Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth, a Republican candidate for governor, told Newsmax on Friday that she is "not buying" Rep. Ilhan Omar's explanation for how a welfare scheme in Minneapolis grew to roughly $1 billion.

She laid the blame squarely on Gov. Tim Walz and other Democrats for what she called record fraud enabled by weak oversight and no accountability.

Demuth appeared on "Finnerty" as the Department of Justice released a statement on Wednesday describing how allies of Omar, D-Minn., benefited from a pandemic-era child nutrition scheme that prosecutors say diverted hundreds of millions of dollars meant to feed poor kids.

According to federal indictments and recent coverage, the fraud centered on the nonprofit Feeding Our Future and affiliated vendors that claimed to serve large numbers of meals that were never provided.

Officials say at least $250 million was stolen, with the broader web of welfare fraud in Minnesota now estimated at about $1 billion.

Omar previously called the scheme "reprehensible" and "abhorrent," saying that "anyone who participated in this scheme must be held accountable," a Minnesota outlet reported.

More recently, pressed on CNN to explain how fraud became so widespread, Omar argued that emergency COVID-19 programs were set up too quickly and relied on third parties without adequate safeguards.

"I think what happened, um, is that, you know, when you have these kind of new programs that are, um, designed to help people, you're oftentimes relying on third parties to be able to facilitate," Omar said, according to the New York Post.

"And I just think that a lot of the COVID programs that were set up, they were set up so quickly that a lot of the guardrails did not get created."

When asked, Demuth rejected Omar's explanation for why the fraud continued unchecked.

"I am not buying what was said about why the fraud might have gone on so long," she said.

"What I will tell you, though, is that in Minnesota, we have record fraud here in the state, and it's because of a lack of oversight and a lack of accountability, starting with Gov. Walz and every one of the commissioners in which fraud has taken place within their agencies."

When asked whether Omar could be directly involved, Demuth said she did not know that to be the case but argued Democratic leadership created an environment ripe for abuse.

"No, I don't know that she is directly involved," she said. "But what I will say is, when we are known as a state that tries to help people, that has been taken advantage of by fraudsters.

"But the lack of internal controls and the lack of accountability, and yet not one of Governor Walz's commissioners has ever lost a job, or anyone has been accountable within those agencies.

"What we don't know is how deep that actually goes.

"We're waiting for those investigations, and we're waiting for more information to come forward."

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