MN Attorney General Keith Ellison on affordability and fraud

We conclude our conversations with candidates today is we've got what three or four days depending on how you count until the midterm elections on Tuesday. Today, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison. Now we invited the candidates from the four major statewide races plus a Hennepin County Attorney's Office race. Anybody polling above 5%. And so that has been the parameters here for 10 minutes. Of airtime, so let's bring in Attorney General Ellison who joins us on the road today. Attorney General Ellison, why don't you tell us what you're out doing today, first of all? Talking to Minnesotans today, we're listening to Minnesotans, we're hearing about. This economy, we're hearing about how they feel about dealing with some of the overreaching acts of the Trump administration. And just really getting acquainted with everything from gas prices to how farmers feel about the tariffs and the war in Iran and all of the things that really animate people's lives. And inform their vote as they make their final decision. Yeah, this is a southern Minnesota tour today. I think this tour continues for the weekend, I believe on your way to a stop. That's right. I think you just appeared in, was it Austin and now you're headed towards Winona? Yeah, Murray County, Austin, hanging out with our friends there. Now we're headed on to Winona, which is a beautiful city, as we all know. Well, let's start here. Your biography, for people who maybe aren't aware, U of M law school graduate in 1990. You were a criminal defense and civil rights attorney in the Minnesota House for four years, 12 years in the U.S. House, and now attorney general since 2018. What is it you feel that you have accomplished and what is it that you still want to do that is having you run for reelection? Yeah, well, what we've accomplished is we've done two really important things. One is we have helped Minnesotans afford their lives. I sued the insulin cartel and was able to reduce the price of insulin for some people who were paying as much as $1,300 a month, down to capping it at $35 a month for everybody. We were able to start an anti-wage theft division, which protects the wages and return millions of dollars to Minnesotans. We sued over the opioid crisis and were able to make sure that Minnesotans who had been addicted and caught up with false marketing aimed at them. We were able to make sure that we got compensation back from the state of Minnesota to help people deal with these addictive things. We sued Juul and the Vaping companies that were marketing to our children and we won 60 million from them and are suing Loon and others now for marketing to our children. We're fighting gun trafficking. We're able to sue a retailer who was selling guns to people who would then in turn sell them I'm on the... to criminals. And we're able to make them change their processes on that. And we're holding Glock accountable. Because they make a gun which can be a semi-automatic handgun, which can be converted into a automatic machine gun with a $10 add on. We think they must change their design to save the lives of Minnesotans. So we've done a lot, we've helped people afford their lives, Live with dignity, safety, and respect. We have protected $8 billion and we can prove that number. That's not a made up number. That's a real number. We've protected $8 billion from the federal government taking money away from Minnesota. As the Trump administration just said, well, we're not gonna give you your food stamp money, which impacts 440,000 Minnesotans. We sued them, we beat them. We sued Trump over the tariffs and we beat them in the Supreme Court for that. We sued Trump Over birthright citizenship, we sued them over AmeriCorps, we sued them over National Institute of Health Grants, and we made them restore all of them. For Minnesotans. So we've had a pretty good record. We're proud of it. You asked me what we're gonna do next. Well, quite honestly, the fight for helping Minnesotans afford their lives has never been more urgent. I mean, I can tell you right now we're on the road. So we know what gas prices are. And Austin, they want 4.09 for gas. Well, a year ago, when When Trump started, it was about 2.79. So we all know. That this fight for affordability is as intense as ever. And we're gonna continue on that front. Pushing down people's generic drug prices, pushing down people's healthcare costs, standing up for people in the market in all kind of ways, in all kind of methods. All right. So that's what we're doing. I wanna address here, this is a close race. I mean, polling is close with your Republican challenger, Ron Schuetz, and I want you to address- It is. Some of the things that he has said here in his campaign. When it comes to fraud, obviously a major topic of this election season. Mr. Schuetz said the current attorney general has been willfully blind to it. Well, we have prosecuted over 358 people and convicted them of Medicaid