Minnesota fraud: Walz takes the hit

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz

(Image credit: Reuters)

“It isn’t often that politicians pay a price for the failures of government,” said The Wall Street Journal in an editorial. But in a “rare and welcome” exception, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz announced this week he would not seek re-election as a result of the state’s billion-dollar welfare fraud scandal. For months, Walz shrugged off the rip-off of taxpayer funds as a
regrettable consequence of Minnesota’s generous, Scandinavian-style
safety net. But outrage grew as more than 90 mostly Somali defendants were charged with participating in schemes to defraud the state and federal governments of funds meant for food aid, child care, housing assistance, and other benefits. Federal prosecutors estimated the total price tag topped $9 billion—a sum Walz disputes. In saying he was dropping out of the 2026 race, Walz blamed both “the criminals who prey on our generosity” and “the cynics who prey on our differences.” How about taking some personal responsibility?

The fraud scandal is real, but it’s being dishonestly exploited and exaggerated by the MAGA right, said Zoe Sottile and Andy Rose in CNN.com. In a recent viral video, 23-year-old conservative influencer Nick Shirley “claimed with little evidence” that Somali-run day cares were raking in public money even though they had zero children in their care. In response, President Trump announced a pause of federal funding of
Minnesota child care, and at least one Somali-run day care in Minnesota was vandalized. “Self-styled investigators” have tried to barge into child-care centers in other states with Somali American populations, “using their locked doors as evidence they are committing fraud.” Fraudsters “should go to prison,” said Sal Rodriguez in The Orange County Register. But the Minnesota scheme, which was first discovered and prosecuted during the Biden administration, has become an opportunity for MAGA-world to demonize all 260,000 Somali Americans as “pirates” and “garbage.” That’s nothing more than racist demagoguery.

Indisputably, the government “gets defrauded too often,” said Noah Smith in his Substack newsletter. Recent examples include a $1.3 billion Medicare scheme perpetrated by Chicago executive Philip Esformes, pardoned by Trump during his first term. This past year, Trump gave clemency and exemption from financial penalties to 20 convicted criminals—none of them Somalis—and denied fraud victims tens of millions of dollars in promised restitution. Fraud damages “trust in American institutions,” but don’t expect a coherent response from “the most corrupt administration in American history.”