The Scandal-Plagued Walz Administration

This long CNN article is headlined, “As fraud scandals erupt in Minnesota on Gov. Tim Walz’s watch, accountability is in short supply.” That sums up the article very well. What seems most remarkable about the piece is that CNN published it.

The best-known Walz scandal is Feeding Our Future, which we have written about a number of times. More than $250 million in taxpayer money was stolen by thieves who pretended to be feeding enormous numbers of poor children. The fraud was brazen; thousands of fictitious children were created with random name generators. But the fraud continued until it finally was shut down, not by the Walz administration but by the feds. And at last report, Walz was still lying about it, claiming falsely (and absurdly) that a state court judge had ordered his Department of Education to continue making fraudulent payments.

But Feeding Our Future is only one of the scandals that have erupted on Walz’s watch. The CNN article reads like it was taken largely from American Experiment’s Scandal Tracker, and CNN’s reporters give the last word to American Experiment’s Bill Walsh:

Bill Walsh, the director of communications  with a conservative think tank called the  Center of the American Experiment,  emphatically agreed – telling CNN that [legislative auditor Judy] Randall “nailed it” with that assessment – and said Walz was to blame.

“You appoint your commissioners … you’re responsible for the administration,” he said. “If you’re the governor, you have to change that culture, and he hasn’t.”

CNN soft-pedals the facts a little by portraying Tim Walz as a nice guy but an ineffective governor. Actually, he is worse than that. Still, it is remarkable that CNN is willing to run a tough story on the Democrats’ vice presidential nominee, a month before the election. Hats off to them.