The Don Lemon Show
LEMON DROP | MAGA Influencer Nick Shirley & The Minneapolis ICE Disaster!
13 Jan 2026
Chapter 1: Who is Nick Shirley and what claims did he make?
Okay, so Nick Shirley, I don't know if you guys know the name, but you should. You remember the whole, the thing that went viral, this video of this YouTuber or streamer or influencer or whatever Nick Shirley is going to daycares in Minnesota, right? And then saying, oh my God, I uncovered fraud, all of this. Oh my God, this fraud, fraud, fraud. I don't know if you guys remember that.
And so it went viral on every single like right wing streamer, right wing news organization or whatever. He is uncovering fraud. He's uncovering. No one has been talking about this. No one has been talking about this. So first, before I play to you what happened, play you what happened. Let me just show you a couple of the headlines. OK, so this is from The New York Times.
This is The New York Times from back in November. Now, supposedly this is over Christmas is over the holidays.
Chapter 2: What was the public reaction to Shirley's viral video?
Late December, no one was covering fraud in Minnesota. But this was from the 29th of November, I believe, or the 28th of November from the New York Times. How fraud swamped Minnesota's social services system on Tim Wall's watch. Okay, so they reported, prosecutors say, members of the Somali diaspora, a group with growing political power, were largely responsible.
President Trump has drawn national attention to the scandal amid his crackdown on immigration. Okay, so... It was reported on then. It has been reported on before. They are trying to attach it to Tim Walz, the current governor. But the investigation has been going on even before Tim Walz was governor. So I'd just like to give you some context.
And even back then, just to show you, there were streamers who were reporting on this and how it affected Tim Walz. It was not a story that nobody was choosing to report on. Here it is.
Is Minnesota Governor Tim Walz putting Somalis ahead of Americans?
Chapter 3: How did state officials respond to the allegations of fraud?
That's the question a lot of people are suddenly asking. A new article from the New York Times has people in Walz's own state turning against him. According to the piece.
That's the piece right there that was in the New York Times. Okay, so we have that. So Nick Shirley goes to Minnesota with a microphone again, and this is a problem. I love certain things about independent media, independent journalists. But this is the thing, anybody can try to pretend that they are. Anyway, Nick Shirley goes there, and I'll show you some of it.
This is from a report, him with a microphone going there.
We're from CNN. Can we talk to you? This is MAGA YouTuber Nick Shirley. Back at a daycare in Minnesota, he alleged was a fraudulent facility in a now viral video.
We are going to say this is a left or right issue, but no fraud is fraud.
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Chapter 4: What evidence exists regarding fraud at the Minnesota daycares?
I'm not out here trying to put a twist on things.
Shirley's viral video released over the weekend in which he says he's uncovering tens of millions of dollars in fraud at Minneapolis daycares run by the Somali community was retweeted by Elon Musk and Vice President JD Vance. In the video, Shirley tries to open locked doors and talk to people at various daycares he claims are frauds.
Did you come during their normal operating hours when you came to visit?
I came at 11 a.m., I believe, and I also came the following day later in the day. The point of it is not whether or not I came at the right time of their operation hours. The point is that blacked-out doors, they can't give you any information. You call that number, no one answers. I wasn't trying to go inside.
There should be a way for somebody to actually be able to call that number and somebody to be able to answer. These aren't real businesses.
all right so blacked out doors and locked doors or whatever he's saying first of all uh daycares do that for kids safety of course the doors should be locked any daycare center considering the the environment that we're in now and the proliferation uh of guns and people who have mental health issues okay so that's it so nick shirley obviously is a kid um and is not very bright and i mean
I hate saying that, but I have the evidence to show to you. But this all blew up.
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Chapter 5: How did the media cover the daycare fraud allegations?
I'll show you the evidence, but first, this all blew up because people put it out there. They promoted it. The right-wing extremists were like, oh my God, look at what this guy uncovered. One of them even saying that he deserved a Pulitzer or something like that. So check it out. This is from the interview
from Nick Shirley about how this particular video of his went viral and has almost as many views as MrBeast, who is, I think, the number one streamer in the world. Watch.
