Vice President JD Vance openly rebuked Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz after recent federal anti-fraud raids, using a sharp analogy and pointing to federal and local investigators who exposed massive suspected pandemic-era loan fraud.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz drew fresh criticism for trying to claim credit following federal raids that targeted long-running fraud operations in his state, and some Republicans said his reaction was tone-deaf. Observers argued this is not something you boast about when federal agents and task forces did the heavy lifting, especially after so many problems grew where state oversight was weak. Plenty of frustration is focused on leadership that allowed these schemes to fester while people suffered the consequences.

FBI Director Kash Patel publicly criticized the governor, and Vice President JD Vance — who is steering a national anti-fraud effort — was even sharper in his response. The picture painted by investigators is of a federal task force stepping into gaps left by state systems, not officials trying to take a victory lap. Credit for the sting operations, many say, belongs to the agents on the ground and to journalists and whistleblowers who pulled the corruption into daylight, including Nick Shirley, who helped expose the abuses and shifted the political landscape around Walz.

A Vance spokesperson reached out, saying, “The Task Force has had unprecedented success in eliminating fraud across the United States. The President’s War on Fraud is working, as the task force and the entire Trump Administration continue to work tirelessly to expose Fraudsters who have scammed the American people out of billions of dollars.” The comment was meant to underscore that a coordinated federal push has produced concrete results where other efforts lagged.

Mr. Vance later used a blunt analogy to make the point that state-level failures don’t become achievements just because an official tries to claim them. He framed the raids as the result of federal initiative and local cooperation, not the product of political theater in a governor’s office.

This is like the arsonist trying to claim credit for the work of the fire department, because Tim Walz let this fraud happen under his watch, whether he was complicit in it directly himself or just turned a blind eye towards it.

 We really did not get much help at all from the governor’s office. Where we did actually get some help was from some state local law enforcement officers who we assigned to the federal task force because the state government wasn’t doing anything. So all credit goes to people on the ground, the Federal officers, the state officers, who are working to uncover this fraud.

The scope of the problem the task force is chasing is staggering: investigators have flagged hundreds of thousands of suspect loans and tens of billions of dollars tied to pandemic-era programs. Those findings suggest a large-scale exploitation of relief programs that should have helped small businesses and workers instead became a vehicle for fraud when oversight was lacking. Republicans point to this as proof that robust federal enforcement was necessary to stop an entrenched gravy train.

The U.S. Small Business Administration referred 562,000 suspected fraudulent loans totaling over $22.2 billion to the U.S. Department of Treasury for collections.

“From Day One, the Trump SBA has worked tirelessly to crack down on billions in pandemic-era fraud that the Biden Administration forgave or ignored,” SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler told Fox News Digital in a statement. 

“After extensive review, and with the strong support of the White House Anti-Fraud Task Force, we are taking our most decisive action yet to end a Biden-era scheme that protected over 560,000 borrowers tied to more than $22 billion in suspected pandemic-era fraud,” Loeffler added. 

The loans, largely stemming from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and the COVID Economic Injury Disaster loan program, were flagged for suspected fraud during former President Joe Biden’s administration but never sent to Treasury for collections, the SBA said in its statement.

This episode crystallizes a basic political judgment: when fraud blooms on a governor’s watch, partisan spin won’t fix the problem or soothe the citizens who were harmed. For those who backed the federal task force, the next step is obvious — keep the pressure on fraud networks and follow the leads wherever they go, even if that shines an unflattering light on state officials. The argument from this side is simple and direct: dismantle the systems that let the theft happen, and don’t reward politicians who try to rewrite their record after the fact.

Yeah, we need more federal raids, folks. This gravy train must be derailed.