In 2004, the Democratic nominee for president selected one of his rivals as his running mate. John Edwards, a senator from North Carolina and, by all appearances, a terrific choice, would have become the vice-president in a Kerry administration. As we later found out, Edwards was a creep (he had an affair during his wife’s terminal illness and fathered a child with his paramour, there was a banking scandal and more rumours). Having someone that close to the presidency would have created significant discomfort for a President John Kerry, not to mention those who would have questioned his judgment. This theme has recurred throughout American history. Abraham Lincoln’s successor, Andrew Johnson, tried to reverse some of the Great Emancipator’s work. James Garfield’s vice-president, Chester Arthur of New York, may have been the most corrupt man to hold the office (though he practiced limited reform in the presidency). One of the scariest scenarios played out as World War II came to a close, and FDR died. Fortunately, for the nation and the world, Harry Truman succeeded Roosevelt. Had the longest-serving president died earlier, communist sympathizer Henry Wallace would have been president, not Truman. Who knows what problems that would have created?
Kamala Harris became the Democratic nominee in 2024 because she was the incumbent vice president. Her selection left much to be desired in 2020 when Joe Biden decided he owed certain groups of supporters something for their support. Besides her questionable qualifications, Harris proved to be an ineffectual vice-president and eventually a lousy general election candidate as well. One of her most significant decisions happened on Aug. 6, 2024, when she chose Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota as her running mate against the Trump-Vance ticket. The man known as Walz presented himself peculiarly, attempting to embody masculinity within the scope of modern feminist ideals, made false claims regarding his military background, and leveled accusations of weirdness against Republicans, all while actively supporting every transgender initiative that was proposed. He and Harris lost badly, losing all seven swing states, leaving America to deal with the ebbs and flows of the Trump-Vance Administration. But, as we now know, if Walz had won, like Spiro Agnew, Richard Nixon’s disgraced vice-president, he too might have had to resign from office.
The story of massive fraud schemes undertaken by Somali immigrants in Minnesota has been brewing for a long time. Powerline’s Scott Johnson (a retired Minneapolis attorney) uncovered a trail of clues, but when the City Journal published a piece and President Donald Trump saw it, the New York Times investigated, and the story grew legs. Reporting in the Washington Free Beacon, Johnson began his article: “What happens when you cross a Third-World tribal culture with an urban Democratic establishment? You can probably guess the outcome, but in Minnesota we don’t have to guess. We have seen it on display in the sprawling Feeding Our Future case that represents the largest COVID fraud discovered so far in the United States. A cast of almost entirely Somali immigrants is charged with siphoning some $250 million from the federal child nutrition program administered by the Minnesota Department of Education into their own pockets between March 2020 and January 2022, when federal agents assembled from around the United States to raid the many scenes of the crime around the Twin Cities. Since then 70 defendants have been charged, 37 have pleaded guilty, and 7 have been convicted in the two trials conducted in the case so far. The others have yet to be tried.”
And who was overseeing this entire fiasco? Walz, Harris’ running mate and prospective Vice President of the United States. In the City Journal, Johnson, writing of Walz, said, “All these frauds have occurred under the auspices of the administration of Governor Tim Walz. He has denied fault and deflected blame, going so far as to attribute responsibility to a local judge who handled a case brought by Feeding Our Future challenging the Department of Education’s temporary refusal to process (i.e., approve or deny) ‘site’ applications that it had submitted. The judge issued an unusual public statement demonstrating the falsity of Walz’s attribution of blame.” In effect, Walz has refused to take responsibility, has denied his role, and has attempted to lie his way out of an embarrassing situation that has cost Minnesotans billions of dollars.
The problem with many of these stories comes down to race. If the truth gets revealed and it rubs against the prevailing progressive narrative, then the investigator gets called a bigot or some kind of hater. Based on the existing evidence in Minnesota, parts of the Somali community have not acknowledged the social contract within the United States, specifically in its avoidance of corruption. While assimilation and the attainment of the status of a respectable, diligent American is achievable for anyone arriving in America, the tacit agreement seems to have been broken, particularly for a large percentage of Somalis. That does not mean there are no good Americans from Somalia, but the group immigration to America has failed. The state of Minnesota has no demands for immigrants to become Americans, and they have access to numerous welfare programs; therefore, there are few actual expectations for these new arrivals. Minnesota has become a sanctuary for those intent on using government largesse to get rich quick. That may be the way to survive in Somalia, but it doesn’t work in America. Or it shouldn’t.
Walz has become entangled in the gears of investigation, and he wants to lie his way out. He claims he had no knowledge that this sort of corruption was occurring. In fact, for fear of losing a block of voters needed to win a state election, the Walz team ignored the warnings. Their slavish devotion to identity politics left Democrats unable to govern without fear or favour when these schemes came to light. Minnesota’s Star Tribune predictably tried to put the focus on Trump. In an editorial published on Dec. 3, the paper’s editors wrote: “Trump’s anti-Somali rampage thrusts Minnesota into the national spotlight. The president’s racist, divisive rhetoric will do nothing to actually prevent fraud.” Trump must answer for his own sins. What happened in Minnesota because of COVID programs supposedly designed to alleviate work stoppages and offer relief served as another way for politicians to hand out money to different communities and assure their own re-election.
The greed that progressives accuse normal everyday working people of because they don’t want to give their hard-earned money to politicians like Walz holds little weight when revelations like this come to light. The question of whether Walz finds himself in a predicament of his own creation will be contingent upon the quality of reporting from left-leaning journalists who are fervent in their defence of democracy, except when that necessitates highlighting the risks that Democratic politicians present when they misuse taxpayer funds to fortify their positions in power.
Charles C. Cooke of National Review commented on the emerging scandal in light of Walz’s initial appearance on the national stage, “…the Somali angle may not have been as well discussed last year, but the massive fraud in the COVID aid feeding our future program was front and center. Inaccurate payments for 30% of employees, that was in there. Paying $29 million over five years for opioid treatments that were never administered, that was up there. Text messages from Walz that disappeared despite public records laws. His appointed state cannabis director was selling products that violated state law. One of his appointments to a task force on broadband stepped down after domestic abuse. There was no shortage of ugly scandals in the Tim Walz record as governor. That’s why I thought there’s no way this guy gets picked.”
On the other hand, PBS’ Brooks and Capehart spoke nary a word about this sprawling scandal on the Dec. 5 edition of the broadcast. As was their custom, the pair were excessively agitated and focused on the newest instance of Trump-related controversy. Thank heavens for Scott Johnson, for honest reporters who tell the stories that our dominant media refuses to cover and insist are not threats to democracy. Seriously, immigrants undermining a government agency for billions of dollars does not pose a challenge to our democracy? If this author weren’t from Canada, he would never believe it!
Dave Redekop is a retired elementary resource teacher who worked part-time at the St. Catharines Courthouse as a Registrar until being appointed Executive Director at Redeemer Bible Church in October 2023. He has worked on political campaigns since high school and attended university in South Carolina for five years, earning a Master’s in American History with a specialization in Civil Rights. Dave loves reading biographies.
