
the things one of the Democrats doing something right before
Jason Crockett entered this race.

Speaker 2 (52:08):
Really, I'm sure you'll hear that again.

Speaker 12 (52:12):
Yeah, and you know, he's very prevalent on TikTok and
things like that, you know, using state and just trying
to and I'm really fascinated in this because I think
it's going to show what the rest of twenty six
is going to do. Are the Democrats going to try
to run towards the middle and we've had this conversation
how many times?

Speaker 13 (52:31):
Or are they gonna run just to be anti Trump
and not anything else?

Speaker 12 (52:37):
Sure, we've seen this before that, you know, same thing
with like EMUs Mandani.

Speaker 13 (52:42):
Like people are willing to vote for someone if they
actually know what they're standing for.

Speaker 12 (52:46):
Just saying Trump sucks, we get it, we get it,
it's been ten years.

Speaker 13 (52:52):
Give us something else.

Speaker 2 (52:53):
Yep, you're right and looking at it.

Speaker 1 (52:55):
Here in early Texas Southern University poll, I guess it
was conducted shortly after her announcement, Crockett is leading tall
Rico fifty forty three percent, So I mean she's got
that edge going in. I guess we'll just have to see.
The bigger question obviously, is can she beat John Cornyn

(53:16):
or Ken Paxton? And I guess there's another one, Wesley Hunt,
Houston area Congressman.

Speaker 2 (53:23):
Are the people of Texas?

Speaker 1 (53:25):
I guess, is there any way the people of Texas
would elect this woman as their senator?

Speaker 14 (53:31):
No?

Speaker 12 (53:32):
And easier to know, the only reason that we're even
talking about those races because it's just a great microcosm
of the battle inside the Democratic Party. You know, tall
Ico actually has a chance to actually flip that seat
because he's the quintessential kind of Democrat that you would

(53:53):
want in Texas, and if they could, if he wins that,
then we're talking about maybe the Senate might be up,
you know, the control of the Senate might be up.
But if Crockett wins, which you know, primaries are always
favor people of the extremes.

Speaker 13 (54:11):
Sure, no, no, there's no path.

Speaker 2 (54:15):
Yeah, and you look at it too.

Speaker 1 (54:16):
The primary down in Texas, I guess, is scheduled for
March the third. And you're right, Kevin, I mean that
is a good indicator of which way, not so much
the party leaders, but what party faithful want to do.
And that one bears watching. Hey, I want another one
that bears watching Ohio governor's race. Well, I'll tell you
what if I'm not mistaken, Kevin, and you'll correct me

(54:37):
if I'm wrong. I mean, the veak Ramaswami had a huge,
huge lead going into this thing, or shortly after he announced.
From what I am seeing, it's it's about even now.
I guess there's a poll out Ohio Federation the Teachers.

Speaker 2 (54:54):
I certainly take that with a great assault from.

Speaker 1 (54:57):
Where that's Yeah, that shows her slightly up anyway you
look at it.

Speaker 2 (55:03):
She's closing the gap. I mean, what's your thought on that.

Speaker 12 (55:08):
Yeah, So always be wary of internal polls. You can
sew the numbers because you also want to just skip base.
But by all the indications, the race has closed.

Speaker 13 (55:19):
You know, we know who it is.

Speaker 12 (55:20):
And I think part of the problem with Vivec is
Dwain has already said he's not endorsing him yet. Age
Yo said it was the wrong decision just to appoint him.

Speaker 13 (55:31):
A year before.

Speaker 12 (55:34):
And then you know Dwaine's comment of saying, listen, I
was the governor during COVID. You know, you can't blame
Amy for that. The buck stops with me. So that
kind of hurts their messaging point.

Speaker 1 (55:43):
Yeah, and do you see that Kevin is just a
blatant shot at Trump.

Speaker 12 (55:49):
I mean, I'm kind of in the minority here where
I don't blame I don't care if your newsme to
Ron DeSantis. Yeah, there was no playbook for COVID. There
was no playbook. I'm not gonna Monday Morning quarterback Governor's decisions.
You know, we all agreed it sucks. Let's not go
through it again, right, But I'm not gonna criticize that.

(56:12):
But I think the rising costs in everything, you know,
it is going to be a blue wave just historically.
You know, this is the checks and balances of government,
and the vec's gonna have to It's yeah, his momentum
has stalled, but once again, we're still ten months out,
so you know there's a lot of time. You know,

(56:35):
Trump most likely will be here campaigning for him because
also there's congressional seats, so you know you're gonna have
a lot of money poured in. You know, does Amy
get a benefit that she has shared Brown with her
running Yes, But if you ask me today, I mean

(56:56):
the fact I would still if I was.

Speaker 13 (56:58):
A bettingman, I would still put money onto the BacT.

Speaker 1 (57:00):
Do you think Amy Acton is going to be able
to raise competitive money?

Speaker 2 (57:04):
Now we all know that they can.

Speaker 1 (57:07):
Yeah, she's obviously gonna have the unions and some of
the other groups, But do you think she'll be able
to raise enough dough to make this competitive?

Speaker 13 (57:16):
I think so.

