Trump anti-fraud division's future rests with Senate Dems after bipartisan House win

Republican Sen. Eric Schmitt of Missouri introduced legislation Tuesday night to permanently establish the Trump administration's National Fraud Enforcement Division, following a similar bill's bipartisan passage in the House last week. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and other Democrats backed the House measure, though Schmitt told Fox News Digital he is uncertain whether Senate Democrats will follow suit ahead of the midterm elections.

Schmitt argued that a Minnesota fraud scandal uncovered earlier this year put Democrats on the defensive, suggesting their reluctance to confront fraud tied to immigrants stemmed from what he called "toxic empathy or suicidal empathy" on immigration, pointing to "Somali fraudsters" as an example. He said Democrats' instinct to defend groups who came to the U.S. from elsewhere may have "overrode their logic" even when fraud against American taxpayers was involved. Schmitt maintained that protecting taxpayer money should not be a partisan issue, describing those committing fraud as "criminals" stealing from taxpayers and from people who could otherwise benefit from government programs.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, described as one of the Democratic Party's rising progressive leaders, separately said Democrats had lost ground on quality-of-life issues and rooting out waste and fraud, allowing the issue to become associated with the right rather than something Democrats champion.

Summarized by PolitiKool from Fox News’s reporting. Read the full story at Fox News →