Republicans just notched another scalp, as Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (D) has given up on a third term in disgrace, deciding to drop out of the Minnesota gubernatorial election and slink away from the governor’s mansion when this term is up. The continuing fallout over the Somali migrant-committed fraud scandal was seen by many as the reason why.
Such is what he announced in a statement posted to X on the morning of Monday, January 5, insisting that he did everything right in fighting the massive fraud scandal, yet still needed to drop out anyway and so was going to do that. Many saw that as a smoking gun showing the governor’s complicity in the scandal, with one poster on X saying, “This is an admission of guilt.”
In any case, Walz began his statement by insisting that President Trump is being unfair and “mean” in attacking the Somali fraudsters and calling them out, saying, “It was an extraordinarily difficult year for our state. And it ended on a particularly sour note. For the last several years, an organized group of criminals have sought to take advantage of our state’s generosity. And even as we make progress in the fight against the fraudsters, we now see an organized group of political actors seeking to take advantage of the crisis. I won’t mince words here. Donald Trump and his allies – in Washington, in Saint Paul, and online – want to make our state a colder, meaner place.”
Continuing, he repeated the point about it being “mean” to care about Somali fraud, then whined about the Trump Administration stripping funding from Minnesota. He said, “They want to poison our people against each other by attacking our neighbors. And, ultimately, they want to take away much of what makes Minnesota the best place in America to raise a family. They’ve already begun by taking our tax dollars that were meant to help families afford child care. And they have no intention of stopping there.
Make no mistake: We should be concerned about fraud in our state government.
Then, after insisting that his administration had already fought the fraud effectively, a laughable lie given how much of it, such as the daycare scandal, is still ongoing, he went on to insist that the real crime here is that Republicans have exposed what is going on and called out the utter crimes committed by the Somalis.
He said, “We’ve got conspiracy theorist right-wing YouTubers breaking into daycare centers and demanding access to our children. We’ve got the President of the United States demonizing our Somali neighbors and wrongly confiscating childcare funding that Minnesotans rely on. It is disgusting. And it is dangerous.”
Then, after attacking Trump yet again for being an “opportunist” who has attacked Somalis, Walz announced that he would be dropping out of the gubernatorial race, saying, “In September, I announced that I would run for a historic third term as Minnesota’s Governor. And I have every confidence that, if I gave it my all, I would succeed in that effort. But as I reflected on this moment with my family and my team over the holidays, I came to the conclusion that I can’t give a political campaign my all. Every minute I spend defending my own political interests would be a minute I can’t spend defending the people of Minnesota against the criminals who prey on our generosity and the cynics who prey on our differences.”
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The statement then continued with Walz trying to justify his slinking away from the political contest by framing it as virtuous. Commenters on X skewered him for it, saying things like “Good, you’ll need to be focused on your legal defense” and “You should’ve put Minnesota first when you had the chance, instead you let billions of dollars of fraud happen across your state… anywayssss I hear Quality LEARING Center is hiring 👀”
Watch CNN’s token conservative, Scott Jennings, demand Bondi start arresting lawmakers and government officials in response to the scandal: