CNN’s Abby Phillip Clashes With Trump Allies Over Whether Somalis Are ‘Actual Victims’ of Minnesota Fraud

CNN’s Abby Phillip got into a lively back-and-forth squabble with her Table for Five panel on Saturday morning when she said the “actual victims” of the Minnesota fraud scandal “are probably actually Somali families.”

Phillip made the claim after actor and SiriusXM radio host John Fugelsang said conservatives like President Donald Trump were “blaming innocent people of color for what private contractors did.” He also said Trump was “racializing” investigations into potentially billions in fraud in Minnesota.

The fraud refers to a $9 billion “industrial-scale” fraud scheme that allegedly ripped off government child care funding and other programs. The New York Post reported the scheme was pulled off by “dozens of people — the vast majority from Minnesota’s Somali community.”

A few of the right-leaning panelists did not agree with Phillip and Fugelsang, though.

“Hmmm, I don’t know about that,” MAGA ETF founder Hal Lambert responded immediately after Phillip said Somalis were the actual victims.

“[The] victims are taxpayers,” New York Post reporter Lydia Moynihan added, before the panel started speaking over one another.

“Somalis are taxpayers,” scoffed Ashley Allison, the ex-National Coalitions Director for former President Joe Biden and former Vice President Kamala Harris.

Moynihan and Lambert both shot back that 80% of Somalis are on welfare. Fugelsang said Somalis in Minnesota pay “state, local, and sales taxes.”

“And they get it all back with their welfare payments,” Lambert responded. “They’re not taxpayers.”

“Wowww,” Allison chimed in.

Phillip then tried to get a handle on the conversation.

“Wait, so hold on, hold on. But Hal, are you suggesting that all across America, white people, black people, Somali — people of Somali heritage, because many of them are Americans — you don’t consider them to be taxpayers if they receive benefits from the government?” she asked.

“Are they net taxpayers?” Lambert asked back.

“I’m just asking you, do you think they are taxpayers with the rights of citizens everywhere if they receive government benefits?” Phillip replied.

Lambert said they “obviously have rights as citizens if they’re citizens,” but said they are not a taxpayer if they take more money out of the system than they contribute into it.

Phillip then asked if the fraud was hypothetically committed by white people in Appalachia, like those Vice President JD Vance  wrote about in his memoir Hillbilly Elegy, would he feel the same way. Lambert said it had nothing to do with race.

The CNN anchor then moved onto a clip of the vice president ripping Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (D) over the fraud scandal.

Watch above via CNN.