Minnesota Governor Tim Walz has hit out at President Donald Trump for blaming the murder of Democrat lawmaker Melissa Hortman on the Somali fraud scandal.
Hortman, a former Democratic Minnesota House Speaker, was shot to death alongside her husband, Mark, over the summer.
Authorities have said suspect Vance Boelter, who is also accused of shooting State Senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, that same night, was targeting 45 liberal lawmakers and abortion providers.
But on Saturday, Trump shared a post to his Truth Social page suggesting that Hortman was killed because she voted to repeal eligibility for undocumented adults to access MinnesotaCare.
‘Was Minnesota State Rep. Melissa Hortman murdered because she voted against and was exposing a multi-billion dollar money laundering fraud going to illegal immigrants in Minnesota?’ the reshared post read.
‘The fraud that she voted against… heavily implicated illegal aliens, specifically Somalians, who have been racketing this kind of child care, health care rackets and cooperating with our corrupt government.’
He also shared a video echoing the claims, which included a clip of Hortman addressing the press, saying: ‘I did what leaders do, I stepped up and I got the job done for the people of Minnesota.’
After seeing the post, which was liked more than 14,300 times on the president’s platform, Walz said it was ‘dangerous, depraved behavior from the sitting president of the United States.’
Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman was murdered alongside her husband, Mark, over the summer
President Donald Trump has since spread a claim linking her murder with a notorious Somali fraud scheme – earning the ire of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz
He called the post ‘dangerous, depraved behavior from the sitting president of the United States’ and claimed: ‘America is better than this’
‘In covering for an actual serial killer, he is going to get more innocent people killed,’ the one-time Democratic vice presidential candidate continued.
‘America is better than this.’
Other state Democratic leaders also said Trump’s post dredged up the emotional pain they felt following the homicides.
‘Trump is degrading the Office of the President by engaging in an outrageous lie,’ US Rep Betty McCollum, who represents a St. Paul-area district, told Minnesota Public Radio.
Minnesota House Democratic Leader Zack Stephenon added that Hortman and Walz were close friends and allies.
‘Anyone who claims otherwise is lying,’ he said in a statement.
‘Melissa Hortman didn’t have any patience for politicians who couldn’t speak the truth, even when it was politically difficult. Minnesotans shouldn’t either.
‘Any political leader in Minnesota who will not condemn his posts isn’t fit to hold office.’
Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy also called the president’s post ‘soulless.’
‘The man charged with killing Melissa and Mark Hortman, shooting John and Yvette Hoffman, and targeting dozens more Minnesota Democrats, was known to traffic in exactly the kind of conspiracy theory Donald Trump just endorsed,’ she said.
‘Lying about the assassinations of the Hortmans puts people in danger and fans the flames of political violence,’ she continued.’
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Trump shared a post to his Truth Social page suggesting that Hortman was killed because she voted to repeal eligibility for undocumented adults to access MinnesotaCare
Hortman’s children have also slammed Trump for the post.
‘I am asking President Trump to remove the video that he shared and apologize to me and my family for posting this misinformation and for using my mother’s own words to dishonor her memory,’ her son, Collin Hortman, said in a statement.
His sister, Sophie Hortman, also said the video twists the truth about their mother’s political stances, and comes as she and her brother spent their first holiday season without their parents.
‘We must create a society in which we do not harbor hatred and violence toward our political opponents, and this video promotes a false narrative which fuels the flames of political division.’
Yvette Hoffman, meanwhile, called the president’s claims ‘absolute bulls**t’ and said ‘the leader of the free world is endangering families safety.’
But the president was not the first to share the theory, with actress and socialite Sara Foster making similar claims in a post last week.
At that point, Republican State Senator Julia Coleman shut down what she called a ‘conspiracy theory,’ stating that ‘the fraud had nothing to do with the assassinations.’
‘I am a Minnesota Republican legislator. I never agreed with Melissa. Not once. But I’m begging people to stop sharing this conspiracy theory,’ she wrote on X.
Coleman went on to discuss the video of Hortman, who was visibly emotional following a meeting on her decision to cast a vote that broke with her political party.
Actress and socialite Sara Foster made similar claims in a post last week
Republican State Senator Julia Coleman immediately slammed Foster for sharing a ‘conspiracy theory,’ and that ‘the fraud had nothing to do with the assassinations’
In the clip, Hortman said: ‘What I worry about is that people will lose their health insurance. I know that people will be hurt by that vote, and I’m…
‘We worked very hard to try to get a budget deal that wouldn’t include that provision. And we tried any other way we could to come to a budget agreement with Republicans and they wouldn’t have it.’
Coleman said Hortman’s tears were not due to fear and she was only emotional because the vote ‘was incredibly hard for her’.
‘She is not terrified in this video. She’s crying because she had to take this vote to keep the government open, and it was incredibly hard for her,’ Coleman wrote.
‘That’s who she was as a leader. Even though I didn’t agree with her, I could tell her heart was absolutely in it, and the weight of her decisions were worn on her sleeve sometimes.
‘There were people on the hit list that did not take that same vote,’ Coleman continued in reference to the chilling list of names Boelter allegedly planned to take out, according to evidence seized by police from the crime scene.
Coleman added: ‘Tim Walz had nothing to do with the assassinations. The fraud had nothing to do with the assassinations. The assassin was deranged. Completely and utterly deranged. And Minnesota lost a good woman because of it.’
The GOP lawmaker went on to seemingly take a direct hit at Foster, concluding her post with: ‘Please, unless you have evidence, stop trying to get social media clout off the death of a good person that you know nothing about.’
Authorities have said that alleged gunman Vance Boelter was targeting 45 liberal lawmakers and abortion providers
Boelter is accused of fatally shooting the Hortmans (left). He is also accused of shooting State Senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette Hoffman (right). They both survived
The claims about Hortman’s death comes amid scrutiny over the state’s spending, following a video showing an apparently empty daycare in Hennepin County which has allegedly received $4 million in taxpayers’ money.
The shocking film sparked an immediate federal response including by FBI Director Kash Patel and Department of Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem who then announced investigations into the loans.
Prosecutors now say at least 57 people connected with the Feeding Our Future program billed the federal government $250 million, claiming to buy meals for children during the COVID pandemic.
Instead, the defendants allegedly used the stolen money to buy Lamborghinis, Porsche SUVs, beachfront property in Kenya and private villas in the Maldives. The vast majority of those convicted in the case are Somali.
Investigators then found that around $9 billion in federal Medicaid funds supporting 14 Minnesota programs since 2018 may have been stolen, US Attorney Joe Thompson announced on December 18.
Eighty-two of the 92 defendants in the child nutrition, housing services and autism program scams are Somali, according to Thompson.
The Trump administration has since announced that it has suspended 6,900 borrowers over suspected Covid loan fraud involving roughly $400 million of taxpayer funds in Minnesota.
‘These individuals will be banned from all Small Business Administration loan programs, including disaster loans, going forward,’ SBA boss Kelly Loeffler announced Thursday night on X.
Daily Mail has reached out to the White House for comment.