Speaker 12 (57:16):
She ironically hired a lot of Shared Brown's people. You know,
it's kind of like when a coach leaves, they take
all the number two's and make them number one. So yeah,
so I think she'll be able to make it a
very compelling race. But the truth of the matter is
most of the money in Ohio is going to come

(57:37):
in for the Senate race because because that's where people
care now and historically, you know, Ohio is the inverse
of Kentucky. You guys have had how many Democratic governors
in like the last like fifty years, like two or three,
So it's the inverse of Kentucky. So until proven otherwise,

(58:00):
I would bet on the back.

Speaker 1 (58:02):
Yeah, I think you're right about that. It does look
like it's closing somewhat. And Amy act and I don't
know much about her, I don't think anybody does. But
she appears to be a credible candidate. So we'll have
to see what happens on that. Hey, I wanted to
talk to you too, just I guess it was this
week or last week, there were four House Republicans, so

(58:23):
called moderates. They broke the party ranks to join with
Democrats and signing that discharge position a petition, which of
course forces a floor vote extending the Affordable Care Act.
And boy, I'll tell you that that seems like it's
slapping the face to Speaker Johnson.

Speaker 2 (58:41):
Your thoughts on that.

Speaker 12 (58:43):
It's a major slap in the face of Speaker Johnson,
because now every single House person.

Speaker 13 (58:49):
Is going to have a vote. So if you do
not vote to.

Speaker 12 (58:52):
Extend the Affordable Care Act and the premiums, you're gonna
that's gonna be the thing, biggest, you know, issue this campaign.
So there was a gallup pulled on five days ago.
Forty seven percent of Americans belief healthcare is a major problem.
Why twenty nine percent does cites it as the most

(59:14):
important issue. So regardless of the pollar, it's a major, major,
major issue.

Speaker 13 (59:22):
And honestly, the Democrats got what they wanted. There's going
to have to be a vote.

Speaker 12 (59:26):
And you know, Republicans now are either going to have
the vote to keep the premiums, which is a win
for Democrats, or vote no then be exposed in the
campaign cycle.

Speaker 2 (59:39):
Yeah, and the Democrats they got that like a dog
with a bone.

Speaker 1 (59:43):
And you know, of course said they were only supposed
to be temporary, but you know how it is with
government when it comes to funding issues, it's never temporary.

Speaker 2 (59:51):
So I guess we have to see how that plays out.

Speaker 1 (59:54):
Last thing, and you told me about this, and this
is really interesting with respect to Kentucky special I guess
it was last Tuesday. Democrat Gary Clemens won the race
for Kentucky Senate District thirty seven. Didn't just win, it
won it by seventy two point six percent. The Republican
Calvin Leech, he's like way behind that twenty five percent.

(01:00:17):
I think he got What do you read into that?
And I know you have a lot of knowledge of
Kentucky politics, Kevin, what's your read on that and what
we can take away from it?

Speaker 12 (01:00:28):
Well, first off, it was a Democratic district, so that
is okay and foremost, but they also ran a labor guy.
They ran a blue collar I'm sorry, I can't remember
if he's left steel worker.

Speaker 1 (01:00:44):
Wendy Higden. There's a she got one hundred twenty one votes,
so probably not her.

Speaker 12 (01:00:50):
Yeah, so Gary, he you know, he's a very blue
collar person. And special elections always favor the party who's upset, right,
because they're going to rally their base. We saw this
the last four years with Republicans. We're seeing this now
with Democrats. The special elections I always take with a

(01:01:12):
very just with a grain assault because whoever's energized, they're
going to put up huge numbers. And you know, Frankly
and Kentucky, there's six Senate Democrats. So for the Republicans,
why would you spend a lot of money on that race?

Speaker 2 (01:01:31):
Right? Right?

Speaker 1 (01:01:32):
But I mean just the margin of victory here, I
would think would give Democrats some reason to be happy
about it. I know you mentioned that it was a
Democrat district.

Speaker 12 (01:01:41):
Though, yeah, yeah, So I mean he did overperform, you know,
by forty two points, which is a lot. But I
would also caution because you know it is a special election, yep.

Speaker 2 (01:01:54):
It is.

Speaker 12 (01:01:56):
So for Democrats, you know, it's a great messaging point
saying we ever performed by four two points where energized,
give us money. Because Kentucky House up until twenty sixteen
was actually still controlled by Democrats. Now it's all the
way down to twenty only members. So I think this
is going to fund a lot of these house races

(01:02:17):
in the Commonwealth. But also once again I wanted to
take caution, people take this with a grain of salt.
It is a special election two weeks before Christmas.

Speaker 2 (01:02:27):
I gotcha.

Speaker 1 (01:02:27):
Hey, Unfortunately we're out of time, but I'm gonna be
with you Wednesday morning. I believe I'm in for Sloani
and we'll have plenty to talk about. But appreciate you
coming on today.

Speaker 12 (01:02:39):
But thank you as always, and Merry Christmas to all
your listeners.

Speaker 2 (01:02:42):
You too, Thank you. Kevin nig you bye bye.

