House GOP Subpoenas Walz Over COVID Fraud Allegations

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Facts

• US Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), the Republican Chairwoman of the US House Education and Workforce Committee, subpoenaed Democratic vice presidential candidate and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz over a $250M COVID fraud scheme.^[1]
• The matter at hand involves the charity Feeding Our Future (FOF), which has been charged by the Dept. of Justice (DOJ) with receiving millions in federal funding for a child nutrition program, creating fake lists of children they were helping, and pocketing the money for themselves.^[2]
• Rep. Foxx is requesting documents from Gov. Walz to show 'the extent of [his] responsibilities' regarding the 'massive fraud that resulted in the abuse of taxpayer dollars intended for hungry children.'^[3]
• After Walz first suspected FOF's wrongdoing as early as Nov. 2020, the state's education department sought to block more funding to the charity. MED later resumed the funding after FOF sued the state for racial discrimination.^[4]
• While Walz claimed the state was ordered by a judge to resume the payments, the Minnesota Judicial Branch replied that Judge John Guthmann 'never ordered the Department of Education to resume payments to FOF in April 2021, or at any other time.'^[5]
• According to a state official, however, the US Dept. of Agriculture, which was under the Trump administration at the time, declined to investigate the state's concerns surrounding fraud. The official also stated that the state education department has already been cooperating with the House committee's subpoenas.^[3]

Sources: ^[1]Axios, ^[2]FOX News, ^[3]New York Times, ^[4]New York Post and ^[5]MPR News.

Narratives

• Republican narrative, as provided by New York Post. It appears House Republicans are the only ones trying to find answers to why Minnesota allowed hundreds of millions of dollars to be stolen from hungry children. Even after the Democratic Attorney General opened an investigation into the matter, the left-leaning media refused to report on the role played by a man currently running for the second-highest office in the land.
• Democratic narrative, as provided by The Daily Beast. Despite the governor not being at fault here, Walz did step up and take responsibility for the failures of his education department. Furthermore, several people who were at fault have already been brought to justice, something Walz is surely proud of. Republicans should stop playing politics and focus their ire on the real culprits.
• Cynical narrative, as provided by NPR Online News. Politicians on both sides of the aisle have been wrapped up in controversies with COVID recovery programs. Despite the initial good intentions of both Republicans and Democrats in rolling out these initiatives, COVID loans put an incredible of money 'out on the street' at a breakneck pace in a way bound to create problems. Next time, there needs to be a more thoughtful safety net set forth when a crisis the scale of COVID occurs.

Predictions