[00:00:00] Speaker 1: Big breaking political news out of Minnesota. Governor Tim Walz, who of course was the Democratic nominee for vice president in 2024, has ended his reelection bid for governor. He is not going to run for reelection. This comes as pressure has been growing around this widening welfare fraud scandal. Now, Walz has not been accused of any wrongdoing, but it has been a growing political headache. Let's get right to CNN chief national affairs correspondent Jeff Zeleny. This is a wow this morning, or at least would have been if you had said it was going to happen, what, two or three months ago.

[00:00:37] Speaker 2: That's right, John. Good morning. Even perhaps two or three weeks ago, the reality is Minnesota Governor Tim Walz had been insistent on running for a third term, which would have been unprecedented in and of itself. Minnesota has not elected a governor for three consecutive terms, but it is that deepening federal probe, as well as this widening scandal. As you said, he is not implicated in this at all. This is actually somewhat old news in Minnesota. This has been going on for years and years. The prosecution started back during the Biden administration but over the holidays, it certainly did widen. There was a right-wing influencer who posted a viral video on social media that quite literally went viral when the vice president of the United States and the FBI director leaned in on this and it shined a brighter spotlight on really what had been some deep concerns among Minnesota Democrats, even about the wisdom of Governor Walz seeking a third term. They believed that this would hang over the entire reelection effort and perhaps even damage the Democratic Party, even though there is no suggestion that there was wrongdoing. However, this widening scandal happened on his watch, but we are getting his reasoning in a new statement this morning that's ahead of a news conference he's scheduled to hold in just a few hours. Let's take a look at one small portion of this, if we can, John. The governor writes this. He said, as I reflected on this moment with my family and my team over the holidays, I came to the conclusion that I can't give a political campaign my all. Every minute I spent defending my own political interests would be a minute I can't spend defending the people of Minnesota against the criminals who prey on our generosity and the cynics who prey on our differences. And the governor goes on in quite a lengthy statement, which we expect him to read at that news conference, which is going to be happening at 11 a.m. in St. Paul, Minnesota. He goes on to take direct aim at President Donald Trump and allies of the president and Republican allies who have sought to make political hay out of this, if you will, of course. A lot of this fraud is coming from some leaders of the Somali population in Minneapolis and Minnesota, longstanding members of the community. And the fraud goes back to the COVID time of federal money that was sent to the state of Minnesota. It was simply misused to the tune of the billions. So dozens have already been convicted. But again, the governor is taking direct aim at President Trump over this for politicizing this entire matter.

[00:03:10] Speaker 3: Well, good morning, everyone, and happy New Year. Like many Minnesotans, I have to tell you, I was glad to turn the page on 2025. It was an extraordinarily difficult year for our state, and it ended on a particularly sour note. For the last several years, an organized group of criminals have sought to take advantage of this state's generosity. And even as we make progress in the fight against the fraudsters, we now see an organized group of political actors seeking to take advantage of a crisis. I don't want to mince words here. Donald Trump and his allies in Washington and in St. Paul, and online, want to make our state a colder, meaner place. They want to poison our people against each other by attacking our neighbors. And ultimately, they want to take away much of what makes Minnesota the best place in the country to raise a family. They've already begun trying to withhold funds that were meant to help families afford childcare, and they have no intention of stopping there. Make no mistake, we should be concerned about fraud in our state government. We cannot effectively deliver programs and services if we can't earn the public's trust. That's why over the past few years, we've made systemic changes in the way we do business. We've gone to the legislature time and time again to get more tools to combat fraud. We've hired people who weren't, we've fired people who weren't doing their jobs. We've seen people go to jail for stealing from our state. We've cut off whole streams of funding in partnership with the federal government, where we saw widespread criminal activity. We've put new locks on the doors of our remaining programs. And we've hired a new head of program integrity to make sure that those locks can't be broken. All across this state, Minnesotans are hard at work on this problem. Advocates, administrators, investigators are on the front lines defending the integrity of our state's programs. And I wanna give a very heartfelt thank you to all of them. There is more to do. A single taxpayer dollar wasted on fraud should be intolerable. And while there's a role to play for everyone, from the legislature to prosecutors to insurance companies to local and county government, the buck does stop with me. My administration has been taking fast, decisive action to solve this crisis. We'll win the fight against the fraudsters. But the political gamesmanship we're seeing from Republicans is only making that fight harder. We've got Republicans here in the state legislature playing hide and seek with potential whistleblowers. We've got conspiracy theorist right-wing YouTubers breaking into our daycares, demanding access to our children. We've got the President of the United States demonizing our Somali neighbors and wrongfully confiscating funds that Minnesotans rely on. It's disgusting and it's dangerous. Republicans are playing politics with the future of this state. It's shameful. And I've said it before and I will continue to say it. We welcome ideas from anyone, in any party, from any walk of life, who wants to help us continue to stay ahead of these criminals. And we welcome the involvement of the federal government. I am grateful to the career professionals at the U.S. Attorney's Office and the FBI who have been helping us fight this fight for years. But I cannot abide the actions of the political leadership in Washington. These opportunists are willing to hurt our people to score cheap points. They and their allies have no intention of helping us solve this problem and every intention of trying to profit off of it. Which brings me to this. 2026 is an election year. Election years have a way of ramping up the politics at a time when we simply can't afford more of that in Minnesota. In September, I announced that I would seek a historic third term as Minnesota's governor. And I have every confidence that if I gave it my all, we would win the race. So as I reflect on this moment with my family and my team over the holidays, I came to the conclusion that I can't give a political campaign my all. Every minute that I spend defending my own political interest would be a minute I can't spend defending the people of Minnesota against the criminals who prey on our generosity and the cynics who want to prey on our differences. So I've decided to step out of this race and I'll let others worry about the election while I focus on the work that's in front of me this year. I'm passing on this race with zero sadness and zero regret. I did not run for this job to have the job. I ran for the job to do the job. Minnesota faces enormous challenges this year and I refuse to spend a single minute doing anything other than rising to meet this moment. Minnesota has always come first and always will. That's what I believe servant leadership demands of me. As an optimist, I'll hold out some hope that my friends on the other side of the aisle will consider what servant leadership demands of them in the moment. We can work together to combat against the criminals. We can work together to rebuild the public's trust and make our state stronger. But make no mistake about it, if Republicans continue down the path of abusing power, smearing entire communities, and running their own fraudulent game at the expense of Minnesotans, I will fight back with everything that I have. I am absolutely confident a Democratic and a DFLer will hold this seat come November. I'm confident that I'll find ways to contribute to the state that I love long after next January. But there'll be time to worry about all that later. Today, I'm proud of the work we've done to make Minnesota America's best place to live and raise kids. From our new paid leave policy, to our child tax credit, to our school lunch programs that are feeding every single child. And I'm doubly proud of the incredible team we've put together to make this vision a reality. I want to take a moment to thank every member of my staff, to every single state employee who has been part of this fight. Now more than ever, I need you on the job. I need you to help work together to tackle the important work in front of us. And most of all, I want Minnesotans to know how grateful I am for the opportunity to serve this state, for the privilege that I have been given to serve in this office. I'm on the job, I'm focused on making sure that we stay America's best place to live and raise kids. No one will take that away from us. I'm proud of the way we treat our neighbors, I'm proud of the way that we welcome people to this state, I'm proud of the way that we innovate, and I'm proud of the way that we are optimists for the future. No one's taking this away from us. Not the fraudsters, certainly not this president. Not on my watch. Tomorrow, I'll be back with you. I'll give you an update on America's best paid family medical leave program that is now a week into it. And at that time, I'll take all your questions. Thank you all.