fraud. We have worked with the state legislature to increase the number of our team from 32 to about 50. And so we have actually worked with the legislature to lengthen sentences for people who steal money from public programs like Medicaid. And so I don't really know what We know what he's talking about, it sounds like a campaign talking point. To me, you should know and your listeners should know that when we were working with the legislature to increase sentences for fraudsters and increase our team so we can be more effective, he actually asked the legislature to not vote for our bill. He literally opposed our anti-fraud bill and so So I don't. I don't know if he's against fraud, but he's against me, I can tell you that. But still we passed our bill anyway. Yeah, let me get you to address one of the issues raised in one of the ads and that is a recording of a phone call in your office. I have listened to this several times and where you're a ledger, they accuse you of Thank you very much. wanting or offering to help people who are then later indicted in the Feeding Our Future fraud scandal. I know from that phone call, That they hadn't represented themselves that way when they come in. But I want you to explain what we hear in that call. Well, what you hear in that call. So first of all, I meet with people three, four times a week. It's not unusual for me to meet with Minnesotans. I meet with Minnesotans as often as I can. This group of Minnesotans were all liars, cheaters and scammers. They were representing themselves as legitimate business people who had some challenges with red tape. And so I said, look, submit to me what your complaints are. We'll see what we can do to help. And I do this all the time. If a group of Minnesotans, whether they be farmers, small business people, teachers, whoever they are saying, look, I'm having a problem. Obviously, as the AG, I'm gonna try to help them solve the problem. What I found out and what became very clear is that these people were liars and thieves and cheaters. And what we ended up doing is helping the federal government criminally prosecute many of them, over 57 of them. And it was. Critical evidence that our office helped pull together that contributed to those convictions. And of course this was federal money, so it was entirely appropriate for the federal government to prosecute them. But they did it with evidence that we helped them to get on against these people. So yeah, it's true, some liars tape me without telling me, and after they falsely represented who they were. And so that particular ad is deeply misleading. But I can tell you this, I don't have any misleading ads about Ron. Every time I take a run tape on what he said, he really did say that. It's not misleading at all, but the one he ran on me is misleading. And I think Minnesotans know that I've always operated with ethics, integrity, and honor as I represented them as their Minnesota Attorney General. One other issue that we've heard in this campaign too is regarding the pardon of To Lou Vang, a Laotian national, pardoned earlier this year after a conviction in 2006 of first-degree criminal sexual conduct with a 10-year-old victim. You know, You're accused of being soft on crime in this case. You had explained that this was the advice of the clemency board and noted that it would not stop a deportation process. And in fact, that deportation did happen. I want you to explain that. Yeah, so the first thing to know is that the victim whose opinion we take very seriously wrote a letter asking the pardon board to grant the pardon. Every victim has their own journey of healing. This victim wanted us to grant the pardon. And after 25 years, and after this individual had been out of prison, completed all of his sentence 25 years ago, we We Took the advice of the victim and granted the pardon. Every member of the pardon board granted it, voted in favor of it, so did the clemency board. And there were a number of people that day who asked for pardons but who had no victim support, and we voted against them. Because we feel that victims' interests are very important. So that's really what happened. But the real truth is, is that we are very aggressive against crime. And we're actually tough on crime. We prosecuted over 358 people for Medicaid fraud. We assist our counties around the state of Minnesota. In fact, when counties asked me to help them prosecute crime, we prosecuted over 169 cases, including we're on our way to Winona. We prosecuted a teacher who sexually abused three students, put him in prison for a long time. And again, I think that your listeners should know there's a world of difference between a pardon, somebody who served their sentence many, Many, many years ago. And somebody who was actively committing crimes who we prosecute every day and all the time. So that's the story there. All right, well, and that is 10 minutes. So thank you for your time today. Attorney General Keith Ellison on his way to To an event in Winona. Thanks again.