David Edwards
December 30, 2025
RAW STORY
YouTube/screen grab
Despite a right-leaning change in management at CBS News, the network disputed claims made by MAGA influencer Nick Shirley about alleged fraud at Somali daycare facilities in Minnesota.
Shirley's video investigation, which was viewed tens of millions of times on YouTube and X, suggested that the facilities were taking funds from the government without caring for children.
On Tuesday, CBS News posted a fact check of Shirley on X, the same platform that members of the Trump administration had used to bolster the fraud claims
CBS News correspondent Jonah Kaplan noted that Somali businesses had been prosecuted for fraud in the past.
"Now you have this viral video getting traction online," he said. "It's from influencer Nick Shirley, and he visited several daycares, Somali-owned daycares in the Twin Cities, and basically accused them of doing the same thing. Running these sham operations where kids didn't show up but still bilked the federal government and collected millions of dollars in Medicaid funds."
"We visited those sites too, as did state inspectors many times over the last six months," he continued. "And we found the facts on the ground tell a different story. Those daycares, many of them were written up for safety violations, things like maybe busted equipment or staff training issues, but that's not the same as being fraudulent."
"So it's important to put all of this into context."
Reporter shreds Trump admin's daycare fraud claims in less than 2 minutes
Washington Post reporter Dave Jorgenson on YouTube on December 29, 2025
Washington Post reporter Dave Jorgenson on YouTube on December 29, 2025
Editor's note: This article has been updated to clarify that Jorgenson is a former Washington Post reporter who is the founder of Local News International.
December 30, 2025
ALTERNET
President Donald Trump's administration recently made the decision to suspend all federal childcare payments to Minnesota in the wake of a far-right influencer's YouTube video over supposed daycare fraud in Minneapolis. But one former Washington Post reporter is accusing the administration of cherry-picking data to suit their preferred narrative.
In a video posted to YouTube Shorts, Local News International founder Dave Jorgenson observed that YouTuber Nick Shirley's video — in which he asserted that Somalian immigrants in Minneapolis were stealing taxpayer dollars — was based on documented fraudulent activity. However, he noted that the wave of right-wing outrage that has followed the release of Shirley's video overlooks the fact that both Minnesota's Democratic state lawmakers and members of Congress, as well as former President Joe Biden's administration, have all taken significant steps to address the fraud in Minnesota daycares.
"Yes, since 2018, more than half of $18 billion in taxpayer funds spent on the 14 programs intended to help low-income vulnerable people was most likely stolen," Jorgenson said. "But this has been under investigation for a long time. More than 92 people have been charged."
Jorgenson mimicked both Shirley and Vice President JD Vance (who reposted Shirley's video on X), with "Shirley" asking Jorgenson: "Well, how come we haven't seen it in the news?" Jorgenson reminded viewers that "local and international outlets have been reporting on it for years," and pointed to a New York Times article from 2022 on the Biden administration's FBI sounding the alarm over "massive fraud" in Minnesota.
When Jorgenson's "JD Vance" countered that Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) supposedly "did nothing about this," Jorgenson pushed back again, alerting viewers to Omar leading a push to get to the bottom of the fraud allegations in February of 2022. He also referenced a local report from 2019 about a statewide audit of Minnesota's Child Care Assistance Program. He also shared a local Fox affiliate's 2018 article about state officials "aggressively investigating daycare fraud since 2014."
"But what about how they're funneling all the money to terrorists?" Jorgenson's "Nick Shirley" asked.
"Look, there is clearly fraud happening here," Jorgenson said. "But that terrorist allegation was made by a police detective from Seattle who retired in 2015 and has never been to Minnesota."
Jorgenson also pointed out that while Shirley was unable to find evidence of children being present in daycares in the video he posted the day after Christmas, it was unlikely that daycare managers would let "a complete stranger, flanked by his security team and his camera crew, into your daycare to see the children."
"And I don't know when he filmed this, but my daughter's daycare is closed for the last two weeks of December," he added.
Watch the video below:
President Donald Trump's administration recently made the decision to suspend all federal childcare payments to Minnesota in the wake of a far-right influencer's YouTube video over supposed daycare fraud in Minneapolis. But one former Washington Post reporter is accusing the administration of cherry-picking data to suit their preferred narrative.
In a video posted to YouTube Shorts, Local News International founder Dave Jorgenson observed that YouTuber Nick Shirley's video — in which he asserted that Somalian immigrants in Minneapolis were stealing taxpayer dollars — was based on documented fraudulent activity. However, he noted that the wave of right-wing outrage that has followed the release of Shirley's video overlooks the fact that both Minnesota's Democratic state lawmakers and members of Congress, as well as former President Joe Biden's administration, have all taken significant steps to address the fraud in Minnesota daycares.
"Yes, since 2018, more than half of $18 billion in taxpayer funds spent on the 14 programs intended to help low-income vulnerable people was most likely stolen," Jorgenson said. "But this has been under investigation for a long time. More than 92 people have been charged."
Jorgenson mimicked both Shirley and Vice President JD Vance (who reposted Shirley's video on X), with "Shirley" asking Jorgenson: "Well, how come we haven't seen it in the news?" Jorgenson reminded viewers that "local and international outlets have been reporting on it for years," and pointed to a New York Times article from 2022 on the Biden administration's FBI sounding the alarm over "massive fraud" in Minnesota.
When Jorgenson's "JD Vance" countered that Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) supposedly "did nothing about this," Jorgenson pushed back again, alerting viewers to Omar leading a push to get to the bottom of the fraud allegations in February of 2022. He also referenced a local report from 2019 about a statewide audit of Minnesota's Child Care Assistance Program. He also shared a local Fox affiliate's 2018 article about state officials "aggressively investigating daycare fraud since 2014."
"But what about how they're funneling all the money to terrorists?" Jorgenson's "Nick Shirley" asked.
"Look, there is clearly fraud happening here," Jorgenson said. "But that terrorist allegation was made by a police detective from Seattle who retired in 2015 and has never been to Minnesota."
Jorgenson also pointed out that while Shirley was unable to find evidence of children being present in daycares in the video he posted the day after Christmas, it was unlikely that daycare managers would let "a complete stranger, flanked by his security team and his camera crew, into your daycare to see the children."
"And I don't know when he filmed this, but my daughter's daycare is closed for the last two weeks of December," he added.
Watch the video below:
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