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On Jesse Watters Primetime earlier this week, Manhattan Institute fellow Chris Rufo insisted the Feeding Our Future scandal out of Minnesota should have been the biggest story of the 2024 cycle, and he was right to call attention to it given the scale and the political indifference surrounding it. Too many in the national press treated this as a local quibble while prosecutors and auditors were uncovering systematic theft from programs meant for kids.
Federal prosecutors have laid out a staggering case: the scheme centered on Feeding Our Future exploited pandemic-era child nutrition programs and involved roughly a quarter of a billion dollars in fraudulent claims, producing dozens of indictments and heavy sentences for key conspirators. Judges have handed down multi-year prison terms and ordered millions in restitution as investigators continue to dismantle the network that bilked taxpayers during a national emergency.
A state audit makes the political failure even less defensible. The Minnesota Office of the Legislative Auditor concluded the Department of Education’s oversight was inadequate, that warning signs were ignored for years, and that the department’s failure to use the authority it had created open opportunities for fraud on an industrial scale. If trust in government still means anything, that report should have been a wake-up call to every official who shrugged or looked the other way.
Republican lawmakers rightly escalated the matter, subpoenaing Governor Tim Walz and demanding records as federal and state investigations continued. This isn’t partisan theater; it’s about who in the executive branch failed to protect taxpayer dollars and the most vulnerable children during a crisis. Accountability isn’t optional simply because the suspects hid behind lawsuits and identity politics; it’s the whole point of having government oversight.
Meanwhile, mainstream outlets barely treated the story like a national scandal even as the AP and other outlets documented the audit’s findings and the breadth of the fraud. That media complacency helped let career bureaucrats and political operatives deflect blame while real prosecutors did the hard work of bringing defendants to justice. The result is a moral and civic failure that benefits no one except grifters and their enablers.
Conservatives should be unapologetic in demanding reforms: tougher oversight, criminal referrals where appropriate, and structural changes so that federal relief programs aren’t turned into slush funds for cronies. The sentences and guilty pleas already secured show the law can work when investigators and prosecutors are allowed to do their jobs — but prevention is cheaper than prosecution and requires political courage.
This is a story about values as much as money. When public servants prioritize optics, litigation fears, or diversity theater over basic verification and accountability, taxpayers and children pay the price. Refusing to treat corruption like corruption is itself a political choice, and one that voters must judge harshly in the ballot box.
If the national press and political class had done their job, this scandal would have dominated headlines well before the last campaign season ended. It’s late to correct the historical record, but not too late to insist on consequences, reform, and a restoration of common-sense oversight so that relief programs actually serve their intended beneficiaries rather than lining the pockets of criminals.
