Over the last two weeks, the GOP has been attacking Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
The critiques center on massive fraud that has taken place in the state he leads, characterized by rampant abuse of COVID-19 aid funds and entitlement programs.
What started as a $250 million fraud case has now expanded to a massive scheme involving more than $1 billion, all under the supposedly watchful eye of Walz.
The first case I can remember seeing on this front was a $250 million fraud prosecution related to COVID-19 funding.
Najmo M. Ahmed pleaded guilty to fraudulently tapping into a program that was meant to feed children during the pandemic.
The IRS issued a statement on the case, saying, “According to court documents, Najmo M. Ahmed helped her husband Said Ereg run a small storefront grocery store in Minneapolis called Evergreen Grocery and Deli. In April 2020, Ereg enrolled Evergreen Grocery and Deli in the Federal Child Nutrition Program as a food distribution site under the sponsorship of Feeding Our Future.”
It continued, “Under the direction of her husband, Ahmed signed falsified meal count sheets, including one dated Dec. 31, 2020, claiming Evergreen Grocery and Deli served 3,250 children -- twice a day -- during the week of Jan. 24, 2021. Between April 2020 and April 2021, Evergreen Grocery and Deli claimed to have served over 1.4 million meals to children.”
That, however, was only the tip of the iceberg, as additional, far-reaching fraud was discovered to be deeply rooted in the Somali community in Minnesota.
According to reports, shell companies were being set up to tap into the same program that was meant to feed children during the pandemic.
So far, 59 people have been convicted, but there are still more than a dozen cases pending, with allegations that more than $1 billion in taxpayer dollars were stolen.
Donald Trump has since unleashed on Walz, calling him “retarded” for allowing the fraud to occur right under his nose, calling Minnesota “a hub of fraudulent money laundering activity,” as well as saying that the Somalians involved in the scheme should be sent “back to where they came from.”
Now, if Walz were a Republican governor, for instance, someone like Florida's Ron DeSantis, this scandal would have been the leading story on all major networks. But ABC, CBS, and NBC have all ignored the situation thus far, at least when it comes to mentioning that Somalis were the culprits and that it all happened under Walz’s watch.
Newsbusters lit the networks up, reporting, "Another day, another massive story of blue-state political malfeasance hidden by the elitist media nightly news.”
The report continued, "This time, there is not a peep about the exploding welfare scandal currently engulfing the state of Minnesota -- which directly implicates some of its senior-most elected leaders."
The only time I have seen Walz called to account in a real way was over the weekend when he appeared on NBC News' Meet the Press with Kristen Welker, but even she treated him with kid gloves. This is a major story, and it is likely being ignored out of political correctness since the main perpetrators of the scheme were immigrants from Somalia.
