Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday heralded Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as the running mate who will “unify this country.”
But Walz’s history of turning a blind eye to the plunder of politically favored racketeers suggests he’ll instead bow to Democrats’ special interests.
Last week, Walz sneered that Republicans “don’t know anything about family values. Family values means . . . feeding children.”
But do politicians deserve applause for government food programs that feed no one?
That would be the nation’s largest single piece of COVID fraud, Minnesota’s $250 million “Feeding the Future” scandal.
The Minneapolis nonprofit received millions from the US Department of Agriculture over nearly two years under relaxed pandemic-era rules to quickly bring food to the needy.
But only a small amount was spent as intended, prosecutors said.
The ghost program was outed in a series of Justice Department indictments in late 2022, after Walz and his administration kowtowed to politically connected nonprofit groups while ignoring fraud warnings from local whistleblowers — and never checking on the charity’s inflated numbers and blatantly fake filings.
All but one of the fraudsters were members of Minnesota’s large Somali population, a key voting bloc for Walz’s Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party.
After the 2020 election, the state’s Somalis — many represented in Congress by Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) — were labeled “among the country’s most engaged voters” and credited with keeping former President Donald Trump from winning the North Star State.
The Justice Department has charged 72 politically connected Minnesotans with pilfering $250 million from federal child-nutrition programs during the pandemic.
Five have been convicted by a jury, and 18 have pled guilty so far.
And they didn’t just skim some cash off the top.
“Almost none of this money was used to feed children,” FBI agent Travis Wilmer said.
“Instead, the participants in the scheme misappropriated the money and used it to purchase real estate, cars and other luxury items.”
Some of the plundered cash ended up in the coffers of Omar, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and other Democratic politicians.
Walz’s appointees at the state Department of Education “created opportunities for fraud” thanks to their totally “inadequate oversight” and ignored “warning signs” about Feeding Our Future even before the pandemic, a Minnesota legislative audit revealed.
Walz’s administration was swindled by a scheme that even a village idiot could have detected.
Tax dollars were pilfered using the names of phony recipients generated by the website listofrandomnames.com.
Children supposedly named “Unique Problem,” “Serious Problem” and “Friday Donations” were listed as clients.
One restaurant claimed to be serving meals to more children than were enrolled in all the city schools in Minneapolis — but Walz’s wizards never bothered to stop by and check the location.
FBI analyst Pauline Roase testified that some conspirators created limited-liability companies “to hide the fact that they were not actually buying food.”
As early as November 2020, state officials recognized trouble and sought to end government funding for Feeding Our Future.
The nonprofit retaliated with a lawsuit claiming that the state government was discriminating against it for working with racial minorities.
Members picketed the Minnesota Department of Education headquarters, waving signs that said “F.O.F. Feeds Our Kids, MDE won’t” — and the scam continued.
Walz “was absolutely afraid of the race card,” according to Bill Glahn, an analyst with the Minnesota-based Center for the American Experiment.
In July 2021, Walz presented the Outstanding Refugee Award to Ayan Abukar, who was later indicted for bribery, money laundering, conspiracy to commit bribery, and conspiracy to commit wire fraud tied to Feeding Our Future.
His administration largely ignored the scandal until FBI raids in early 2022 made national headlines.
Yet some of the accused continued to feel entitled to legal impunity: In June, during the federal trial of the first batch of defendants, allies attempted to bribe a juror with a Hallmark gift bag stuffed with $120,000 in cash.
Five people have been arrested in the bribery scheme, and one has pled guilty.
But Walz is blameless, at least according to him.
“What I’m angry about and can’t stand is these people are criminals [who] did this,” he said in September 2022, absolving himself of any fault.
After the first guilty verdicts were handed down, Walz denied wrongdoing by any state official: “There’s not a single state employee that was implicated in doing anything that was illegal.”
“We can always do better,” he said, shrugging off the scandal.
But the Feeding Our Future debacle could well be a prototype for a Harris-Walz administration beholden to identity politics — and ready to grant Hunter Biden-style immunity to connected offenders.
It's also very evident Walz was afraid of the race card when he refused numerous requests by the mayor to call in the National Guard while Minneapolis was burnt to the ground by BLM/Georgie Floyd groupies. We can no doubt expect this same kowtowing to these race groups to continue if he becomes the VP.
