The Daily Show host and comedian Josh Johnson recently discussed Nick Shirley’s viral video exposing fraud in Minnesota’s daycare centres, which then spawned an investigation and led to multiple convictions. For those uninformed, the video, posted in December 2025, alleged that the federally funded daycares were not providing proper services and that the owners were allegedly taking the money.
In the video, Shirley is seen visiting Somali-run daycares in Minnesota and asking them questions about their operations and funding. However, Josh Johnson claimed that Shirley was not a journalist and did not know the proper protocols for an investigation when he appeared on The Breakfast Club on May 11, alleging that the fraud was already being investigated and Shirley “incorrectly amplified” it.
“In Minnesota, the stuff he was talking about was already being investigated… He just amplified it. And he also incorrectly amplified it because this dude, because he’s not a journalist, doesn’t know protocols… So then, this dude also just shows up at daycare, and it’s like, ‘Let me in with the camera.’ And they’re like, ‘No.’ ‘Well, you must be doing fraud.’ No, you are a grown man with a camera that wants to come in,” Johnson said.
Charlamagne tha God seemingly defended Shirley and suggested he might have heard about the fraud in Minnesota and tried to become a vigilante to expose it. Josh Johnson replied that journalism came into play in such situations where journalists are required to cite their sources and get background on people by asking the right questions.
Josh Johnson further added that an independent creator might ask the type of questions to generate clicks, not questions that “get down to the truth of the matter,” and further claimed that Shirley did not conduct any investigation.
“When I look at Nick Shirley, whether he is right bout the next story he engages or not, it’s how he goes about it. And it’s also who he does it to. Because journalism is supposed to be journalism across the board. If your journalism is only finding where the fraud is in any brown or black-skinned community so that you can perpetuate a narrative that all black and brown people are scammers.”
Josh Johnson questioned Nick Shirley’s intention in covering the Minnesota fraud case
During his appearance on The Breakfast Club, Josh Johnson further discussed Nick Shirley’s intention in covering the Minnesota fraud case. He added that it was always important to investigate the person and why they’re building this narrative, suggesting that Nick Shirley would never cover topics like the rise of N*zism in ICE.
Josh Johnson also added that Nick Shirley was late in covering the fraud case as the authorities were already investigating it, and all he did was amplify and reinforce the narrative that Somali Americans were stealing money instead of focusing solely on the fraud.
“Nick Shirley isn’t someone at the cutting edge. Nick Shirley is someone who shows up after the fact to amplify the aspect of the racist thing that’s true to make the whole racist narrative look true… This dude said he was being held hostage in Cuba in a hotel… Like, the Cubans don’t care, but on the American side, it’s, ‘Don’t give them money by staying at this hotel,’ right?”
According to Fox News, Fahima Egeh Mahamud, who was featured in Nick Shirley’s viral video, was charged in a daycare fraud scheme after being accused of pocketing the money meant to fund children’s meals on May 20.
Nick Shirley’s 43-minute YouTube video about the Minnesota daycare fraud, titled “I Investigated Minnesota’s Billion Dollar Fraud Scandal,” has received over 4 million views as of this article.
Edited by Juhi Marzia