Speaker 1 (01:02:46):
Yeah, you know, interesting stuff, And man, I love getting
a scoop from him because you get it straight down
the line. Hey, we got to take a break for
the news, but when we get back, we're going to
be talking to Jameis Heisel. The Epoch time she is filed.
I believe five separate stories this week. I'm gonna ask.
I think she's probably on the ground out there in Minnesota.

(01:03:07):
But boy, i'll tell you what, probably more than any
other national reporter, she's on this thing like White on Rice,
and I got a lot of questions for we'll do
that when we get back. Mike Allen Saturday Midday there's
Radio seven hundred WLW Mike Allen with the third and

(01:03:29):
final hour of Saturday Midday. Well, you know what, I
guess you could call this the gift that keeps on given.
I'm talking, of course, about the Minnesota fraud cases. Janie Heisel,
senior reporter for the Epoch Times, is on this like
White on Rice, and she filed no fewer than, I believe,

(01:03:52):
five separate stories, all great stories with a lot of
information on what's going on. There a thanks for joining us,
and are you there or are you reporting from here?

Speaker 3 (01:04:06):
I have made it safely home in time for Christmas,
and I'm really glad for that. But I got to
tell you you're exactly right when you say that there's
just so much going on with this. I were literally
working pretty much around the clock just but although not
to the computers say that's what they're doing, but they
they literally are are shreading water. They can't keep up

(01:04:29):
with all of this, and there's you know, one of
the analogies I heard was, it's kind of like you're
drowning and somebody won't turn off the hose to the
swimming bowl that keeps pulling it up.

Speaker 2 (01:04:39):
That's a good analogy.

Speaker 3 (01:04:41):
So that's what that's where prosecutors are, and frankly I
feel a little bit that way too. The work I
do is far less.

Speaker 14 (01:04:49):
Significant, but Manna, I think it's it.

Speaker 3 (01:04:51):
Is important to inform people, especially because one of the
stories I'm currently working on does talk about you're putting
this minisoda fraud into context. I mean, there are fraud
problems across the government with these you know, basically government
handout programs. But the interesting things that I'd like to

(01:05:12):
emphasize that I feel most people may not realize is
that I've run across reports who absolutely which absolutely document this.
Those the prodsters are not the people who are beneficiaries, right,
And they're not the people that are going. If they do,
they're not very big amounts. And the system is easily

(01:05:35):
set up to catch those people.

Speaker 14 (01:05:37):
Who are getting you know, who are getting a lot
of the benefits.

Speaker 3 (01:05:41):
The people who are really raking in the big dough
by millions of dollars are providers of services raising from
stuff like ambulance, uh, you know, transportation or you know
taking a bus of a van to a medical appointment
or you know, they claim they picked up missus Jones
when and can people when they never did it, and

(01:06:02):
just billing for all this and providing meals to children
who didn't exist, and just literally making up records and
smitting those and never being chucked until somebody looks and goes,
wait a minute, you paid five thousand kids in one
day and you have the staff of three. That is
the big point that I would like people to recognize that, yes,

(01:06:24):
there are people who gain the system welfare seets, you know,
and people really resent that. But the big, big dollars
do seem to be going to these individual providers, companies
and people who provide services or are supposed to people.

Speaker 10 (01:06:39):
Who do need it.

Speaker 1 (01:06:41):
And that's the thing, and that's one of the things
that almost brings tears to your eyes. I mean, yeah,
you talk about children with autism, children who are hungry
and need to eat. It's just, you know, there ought
to be and maybe there is in the Federal Code
specification that jumps it up a couple of years or more.

Speaker 7 (01:07:00):
Just for that.

Speaker 1 (01:07:01):
It just makes you sick. You know your stories. You
did one on Thursday. I'll just read the headline here
taxpayers money. This is astounding taxpayers money still flowing to
indicted fraud suspect. So the dudes indicted, but according to
your story, he's still getting taxpayer money.

Speaker 2 (01:07:22):
How can that happen?

Speaker 14 (01:07:25):
Well, that is.

Speaker 3 (01:07:26):
Exactly the question raised by the head of there's a
flub committee that was formed in the legislature that has
continued to meet even while the legislature has been out
of session because they believe it's so important to continue
this work. The lady who is heading that is actually
running against Governor Wall. Her name is a representative a

(01:07:48):
lot of Robbins, and you know, I trying to get
too deep into the political back and forth between her
and him, and this is this sort of thing. But
she raises a lot of very concerning situations. I highlighted
this one because I too was going it was a

(01:08:09):
jaw dropping moment. I mean, as a reporter, I wasn't
there at the time. I was listening to this on
a live stream via internet, and you know, sometimes you
just sit there, you're looking at your computer screen it's
throning on and on. But no, this meeting wasn't this way.
There were many things that were being raised that my
jaw just kept dropping open and I went, what what?

(01:08:30):
And now?

Speaker 14 (01:08:31):
In you know, to be fair, you know, I.

Speaker 3 (01:08:34):
Did try to contact and get response from the guy
who is the inspector general for the welfare department there.
He did respond to.

Speaker 14 (01:08:42):
Me the next day.

