WATCH: Walz, Ellison, Omar refuse to answer when pressed on fraud after contentious fraud hearing
Following the highly anticipated House Oversight Committee hearing on fraud Wednesday, Fox News Digital pressed Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison about their roles in the scandal but received no response from the embattled officials.
"Why wasn't the fraud caught sooner, governor?" Walz was asked after the hearing. "Almost $10 billion — why wasn't it caught sooner?"
Walz declined to answer as he was escorted down a hallway by staff but stopped briefly to speak with another individual. During a second encounter, Walz again declined to answer the question but acknowledged a security guard as he walked down the hallway.
"Mr. Attorney General, can you tell us why the fraud wasn't caught sooner?" Ellison was asked after his testimony.
Ellison did not respond and continued walking up a staircase.
Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar, who did not testify Wednesday but has faced criticism for her ties to the Feeding Our Future fraud scandal in the state, did not respond after the hearing when Fox News Digital began asking her questions.
Walz and Ellison faced a barrage of tough questions from Republicans during the hearing on the massive fraud scandal in the state, with most focused on one key theme: What did they know, and when did they know it?
Walz and Ellison were asked multiple times for specifics about when they were first made aware of the fraud and faced sharp rebukes from Republican members, including Rep. Virginia Foxx.
"You did not do your job, you did not do your job," Foxx told Walz. "You did not protect taxpayer dollars. You allowed massive fraud. You and Mr. Ellison allowed massive fraud to go on in the state of Minnesota. It is unfortunate, as somebody said, that you can't be held personally responsible at this stage in the game."
An exchange between GOP Rep. Jim Jordan and Walz sparked immediate pushback from conservatives on social media.
One of the most contentious exchanges came during questioning from GOP Rep. Nancy Mace when she pressed Walz for specific numbers on how many children are in his state, the massive increase in autism care spending and why that occurred, without getting specific figures from Walz.
"OK, so your excuse before — that you didn't know what the 2017 autism numbers were — because you were not governor, and today you can't answer the numbers about 2024 as governor, and you still said you prepared for this hearing today. It's unbelievable."
GOP Rep. Clay Higgins confronted Ellison in another heated moment, asking him to say he was "leading" the fight to root out corruption. Without receiving the specific answer he was looking for, Higgins called for Ellison's resignation.
"I'm not talking about Medicaid fraud, don't hide behind that," Higgins said, interrupting Ellison. "You have the authority to prosecute anything criminally that the governor asks you to, and this thing is big. I'm giving you an opportunity, sir, are you leading the criminal investigative effort into this massive fraud across the board…or not?" Higgins pressed.
"You are not leading. I'm going to say, Mr. Chairman, that the attorney general of the state of Minnesota should resign," Higgins said.
At the close of the hearing, things became tense again when GOP Rep. Nick Langworthy suggested that Walz, who is still serving as governor despite dropping out of his reelection bid due to the fraud scandal, should be impeached for "malfeasance," citing Minnesota's Constitution.