My video on the expose of the fraud in Minnesota is the most viewed video ever by a creator longer than 10 minutes than anybody other than the name of MrBeast. And altogether, it did around 500 million views. Who do you think were the main people who signal boosted the video and brought it into that true viral orbit? Elon Musk, who shared the video. JD Vance, he shared the video.
You had the Attorney General, but she actually didn't share it.
Chapter 6: What impact did Shirley's claims have on federal actions?
She reacted to the video a few days later. Literally, quite frankly, every account on X saw that video instantaneously. Health and Human Services, they froze all funding to child care inside of Minnesota and then they're asking for businesses to prove that they are legit businesses before they give tax dollars to these businesses that are not really businesses.
As far as that main center that you visited, Quality Learning aka Quality Learning Center. Yeah. Was there ever any kids there in the first place? No. So that daycare center, it's been operating fraudulently. It's actually had over 90 violations over the past few years and The day that I went there, I went there at 11 a.m.
Their operating hours are from 2 to 10 p.m., they're now saying, and that's actually not legal. So you said you went there at 11 o'clock in the morning? Yes. And their operating hours are between 2 and 10 p.m.? Allegedly.
Chapter 7: How do conspiracy theories influence public perception?
But if that is true, would it have made sense that you didn't see any kids there? Yeah, it would have made sense if I didn't see children there. Either way, whether I was there when kids were supposed to be there or not, why are all the windows boarded up? Or why are all the windows blacked out? Why is there no phone number? that leads to anywhere.
These businesses are supposed to be operating to serve children. People should be able to check in their children into these daycares. It's literally impossible. Did you see some of the footage released by CBS, Minnesota affiliate station that showed kids entering and exiting the facility? Yeah, the one on the ABC. Yeah, so that one, that one received over a million dollars.
It's licensed for 40 children. CBS, I believe, they go in there the day after I post my video. Obviously, they're going to have children there when they're getting all this heat.
Chapter 8: What conclusions can we draw about misinformation in media?
OK, so look at the operating hours. Let me just say this couple of things. The operating hours could be when they operate for parents to come visit. I don't know, like from two to ten. Maybe it is a daycare center where because people, you know, have a number of different jobs and it's late or whatever. I'm just saying.
If you go there over the holidays, the operating hours may be different because maybe people's kids are not in school because who knows, all right? But maybe different for Somalians, but I don't know how the schedule works. Okay, that's one thing. To have blacked out windows, I think maybe perhaps for safety for kids would not be unusual for me.
So I'm not saying that anything nothing is going on at those facilities, and I'm going to give you a fact check and update on it. But because of this and all of this going viral, that's when reportedly the Justice Department and Kristi Noem and others sent more federal agents into Minnesota to check up on this fraud.
And we know now that the increased presence of those agents perhaps put more people who eventually came into contact with Ms. Good, with Renee Nicole Good. And so would this have happened if it had not been from that report? I don't know. I don't know. I can't say that.
But it just says that there have been a culmination of events, starting with that viral report that have led to some pretty bad violence and things happening in Minnesota. Now, this guy is, as I said, Nick Shirley. This is like a conservative hero that they say should get a prize or some sort of Pulitzer for this. It's a lie because it had been reported on.
And as I said, the Guardian did some reporting on him as well. If we can put up the Guardian report, the Guardian did some reporting on him. It says behind the Somali daycare panic is a mother and son duo angling to be top MAGA influencers. Nick and Brooke Shirley have for years published conspiracy minded takes on hot button right wing issues. So again, another grift.
And Nick Shirley, just the evidence that he is not so bright. This is his interview, not understanding what certain words are. Here it is.
Who do you think are the three most benevolent billionaires? What do you mean by the word benevolent? Just well-intentioned, positive billionaires who you think are creating, you know, net positive societal progress. Trump, our president.
what do you mean by trump is a benevolent billionaire uh check out trump's charity and what he gives charity or what he did before he was president of the united states benevolence i don't think so but i mean am i wrong but benevolent is not such a you know high sat
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