Speaker 3 (01:08:43):
I later added his comments into my story. He is
asserting that his department has cross checked the names of
the indicted people against people or receiving money.

Speaker 14 (01:08:53):
But again that conflicts with but when were those checks done?

Speaker 3 (01:08:58):
Just recently? You know, because this information this this lady
provided seem to be very backed up by research. Uh
and they even pertinence a chart. I don't know if
you had a chance to see that, but it literally
is a web, a web of like you have this
one defendant, and this person is tied to this company,

(01:09:20):
and then the wife runs that company, and then you know,
there are four other properties that they own, and a
realtor is the one who is hooking them up with
all these and then that realtor is connected to other
people who are accused, and on and on. And this
little flow chart about what that shows? The interconnected web

(01:09:40):
of suspicious actors or even you know, indicted in some
cases fraudulent actors is really it makes your eyes just
pop out when you look at this chart and you
think about the fact that this is one person and
there are one tie three for prizes on the probably

(01:10:00):
two dozen bubbles of interconnected dots and lines showing businesses, entities,
people and scandals.

Speaker 1 (01:10:11):
It's incredible. I've got it right in front of me.
I read it yesterday, and I mean, you're absolutely right.
You got realtor one, realtor two. What's the P stand for?

Speaker 2 (01:10:21):
Janis? There're p P two, P three and four.

Speaker 15 (01:10:24):
I think, Okay, okay, it's just yeah, it's again. I
always default to this, but I can't help. But how
in the hell could this be going on?

Speaker 1 (01:10:37):
And I mean, I think I've answered the question in
my own mind as to why it's going on and
why they got away with it. I think allegations of
racism probably a big part of it. But how is
it that no one independent caught this thing? Because it
is it's beyond huge. It's almost like people are saying, hey,

(01:11:00):
you know, I dare you, you know, come and try
to catch me.

Speaker 2 (01:11:03):
It just I don't know. I can't wrap my mind
around this. I really don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:11:07):
There are many many unanswered questions about all of this,
especially the magnitude of this and now just on Thursday,
at his press conference, the US Attorney first Assistant, a
guy who's been at this for several years and as
a Native Minnesotan.

Speaker 14 (01:11:26):
His name is Joe Thompson.

Speaker 3 (01:11:28):
He talks about how there are fourteen medicaid programs that
have been put on hold because of risk for fraud.
The payments are being held back until the audits can
go okay, this is okay, we release this money. And
those payments from dating back to twenty eighteen for just

(01:11:53):
those fourteen programs total eighteen billions. Based on what he
has seen, half of that or more, he can quote
half or more of that eighteen billion could have been
fraudulent billing based on everything that he has seen.

Speaker 2 (01:12:14):
Right, Yeah, And that's the headline for your story six News.

Speaker 3 (01:12:20):
Wait to hear that. It gets worse as it makes it.
These are fourteen programs one adventure. A guest, how many
medicaid programs Minnesota has total?

Speaker 2 (01:12:32):
How many?

Speaker 3 (01:12:35):
I'm pretty sure it's eighty.

Speaker 2 (01:12:36):
Seven eighty seven?

Speaker 3 (01:12:38):
Boy, the eighty seven eighty.

Speaker 2 (01:12:40):
Seven different ways to scam the taxpayers.

Speaker 3 (01:12:44):
And and see, this is one of the things that
is kind of particular to Minnesota, and that is there
is an attitude there and.

Speaker 14 (01:12:55):
It's been for a long time.

Speaker 3 (01:12:57):
It's just part of the Minnesota culture, is what I mean.
Told that that people there want to help people there's
this there's this friendliness but yet simultaneously not too warm
kind of reception. There's a joke that goes around that
says something like, a Minnesotan will give you directions to
anywhere except his own front door.

Speaker 14 (01:13:21):
They want to help you, but only so far.

Speaker 3 (01:13:23):
And so the idea is that you know, they they
try to ask, they try to help people, but they
don't want to know why do you want to know this?
They don't ask too many questions, nor do they volunteer
much information.

Speaker 14 (01:13:35):
And so that is kind of a.

Speaker 3 (01:13:37):
Cultural Minnesota particular attitude, and I felt it when I
was there as an Ohioan. I did notice there's a difference,
and I've seen many I thought, am I imagining this?
When I looked up columns written by people who are
transplants there. I've talked to people who are transplants from
other states there and they confirm, yes, Actually, it's kind

(01:13:59):
of cool. It's called there's a term for it.

Speaker 14 (01:14:00):
They call it Minnesota nice.

Speaker 2 (01:14:02):
Minnesota nice.

Speaker 14 (01:14:03):
I'll help you, I want to help you.

Speaker 3 (01:14:07):
I welcome you, but then again, I'm not going to
go too far with it. I'm not going to ask
you too many questions. Or volunteery, much about myself, have
a good day.

Speaker 2 (01:14:14):
Wow, Well you mentioned a new term.

Speaker 1 (01:14:16):
Here's another new term that I learned from reading your story,
that specific story we're talking about, and that is so
called fraud tourism. You right that it's a new phenomenon
among the Minnesota fraud cases, although prosecutors have heard it,
heard of it occurring elsewhere.

