By Jim Thomas | Wednesday, 31 December 2025 07:28 PM EST
Minnesota State Rep. Walter Hudson stated on Wednesday that a surge of attention to alleged daycare fraud in his state has stripped away plausible deniability for regulators and elected officials, arguing that failures point to either gross incompetence or complicity.
Hudson, a Republican, said federal agents have expanded an investigation into what Department of Homeland Security officials describe as widespread fraud tied to publicly funded child care centers. The inquiry accelerated after a viral video by conservative YouTuber Nick Shirley alleged that nearly a dozen Minnesota daycare sites receiving public funds were not providing services.
“It’s been extraordinarily frustrating, but it’s very encouraging,” Hudson said, crediting recent attention to the work of independent investigators and “especially the federal administration under [President] Donald Trump.”
He noted state officials had long encouraged the public to report fraud, yet meaningful action lagged until Shirley’s video was circulated widely online. As of Monday, the video had surpassed 1 million views on YouTube and had spread widely on X.
As a member of the Minnesota House Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Committee, Hudson said whistleblowers inside state agencies have come forward only under assurances of anonymity. “They are afraid of retaliation,” he said, adding that those fears were reinforced by heated public responses to Shirley from Democrats and what he called the legacy media.
Hudson stated that the accumulation of evidence has narrowed the range of explanations. “Yeah, I mean, it’s at the point where it’s the benefit of doubt or the suspension of disbelief is diminishing in your capacity to offer it,” he said. “Right. Like it gets to a point where there’s only two possibilities. Either we’re dealing with people whose level of incompetence and ignorance should disqualify them for a job at Taco Bell, or they are, to some degree or another, complicit in what’s going on here in this state.”
The comments came as agents conducted what Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem called a “massive investigation on child care and other rampant fraud” in Minnesota. Officials confirmed several leads originated not from formal complaints but from social media reporting.
Hudson rejected liberals’ criticism that the investigation would harm children, saying claims from liberal commentators were misplaced. He compared the reaction to past liberal lack of reaction to unrest in Minnesota, arguing that media voices now expressing concern had downplayed violence during the 2020 riots in Minneapolis.
“Vigilante justice is celebrated on the left,” Hudson said, referring to the backlash to Shirley’s reporting and invoking the reaction to the killing of conservative leader Charlie Kirk as evidence of what he described as selective outrage.
