• What Happened: After Newsom's press office mocked Nick Shirley on X, Shirley fired back on Fox News @ Night calling Newsom "an enemy to the people of California" and accusing him of protecting fraudsters instead of investigating them.
  • Why It Matters: Shirley used public federal databases to document $170 million in suspected fraud. His response to Newsom's mockery got 190,000 likes and 20,000 reposts. Dr. Oz, CBS News, and Fox News have all independently confirmed the same Van Nuys hospice fraud patterns.
  • Bottom Line: The governor of the largest state in America responded to a fraud investigation by attacking the investigator. That tells you everything you need to know.

Gavin Newsom had a choice when Nick Shirley released a 40-minute video documenting $170 million in suspected fraud across California daycares and hospice centers. He could have called for an investigation. He could have ordered his state agencies to review the facilities. He could have said, as Shirley put it, "Hey Nick, great video, how can we help?"

Instead, Newsom's press office posted a mocking photo on X.

That turned out to be a mistake.

Shirley appeared on Fox News @ Night and did not hold back. "The governor of California is an enemy to the people of California," he said. "He's literally working to support the fraudsters. Meanwhile, he could be working to expose the fraud. How stupid do you have to be to say, let's go after the guy exposing the fraud and not go after the fraudsters?"

His message on the fraud itself was simple and bipartisan. "These tax dollars don't say right or left on them. They're for the American people. When people steal them, they're robbing everyone."

Shirley had already fired back at Newsom's office on X before his Fox News appearance, writing: "You do realize I'm trying to help America eliminate fraud and waste, right? No need to try and make me look like the bad guy for exposing fraud. People are over it. Start working for the people and not against them." That post got 275,000 likes and 29,000 reposts.

The backlash against Newsom was not limited to conservatives. Democratic Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman blasted Newsom's attack on Shirley as "disgusting," a remarkable moment of bipartisan consensus that underscored just how badly Newsom misread the political moment.

The fraud Shirley documented is not a partisan invention. CBS News independently called Los Angeles "ground zero" for hospice fraud. Dr. Oz visited Van Nuys in February and flagged the same building clusters. State auditors previously estimated LA hospices overbilled Medicare by $105 million in a single year. Over 700 licensed hospices in LA County have multiple fraud red flags per state review. A single building on Friar Street in Van Nuys has 89 hospices registered to it.

Shirley used public federal databases including CMS records, the National Provider Identifier database, and California Department of Social Services inspection logs to identify the facilities. He showed up in person. He knocked on doors. He found empty buildings, luxury cars, and no patients.

Newsom's response to all of this was to mock him on social media.

Meanwhile the man Newsom is attacking testified before Congress in January. He helped trigger a federal freeze on over $10 billion in childcare funding across five states. He is the reason California fraud is now a national story.

The governor of California chose to punch down at a 23-year-old journalist doing the work his own agencies refused to do. Shirley is still standing. The fraudsters are still cashing checks. And Newsom just handed his Republican opponents another weapon heading into a 2028 presidential primary that already looks like an uphill climb.