Speaker 2 (01:14:34):
Fraud tourism. Can you tell my listeners what that is?

Speaker 5 (01:14:40):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (01:14:40):
Yeah, So there were at least two defendants coming from
a distant state, in this case Pennsylvania. They would repeatedly
fly from Philadelphia to Minnesota. They set up LLCs there
and they had zero connections to anybody there. They didn't
come for the other things draw a lot of people

(01:15:01):
for tourism reasons, like the scenery. Minnesota is called the
Land of ten Thousand Lakes, and a lot of people
love the scenery there. And I can tell you there
are parts of it that I think are quite beautiful.
Uh and uh, So they don't come to that. They
come literally because they heard it with easy pickens in Minnesota,
you can get rich quick with these government programs, and.

Speaker 1 (01:15:23):
Boy they sure have. Again reading your stories and other stories,
you know one of them. I think this was one
of your stories that one of the guys they alleged fraudsters.
I think it was in the in the the autism
program went out with the proceeds and bought a Mac truck,
which I'm assuming is a semi Is that accurate?

Speaker 2 (01:15:45):
Am I remembering that right?

Speaker 3 (01:15:47):
Uh? Yeah, I think it was a streight Liner to
be specific. But that's my recollection. I didn't personally write
that one, but yeah, actually one. That's another one of
the many follow ups I'm working on I have. It
took me a little bit of digging to prolose some
court exhibits that show some of the vehicles, properties checks

(01:16:08):
that are involved with how these people involved with these podcases?
Where did the money go? And do the taxpayers have
any prayer of getting it back? And if they do,
it's probably is going to be years because you know
how this Mike as a prosecutor, that forfeiture process isn't
a flick the switch and.

Speaker 14 (01:16:26):
Get it done.

Speaker 1 (01:16:27):
No, it's you're right, and hell, there's got to be
money there to get too, and it sure seems like
they're bleeding it till dry.

Speaker 2 (01:16:34):
I mean, let me ask you this question, I'm trying
to go ahead, go ahead.

Speaker 3 (01:16:39):
I was gonna say, well, there's nothing to be there's
no money left if you're going out and using it
to fly for international travel and fancy meals.

Speaker 14 (01:16:49):
And other things like that.

Speaker 2 (01:16:51):
Homes in the Maldives.

Speaker 14 (01:16:52):
I guess, right, well, you might be able to get
a hold of some of that, but it once't.

Speaker 3 (01:16:57):
Again, it further complicated when we are foreign properties.

Speaker 2 (01:16:59):
Yeah, it's just there's so many I guess, so many
circles on this thing.

Speaker 1 (01:17:02):
But I know you don't do politics, and I don't
want you to, but I guess I've read this thing,
and I see Tim Waltz, and I think, how in
God's name did that guy not know about it? I'm
just assuming that he did. I'm ninety five percent certain.
And number two, why in the heck didn't he do
something about it? And I think I know that one too.

(01:17:24):
He was worried about the big R word. I mean,
do you think this guy's going to survive? He's up
for apparently they're not term limits for governor in that state,
but he's up for up for election. You know, is
are you hearing anything that he might say that I'm
not going to run because that woman that you mentioned

(01:17:46):
who put together that chart, she's running against him, ezactly.

Speaker 2 (01:17:50):
She's a Republican state bread. Yeah, I guess the question is,
is this dude good?

Speaker 3 (01:17:54):
There's a number of challengers.

Speaker 9 (01:17:56):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:17:57):
So here is what I will say, based on what
I've read people have talked to, I hear that the
tide does seem to be kind of starting to turn
against him, but he still has some very staunch supporters
and I have seen some pulling that however, talks about

(01:18:22):
like something like fifty seven percent of the people disapprove
of his handling of fraud. There are a number of
people I've talked to who thought that number was really
low considering the level of outrage that they're detecting there.
And the questions that you raise are the very same
questions that a lot of people are raising, including the

(01:18:45):
House Oversight Committee, right, And that's James Cummer's committee, And
he had given until like the seventeenth CYS now passed
for Governor Walt and for the age Attorney General of Minnesota.
Keith listened to provide a bunch of documents to to
to show whether whistleblowers allegations that they turned a blind

(01:19:10):
eye to it after the whistleblowers tried to raise it.
I've really been trying hard to find any whistleblowers who
will talk to me. But I have spoken to legislators
who speak to these people, and they're telling me that
these people have represented that they were actually disciplined.

Speaker 1 (01:19:27):
Uh.

Speaker 14 (01:19:28):
They some of them claimed they were surveiled after.

Speaker 3 (01:19:31):
They tried to raise the issues of fraud and and
there were and then there were less coercive ways allegedly
used to silence them, including just saying, oh, we don't
want to be you know, viewed as racist or home
uh or islama folbic right, and so probably when it

(01:19:52):
raised us about the Somalis. Now an interesting I just
turned in a very long free coal story.

Speaker 2 (01:20:00):
I'm sorry, just interrupt you for a minute. Can you
hold over.