But Walz’s history of turning a blind eye to the plunder of politically favored racketeers suggests he’ll instead bow to Democrats’ special interests.
Last week, Walz sneered that Republicans “don’t know anything about family values. Family values means . . . feeding children.”
But do politicians deserve applause for government food programs that feed no one?
That would be the nation’s largest single piece of COVID fraud, Minnesota’s $250 million “Feeding the Future” scandal.
The Minneapolis nonprofit received millions from the US Department of Agriculture over nearly two years under relaxed pandemic-era rules to quickly bring food to the needy.
But only a small amount was spent as intended, prosecutors said.
The ghost program was outed in a series of Justice Department indictments in late 2022, after Walz and his administration kowtowed to politically connected nonprofit groups while ignoring fraud warnings from local whistleblowers — and never checking on the charity’s inflated numbers and blatantly fake filings.
All but one of the fraudsters were members of Minnesota’s large Somali population, a key voting bloc for Walz’s Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party.
After the 2020 election, the state’s Somalis — many represented in Congress by Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) — were labeled “among the country’s most engaged voters” and credited with keeping former President Donald Trump from winning the North Star State.
The Justice Department has charged 72 politically connected Minnesotans with pilfering $250 million from federal child-nutrition programs during the pandemic.
Five have been convicted by a jury, and 18 have pled guilty so far.
And they didn’t just skim some cash off the top.
“Almost none of this money was used to feed children,” FBI agent Travis Wilmer said.
“Instead, the participants in the scheme misappropriated the money and used it to purchase real estate, cars and other luxury items.”
Some of the plundered cash ended up in the coffers of Omar, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and other Democratic politicians.
Walz’s appointees at the state Department of Education “created opportunities for fraud” thanks to their totally “inadequate oversight” and ignored “warning signs” about Feeding Our Future even before the pandemic, a Minnesota legislative audit revealed.
Walz’s administration was swindled by a scheme that even a village idiot could have detected.
Tax dollars were pilfered using the names of phony recipients generated by the website listofrandomnames.com.
Children supposedly named “Unique Problem,” “Serious Problem” and “Friday Donations” were listed as clients.
One restaurant claimed to be serving meals to more children than were enrolled in all the city schools in Minneapolis — but Walz’s wizards never bothered to stop by and check the location.
FBI analyst Pauline Roase testified that some conspirators created limited-liability companies “to hide the fact that they were not actually buying food.”
As early as November 2020, state officials recognized trouble and sought to end government funding for Feeding Our Future.
The nonprofit retaliated with a lawsuit claiming that the state government was discriminating against it for working with racial minorities.
Members picketed the Minnesota Department of Education headquarters, waving signs that said “F.O.F. Feeds Our Kids, MDE won’t” — and the scam continued.
Walz “was absolutely afraid of the race card,” according to Bill Glahn, an analyst with the Minnesota-based Center for the American Experiment.
In July 2021, Walz presented the Outstanding Refugee Award to Ayan Abukar, who was later indicted for bribery, money laundering, conspiracy to commit bribery, and conspiracy to commit wire fraud tied to Feeding Our Future.
His administration largely ignored the scandal until FBI raids in early 2022 made national headlines.
Yet some of the accused continued to feel entitled to legal impunity: In June, during the federal trial of the first batch of defendants, allies attempted to bribe a juror with a Hallmark gift bag stuffed with $120,000 in cash.
Five people have been arrested in the bribery scheme, and one has pled guilty.
But Walz is blameless, at least according to him.
“What I’m angry about and can’t stand is these people are criminals [who] did this,” he said in September 2022, absolving himself of any fault.
After the first guilty verdicts were handed down, Walz denied wrongdoing by any state official: “There’s not a single state employee that was implicated in doing anything that was illegal.”
“We can always do better,” he said, shrugging off the scandal.
But the Feeding Our Future debacle could well be a prototype for a Harris-Walz administration beholden to identity politics — and ready to grant Hunter Biden-style immunity to connected offenders.
It's also very evident Walz was afraid of the race card when he refused numerous requests by the mayor to call in the National Guard while Minneapolis was burnt to the ground by BLM/Georgie Floyd groupies. We can no doubt expect this same kowtowing to these race groups to continue if he becomes the VP.
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