The new feud between Donald Trump and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz just got kicked up another notch.
After the two men publicly traded shots in recent days, Republican House members have decided to take the dispute to another level.
Reports are now breaking that the GOP House will investigate the massive COVID-19 aid fraud that has been reported as having occurred in Minnesota, possibly even referring Walz for charges.
Trump levied several insults at Walz over this scandal as well as over some other concerns, calling him “retarded.”
The comment stirred up people on both sides, so the White House sought to justify the characterization of Walz by Trump by putting out an official release on the subject.
The statement, in part, read, “Dozens of individuals -- largely of East African descent -- looted taxpayers out of over $1 billion that was intended for child food assistance in what amounted to the country’s largest pandemic relief fraud scheme.”
The real point of contention regarding the Minnesota fraud is money that was allegedly sent overseas, possibly finding its way into the hands of terrorist organizations.
Walz has called Trump every name in the book, and he has also likened federal agents and National Guard troops to the president's personal Gestapo.
When Trump comes back at him, however, the media act as though it’s the end of the world.
Walz responded to Trump’s slur, stating, “I think we all know using that term is just so damaging. It’s hurtful. We have fought three decades to get this out of our schools, and kids know better than to use it.”
He continued, “But this is what Donald Trump has done, he’s normalized this type of hateful behavior… at first I think he’s just not a good human being but secondly to distract from his incompetency.”
I have not yet decided if the pending probe qualifies as a political stunt or a legitimate investigation, but the House Oversight Committee and U.S. Treasury have announced that a review will be initiated to investigate COVID aid fraud in Minnesota.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) stated, “Minnesota Governor Tim Walz was warned about massive fraud in a pandemic food-aid program for children, yet he failed to act. Instead, whistleblowers who raised concerns faced retaliation. Because of Governor Walz’s negligence, criminals -- including Somali terrorists -- stole nearly $1 billion from the program while children suffered.”
More scrutiny has been paid to Walz’s role in the scandal after state workers allegedly blamed him for what occurred, posting to X on an account that was initially believed to be a Minnesota’s Department of Human Services employee account, “We let Tim Walz know of fraud early on, hoping for a partnership in stopping fraud but no, we got the opposite response. Tim Walz systematically retaliated against whistleblowers using monitoring, threats, repression, and did his best to discredit fraud reports. Instead of partnership, we got the full weight of retaliation. It’s scary, isolating and left us wondering who we can turn to.”
There now appears to be some question as to whether that account is legitimate or a spoof account, so we are digging into the situation. Regardless, the sheer dollar amount of the fraud does warrant a deep look. We will keep monitoring the probe's progress to see how this develops.
