The controversy, involving Minnesota’s influential Somali community, focuses on millions stolen from the program and has led to more than 50 convictions. Federal prosecutors accused dozens of people of stealing funds from a government program that was to feed children during the coronavirus pandemic.
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The New York Times put the story on the radar of legacy media outlets on November 29, with a report that federal prosecutors said as much as $1 billion in taxpayer money may have been stolen in separate fraudulent schemes.
Longtime allies are reportedly wondering if the governor should walk away from a reelection attempt for a third term as governor, according to the D.C. political news outlet.
The Hill reported:
“The governor, I think, has done a very respectable job, a good job, in Minnesota for the years that he’s been here. But he clearly is vulnerable and in my view, he is riskier than any Democratic candidate that might run,” said Ember Reichgott Junge, a former Minnesota Democratic state senator and a political analyst in the state.
Reichgott Junge said fraud “happened on his watch” and that Walz “can’t erase that.” While she said the governor is taking steps to rectify it, including audits, those investigations will “probably uncover more.”
The analyst said the issue is in the headlines in Minnesota “nearly every other day” and predicted the issue will “continue to surface through the next year.”
On Saturday, Small Business Administration (SBA) Secretary Kelly Loeffler posted on X that the SBA was also uncovering fraud and accused the governor of using his “best efforts to obstruct” investigations.
Another longtime ally of Walz’s told the Hill that the controversy could not only sink his gubernatorial reelection for a third term but likely a presidential bid as well.
“The challenges are that Minnesota has a very low tolerance for fraud, waste and abuse. It’s a very low threshold, and that’s one of the reasons the state has worked so well for so long,” the unnamed ally said. “It’s clearly a real vulnerability.”
As Breitbart News reported, nearly 500 employees in Minnesota’s state government say Walz ignored their constant warnings about massive fraud by Somalis in the state’s aid programs, also alleging that his allies punished whistleblowers for raising the alarm.
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Walz, 61, was introduced into national politics 16 months ago when then-Vice President Kamala Harris chose the animated governor as her running mate.
“I think we all had high hopes for him, but I don’t think he was a very effective running mate at the end of the day,” one top Democrat strategist told the Hill. “It never seemed like he was comfortable in the role beyond his rollout.”
Contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the best-selling author of Below the Line and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.
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