Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson joins to discuss the department flagging at least $5 billion in "questionable" rental aid.

A recent report from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has identified approximately $5 billion in potentially fraudulent rental assistance payments across the United States. The report states that under the Biden administration, around 30,000 deceased individuals and thousands of non-citizens received federal housing funds.

Former HUD Secretary Dr. Ben Carson discussed the findings, attributing the resurgence of fraud to relaxed financial controls. Carson emphasized the need for stricter oversight and noted that addressing such widespread issues will require sustained effort over multiple administrations. The report also highlights concerns about similar fraud in other government agencies and specific cases in states like Minnesota.

HUD flags $5 billion in 'questionable' rental aid

As Minnesota is under the microscope for potential widespread fraud, a new HUD report is also flagging billions of dollars in potentially fraudulent rent-assisted payments across America. Yeah, the report says under the Biden administration, approximately 30,000 dead people and thousands of non-citizens received billions in federal funding. Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Dr. Ben Carson joins us now for more on all this. Good morning, Mr. Secretary. So the current HUD Secretary, Scott Turner, says this all happened during Joe Biden's presidency in 2024. It's now almost 2026. Why did it take so long to catch such a huge waste of taxpayer dollars? Well, you know, the tentacles of the fraud are very deep. I became housing secretary. I was alarmed at how much fraud and misuse of funding there was. And you might remember before the first Trump administration, there were all these allegations about fraud going on at HUD. I used to hear it all the time. It took about a year and a half before you stopped hearing that. That's because we put so much effort into wiping out the fraud and putting in financial controls. And I was talking to Secretary Scott Turner yesterday and some of his staff about some of their findings in the agency financial report. And it's really quite astonishing. I mean, you've talked about the millions of billions of dollars that are being wasted, people who are dead, and a project-based and tenant-based funding. It doesn't take long for it to come back in when you don't put the financial controls in place. After we cleaned up all the garbage and put financial controls in place, we were on a very good path. It didn't take very long for the Biden administration to relax those controls. And this is what happens. It happens in HUD. It happens in lots of other agencies across government. And the Trump administration is dedicated to saving people money. They recognize that when the money is inappropriately spent, it means those who actually need it are not getting it. And that's the big problem here. We need to be very serious about this. Mr. Secretary, I'm trying to wrap my head around this. How does this happen? 30,000 dead people receiving money? It takes virtually overnight for that to occur when you relax the controls. When people know that they're not going to be—it's the same kind of thing with crime. If you don't punish people, if you don't control the situation, it's going to run rampant. That's exactly what's happening here. We're seeing the manifestations of it, not only in HUD, but in agencies across the government. And this administration is dedicated to fixing that. It takes a while. That's what people don't understand. It's sort of like a cruise ship. You've got to turn it around. It takes a while to turn that thing around. You know, to me, Mr. Secretary, this falls under the simple category of the problem with Washington. They don't care about solving the problem. They care about how much they spend on the problem. So just get as much money out the door as possible. We don't care if it actually works or actually benefits anybody. And that's the underlying problem. What do you think? That's a large part of the problem. And I just want to emphasize that this is in the process of being turned around. These things are being exposed. They're being worked upon. But you need enough time. And we need not only this administration, but probably an administration following it to really get back on the right track. And American people just have to realize it's not going to happen instantaneously. It takes a long time to get those roots out and to plant a firm foundation. We don't just want to do something for the next election or for the midterm. We want to fix this thing permanently. And we're seeing a lot of this fraud and to no surprise, very blue cities, very blue states as well. Of course, I'm thinking of Minnesota coming to mind. Just want to get your take on what we're seeing unfold in Minnesota with these daycare centers and learning centers. Well, you know, Marxist policies depend on ignorance. And they depend on people not being knowledgeable about what's going on. And to have this thing exposed in so many different ways is really bothersome to them. And they're going to use their allies in the mainstream media to try to say, oh, this is nothing. This is a misunderstanding. Oh, they came to the place when it was closed and then they tried to say we didn't have any kids. They came to many places. They came to at least 50 different centers and there were no kids in any of them. You have to be really gullible to believe that that's a coincidence. Yeah. Great point. Dr. Ben Carson, thank you for taking the time on this New Year's Eve and chatting with us. Happy New Year to you, sir. New Year to you.

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