Speaker 1 (01:20:03):
We're bumping up against the news just for about half
a segment, and I want to talk to you about.

Speaker 2 (01:20:07):
What you were just talking about. I really appreciate it. Okay,
thank you.

Speaker 1 (01:20:11):
All right, Hey, we got to take a break for
the news, but when we get back, we're going to
continue our talk with Janis Heisel of the Epoch Times.

Speaker 2 (01:20:18):
Mike Allen Saturday midday.

Speaker 1 (01:20:25):
Eleven thirty nine, News Radio seven hundred WW Mike Allen,
Saturday Midday. Hey, we were talking and we are going
to talk again to Janis, Heisel's senior reporter for the
Epoch Times. On this Minnesota deal. It's just got so
many tentacles. There's no way you're going to cover any
of it in twenty minutes, much less forty. But Janis

(01:20:46):
has given us as much as we can get. Janis,
thanks for hanging in there for us. I cut you
off pretty much mid sentence last time. If you wanted
to continue, yeah, I.

Speaker 3 (01:20:58):
Would just explaining that I have really been trying to
delve into the kind of culture like why Minnesota.

Speaker 14 (01:21:07):
You know, that was a big question I've had from
the beginning. You know, yes, it is happening other places,
but this.

Speaker 16 (01:21:12):
Prosecutor says, and it does seem to be supported that
the scale of it is unusual.

Speaker 3 (01:21:24):
I do think there are some states where it may
even be larger, and I'm still looking into some of
that and planning a story about that. I think one
of them is actually California, the other maybe New York.

Speaker 14 (01:21:35):
So that's something else I'm looking into.

Speaker 3 (01:21:37):
Really, So something else I wanted to point out along
with the quote unquote Minnesota knife, what goes along with
that is Minnesota progressivism.

Speaker 2 (01:21:47):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:21:48):
And I talked to people who did not want I tried,
people insisted on mostly speaking to me, Hey, I'm going
to go by my first name only. And for example,
and told me that he has lived in Minnesota for
decades and he has seen where that attitude of Minnesota

(01:22:10):
and ice we help people, but we don't ask so
many questions. But along with that there is the progressive
attitude of let's add more program and spend more money.
And by the way, if you're taxed as a result,
too bad, because you're helping these people who need it.
An interesting example I observed while I live in Minnesota,

(01:22:33):
the Minneapolis Council approved a measure that would have required
them to the city to install Portajohn's sanitation stations provide
medical care for any homeless encampment has more than twenty people.
And I didn't dig into that one deeply that I
kept going, well, where's the money.

Speaker 2 (01:22:52):
Coming from for this?

Speaker 3 (01:22:52):
Okay?

Speaker 14 (01:22:53):
And so the mayor, interestingly, though he's.

Speaker 3 (01:22:56):
Also a Democrat, there's a lot of people in control
with the Democrat party. There the mayor of Minneapolis actually
vetoed that, so we'll see if it if he's able
to secure a veto proof.

Speaker 14 (01:23:10):
Majority on that.

Speaker 3 (01:23:11):
He doesn't have it on the council, but he was
able to. They're able to override in the veto or not,
so we'll see what happened.

Speaker 1 (01:23:17):
You know, I mean, I get being progressive, I get
being wanting to help people, but my goodness, I mean,
I would assume that these aren't stupid people, and if
the money that they want to use for good causes
is being frankly stolen, you think that would get their attention,
but apparently not.

Speaker 2 (01:23:36):
Hey, I wanted to ask you. I'm sorry, go ahead you.

Speaker 3 (01:23:38):
I interviewed a man who told me about some of them.
I'm trying to drill down as much as I can
without making it tedious the cost to real people. And
one man told me, for example, that he's a father
of three and his property packs went up in one
year thirteen percent as a result, he percent in one year.

(01:24:02):
How would we feel here in Ohio.

Speaker 2 (01:24:03):
We had that going on, you'd have a riot, is
what you'd have, you know.

Speaker 3 (01:24:07):
And he's not able to buy as many gifts for
his children for Christmas. Now, is he is the family
starving though it doesn't sound.

Speaker 14 (01:24:15):
Like it, And is that a big deal, you know,
in the grand sum of things.

Speaker 3 (01:24:18):
Maybe not. However, if you look at the fact that
this is a hard working person who wants to buy
stuff for his kids, and now because he has being
forced to pay for what has now been identified as
a very large raft of fraudulent a program that's just
soaked in fraud, and because of that, that's the reason
he can't buy more stuff for his kids.

Speaker 1 (01:24:40):
You know what, that's the bottom line. I mean, that's
how it's got to hit people in that state. And
you know, I don't care how liberal you are. At
some point it's like, come on, you know, I have
these these very well intentioned wishes, but it's not happening
because people are buying you know, islands in the Maldives

(01:25:02):
and semi tractor trailers, jewelry vacations.

Speaker 2 (01:25:07):
It's just it.

