GOP sharpens Minnesota fraud attacks after Tim Walz deputy wins Senate nomination

Peggy Flanagan wants Minnesota voters to see her as her own person. That's a hard sell when you've spent six years as the second-highest official in an administration that let hundreds of millions of dollars in fraud walk out the door through Feeding Our Future and a half dozen other programs that were supposed to feed hungry kids and instead fed a network of grifters. You don't get to be lieutenant governor for two terms and then claim you were just handling ribbon cuttings while the state's oversight apparatus fell apart on your watch.

Distancing yourself from a scandal after the fact isn't the same as not being part of it. If Flanagan had real objections to how Walz's administration handled the warnings that came in about missing money and phantom meal sites, Minnesotans deserve to know when she raised them and what she actually did. Silence at the time and talking points now is not accountability, it's spin timed for a Senate race.

Republicans sharpening their attacks here isn't some cynical opportunism, it's just paying attention. Minnesota taxpayers got fleeced by people who exploited a system Flanagan helped run, and now she's asking for a promotion. That's a legitimate thing to campaign on, not a smear.

The fraud in Minnesota wasn't a rounding error. It was one of the largest pandemic-era theft schemes in the country, and the people running the state either missed it or looked away. Voters get to decide which is worse, but they shouldn't have to guess which one happened.