In addition to being the Democratic vice presidential nominee, Tim Walz serves as the Democratic governor of Minnesota, and he continues to be in a world of hurt with scandals over how he's handled that role. On Friday, CNN put out a particularly damning report about the COVID fraud that took place under Walz's administration. CNN also put out a segment on the "program overseen by Minnesota's Department of Education was the single largest Covid-19 fraud scheme in the nation."
The Trump War Room X account was all too happy to post the segment, which has also been a trending topic over X.
CNN investigative report exposes the MASSIVE FRAUD that took place under Tim Walz in Minnesota: "a program overseen by Minnesota's Department of Education was the single largest Covid-19 fraud scheme in the nation." pic.twitter.com/TvLbroa29u
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) October 4, 2024
Walz, including on the debate stage earlier this week, often touts his mantra about "minding your own damn business," especially when it comes to the Democrats' pet issue of abortion. Nowhere else has it been misapplied than with his handling of COVID, however.
While Minnesota had a tipline for residents to snitch on one another and local businesses, he was "hands off" where it mattered, in this case when it comes to fraud.
As the CNN report explained [Emphasis added]:
One state audit found that bonus checks intended for frontline workers during the pandemic were handed out to undeserving recipients. Another criticized a Minnesota state agency for failing to ensure there were no conflicts of interest in taxpayer-funded mental health and addiction programs. A third detailed lax oversight of a program to feed needy kids which federal prosecutors say resulted in the nation’s largest Covid-era fraud scheme.
But when confronted with these and other troubling examples of waste, fraud and abuse, some state agencies working under the administration of Democratic Gov. Tim Walz repeatedly minimized or dismissed the allegations, the state’s nonpartisan auditor, Judy Randall, told CNN.
A CNN review of audits – and the responses they prompted – as well as interviews with statewide politicians and pundits, found that Walz has been a hands-off leader when it comes to seeking accountability for episodes of fraud and mismanagement on his watch. What’s more, some state agencies headed by his appointees have responded defensively in recent months to the audits – a dynamic that Randall, who has worked in the department for 26 years, has found surprising.
Randall told a local media outlet this summer that the responses of some agencies to her audits have had a “shoot the messenger” feel of late. CNN reviewed more than a dozen reports from her office that held specific agencies responsible for allowing fraud, waste or mismanagement on their watch during the Walz administration.
Some addressed high-profile scandals such as the pandemic fraud allegations and a troubled light-rail project – whose genesis predates Walz but is currently monitored by 17 Walz appointees – that has suffered from more than $1.5 billion in cost overruns. Randall’s office faulted that agency last year for a lack of transparency about rising costs and failure to ensure contractors’ ballooning price tags were justified. Others found holes in safeguards to waste or raised more targeted conflict-of-interest concerns, such as a state Department of Public Safety employee who received payments from the recipient of a grant that the employee oversees.
Randall told CNN that she knows of no personnel changes linked to any audit by her office since 2019, when Walz was sworn in.
Critics say that is on Walz, now the Democratic candidate for vice president.
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Among those Walz critics referenced in the CNN report is House Minority Leader Lisa Demuth, a Republican for Cold Spring.
"When he is not holding any commissioners responsible, then yes, Governor Walz is responsible for the fraud that has been ongoing in the state of Minnesota," CNN quoted her as saying. "It falls squarely on his shoulders."
Over the summer, the Post Bulletin also quoted her as calling out Democrat DFL leadership for "a lack of accountability after hundreds of millions of dollars in fraud was discovered by a government watchdog agency over the course of five years."
As the Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC) posed, every state Democrat should be asked: "Will you take accountability for the mounting fraud that was occurring in the state government?"
"The deluge of fraud under scandal-ridden Tim Walz and the DFL shows us they will waste taxpayer dollars and expect zero accountability. How can we trust the DFL to continue to remain in the majority in St. Paul when they have brazenly displayed their ineptitude before our eyes?” RSLC Spokesperson Stephanie Rivera also said in a statement.
But again, this is just one of many scandals facing Walz, as the CNN report also makes note of. There's an entire section wondering about "A culture of unaccountability in Minnesota?" And, while it presents Walz as popular among Minnesota Democrats, it goes deeper:
Walz, a former high school teacher and assistant football coach with a disarming, affable nature and low-key leadership style, enjoys broad popular support in Minnesota among Democrats.
His fans were easy to find last month at the Minnesota State Fair, which drew nearly 2 million people this year.
“He is real; he knows the state,” said Erik Biever, who called Walz “one of the best governor’s we’ve ever had.” “Tim Walz has a heart.”
But that folksy persona hasn’t been enough to endear him to Republicans who see him as having caved to the progressive wing of his party, thereby abandoning early promises to lead as a moderate voice under the banner of “One Minnesota.” And some of the same traits of Walz’s that appeal to his base – off-the-cuff, easy-going, non-punitive – are seen by detractors as liabilities that have contributed to a culture of unaccountability in the Minnesota state government.
Last month, as we covered at the time, the House Committee on Education & the Workface subpoenaed Walz as well as Minnesota Commissioner of Education Willie Jett received subpoenas and cover letters. The Biden-Harris administration’s U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and its Office of Inspector General (OIG) also received their own subpoenas.
The CNN report also mentioned that there are also additional fraud cases going on in Minnesota.
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