Speaker 1 (01:25:08):
You know what. You can be progressive, you can be
a liberal, you can be somebody that wants to help somebody,
but you also have to be a person with some
common sense, you would think. But I wanted to ask
you again. We talked a little bit about this person
number one. If you look at this thing here, it
just it amazes me from your story of I think

(01:25:29):
this one was the yeah, the eighteenth Thursday, okay, talking
about the assisted living facilities, one of the assisted living
facilities that Person one administers has four bets.

Speaker 2 (01:25:41):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (01:25:42):
Despite this limited capacity, the facility was paid eight hundred
and twenty six thousand dollars in twenty twenty four and
was on pace to double that. That comes from that
young woman you're saying, who's going to run again Walls.
I mean, it's just astounding how that would not raise

(01:26:05):
any suspicion, which would have had to, but just no
follow up.

Speaker 2 (01:26:09):
It's just so hard to believe. Janis.

Speaker 3 (01:26:13):
Yeah, I've got to tell you, some of these numbers
just make my eyes pop out of my head just
thinking about, Hey, what would I do with eight hund
grant right.

Speaker 2 (01:26:24):
By?

Speaker 3 (01:26:24):
That might be nice Mary Christmas, but you know, it's
it's a different mindset. And that's another factor here is
that I did reach a prosecutor, former prosecutor who worked
on some of these some early front cases, and he
I asked him, why is it that there we've kind
of touched on this before Mike. But this kind of
more confirms, it can give a little more meat to

(01:26:46):
the belief that when people.

Speaker 14 (01:26:48):
Come from a culture that does kind of have a lot.

Speaker 3 (01:26:52):
Of corruption in it, Yeah, that's going to affect how
you behave.

Speaker 14 (01:26:55):
If you come to a different country.

Speaker 3 (01:26:57):
And he told me that he does believe that that
that that there is a prevailing attitude among Somali's that
if you are not if there's if the government is
offering easy money, you are dumb if you don't go
for it.

Speaker 1 (01:27:15):
Yeah, you know what, it's got to be something like that,
because well, I think you correct me if I'm wrong.
I think it was your reporting ninety two percent or
something like that of the defendants criminal defendants are Somali?

Speaker 2 (01:27:29):
Was that your reporting? And if it is, is it?

Speaker 1 (01:27:32):
I did not.

Speaker 3 (01:27:33):
Report that specistically, but he that prosecutors has shared with
me numbers along those lines. I didn't go through and
count because there's just so many. And this is the
other thing to keep in mind. So again, what is
unique about Minnesota.

Speaker 14 (01:27:46):
You know, I'm trying to drill out of that.

Speaker 3 (01:27:48):
And not only does that this large population where you've
got this attitude, but you also have allegedly but you
also have a sort of like the lack of questioning,
so you have lax requirements for the programs, not much
follow up, and then the fear of the Islamophobia. There's

(01:28:09):
a lot of that going on here. There's many manufactors
that are kind of Minnesota specific and as a result,
there's also a unique feature, according to the prosecutor Joe
Thompson about the Minnesota flog cases that I'd like to emphasize,
and that is, while the typical medicaid fraudster company over bills,

(01:28:29):
like they'll take somebody on a ride, for example, and
they say that they've taken them pretend rides, so they're
just over billing. Or maybe they changed the code from
some service to something more expensive, like they didn't really
provide service X they but they service X is more expensive.
There's service lives, so they got more money fraudulently. So

(01:28:51):
that's usually what the fraud looks like. But in this case,
there are companies that provide zero services, shell companies for
pure for the purpose of just frauding the government, according
to the prosecutor, and that he says he.

Speaker 14 (01:29:05):
Believed is unique to Minnesota.

Speaker 1 (01:29:08):
It's just it's unbelievable I don't know how many times
I've said that. I probably ought to find another word,
but I wanted to ask you too, great story, I believe,
I believe this one was maybe Wednesday about the overturned
fraud verdict, the jury verdict, criminal case, jury verdict on
some of this stuff. And you and I both know
you've covered the courts. I was a prosecutor. That a

(01:29:30):
judge overturning a jury verdict is extremely rare. I mean,
I think I've only even heard of it in Hamill
County two or three times. What is the deal with
that with Judge Sarah West? And do you know what
her politics are or have any reason to believe that
her overturning of what twelve people decided is politically motivated?

Speaker 3 (01:29:55):
Well, Mike, just like here in Ohio, where judge ships
are theoretically not political, we all know that's pretty much
all of these people in office, even if they're a
quote unquote non part of the position, do have these
political connections. So with that said, it's my understanding that
she is Democrat aligned. However, it's interesting because the Republican
lawmaker whose efforts I featured, he wants to really dig

(01:30:17):
into that particular case to try to get what he
calls a roadmap to fraud, Like, what are how do
you go from zero dollars of fraud all the way
up to seven point two million, which is what this
guy allegedly did.

Speaker 14 (01:30:32):
They called it the seven point.

Speaker 3 (01:30:34):
Two million dollar mailbox because he didn't even have an
office space.

Speaker 14 (01:30:38):
He was running a quote healthcare agency.

Speaker 13 (01:30:41):
From a mailbox.

Speaker 4 (01:30:43):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (01:30:44):
And now I did not read the trial's transcredo. You know,
I wouldn't even venture to say anything about the actual evidence. However,
the lawmaker I interviewed said, at first he thought maybe
that the judges politics had something to do with the
decisions she made here that was very recontroversial because it
broke around the same time all the attention starts exploding

(01:31:07):
over this in Minnesota because of the emerging scandals and
because of new allegations about the terrorism funding. All of
that was breaking at the same time. And then, oh,
by the way, this judge makes this decision, well, he
now says, it actually raises a lot of questions about
the how solid was the prosecutor's case. Because the biggest
concern that the judge raised in her fifty five page decision,

(01:31:31):
which I did read. She says, the prosecutors never made
the link between Okay, this man owns the company.

Speaker 14 (01:31:42):
And here were there's evidence that he got all this money,
but did.

Speaker 3 (01:31:46):
He cause the fraudulent billing?

Speaker 14 (01:31:50):
His brother was actually running the company?

Speaker 3 (01:31:53):
Gotcha, and the brother, to my knowledge, has never been charged.

Speaker 14 (01:31:58):
I've been trying to do some smith being around.

Speaker 9 (01:32:00):
On why not.

Speaker 3 (01:32:02):
I have heard, you know, somebody appined to me that
they just couldn't find him.

Speaker 14 (01:32:09):
May have left the country, he knows.

Speaker 3 (01:32:12):
But that is so Again this lawmaker is saying, well,
you know, he's looking at all the transactions and trying.
There's forty four thousand transactions in this case. Think about that. Wow,
the volume of documents that these prosecutors Haley and I
don't know.

Speaker 14 (01:32:29):
He didn't say how many prosecutors you have, But Joe Thompson,
the prosecutor there in Minnesota, says he has a small staff.

Speaker 3 (01:32:35):
I don't know, it's small means.

Speaker 1 (01:32:36):
But.

Speaker 3 (01:32:38):
You wouldn't need like it looks like a prosecutorial army. Yeah,
it would soon if that's like one case. Now that
was actually a state case, it wasn't the federal case.
So you got to remember that this federal is a
whole different ball of wax than this state case is overturned.
So it's raising questions that about the state Attorney General's

(01:32:59):
office handling of and preparation.

Speaker 2 (01:33:02):
Of the evidence in that case.

Speaker 1 (01:33:05):
Well, Janis, you know obviously didn't read the opinion from
the judge like you did, but you know she's quoted
as saying in your story. Similarly, the judge stated that
it was quote offensive and of great concern close quote
how much Medicaid money flowed through Usef's company, with more
than a million bucks transferred from the business account to

(01:33:27):
Usef's personal accounts.

Speaker 2 (01:33:29):
Well, you know to me, and again I didn't read it.

Speaker 1 (01:33:32):
What is offensive and of great concern is why she
would overturn a verdict of twelve jurors supposedly, who are
these this guy's peers? Again, I don't know it. And
my thing I guess I'm coming back on it is
so rare that a judge would substitute her opinion for

(01:33:54):
that of a lawfully constituted jury.

Speaker 2 (01:33:58):
You know, I think I might just drill down on
that a little bit, but I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:34:01):
I guess as a former prosecutor, that strikes me as
a little bit strange and probably I shouldn't say probably,
maybe something.

Speaker 2 (01:34:10):
Else behind it. And you have all of it, you
have all of a minute to respond. Sorry.

Speaker 3 (01:34:16):
I didn't delve into this aspect for my story, but
my understanding that there may be a unique standard of
review that she used that's unique to Minnesota could again,
I don't know the ins and outs of that. You
would know better than I have a lawyer, Mike.

Speaker 2 (01:34:29):
Okay, Well, I'm gonna check it out. Janis. I really
appreciate this, appreciate it a lot.

Speaker 3 (01:34:35):
Thank you, Sure, thank you very much. I hope I've
enlightened some people and you know, give us some information,
things to think about and maybe even things to look
for in our own backyards.

Speaker 1 (01:34:44):
Well, I'm sure that you have, because I got to
tell you, hardly a day goes by that somebody doesn't
mention something to me about how they are enjoying your
reporting on this.

Speaker 2 (01:34:55):
It's a big deal and it is very much appreciated.

Speaker 3 (01:35:00):
Well, before I get off here, I do want to
encourage anybody to contact me, especially if they know anything
about what's going on up in Columbus, because I've been
hearing some things about that with the Columbus Somali community.
I'm on Twitter at Janis High School, hisl E and
it has my email on there as well.

Speaker 2 (01:35:13):
All right, Jas, thank you, thank you.

Speaker 1 (01:35:17):
Okay, all right, Janis Heisel of the Epoch time she
mentioned the Columbus situation. If you've been listening for the
whole show, you know that we've had a couple of
callers and we had some last week too talking about it.

Speaker 2 (01:35:29):
So get ready for that, hey, listen. I am out
of here.

Speaker 1 (01:35:33):
I'm in for Sloaney Wednesday morning from nine to noon,
then of course next Saturday for Saturday midday Mike Allen
seven hundred WLW. But before I go, I want to
thank my producer Liam Mike Allen, seven hundred