The one podcast \ radio show I listen to, which is an affiliate of NPR, made the entire story on somali fraud not about the fraud itself, but rather about the mean things orange man said in response to the fraud :rofl: but it was also before the recent revelations. Though I expect the story to not come up again.
The Star Tribune is the main rag running interference. I mean, their editor's room has a framed portrait of Ilhan Omar after all.
I am reasonably confident that the #1 reason for this press conference and its timing is precisely because the Strib put out this article just last week;
https://www.startribune.com/how-we-analyzed-alleged-fraud-totals-in-minnesota/601543149After the story had started getting traction in national news and picked up by the NYT/WaPo/Fox/CNN/etc, the Strib tried to gain control of the narrative with a piece downplaying the fraud and claiming it was 'only $217.7 million'
Joe Thompson, not being born yesterday and noticing the attempt to control the narrative, scheduled this and put his own $9-10 billion figure on it
This is a good time to mention that the byline of that story was Jeffrey Meitrodt, who I saw on PBS being interviewed by Cathy Wurzer and is clearly shorter than her, putting him in full blown manlet range, while US Attorney Joe Thompson is a towering goliath motherfucker standing in at 6'5" so he can be a full head taller than his peanut gallery behind him in these press events. Reinforcing my belief that short people with their little hands and little eyes walk around telling great big lies.
That's the meta context behind this one facet of the story and its timing though, NPR included in the list of allied media trying to carry water for the left here but the Strib are the vanguard trying to actually control it, NPR play catch up.
My wishful thinking is the state will shift more conservative/moderate, or at least swap out the status quo leadership running oversight on mass fraud.
Minnesota didn't swing back after rioting mobs torched Lake Street, they still looked for more blue blood to spill
The backlash over this fraud won't help Republicans win a state wide election, but it might tank the Tim Walz third term and if he's properly derailed we'll probably see some other democrat win the election with a vague promise of anti-fraud which of course amounts to nothing. The #1 takeaway from the past few years is that Minnesota is completely helpless at a state level and all our problems are being addressed by the fucking feds. Andrew Luger basically single handedly reduced the violent crime rate in Minneapolis by 25%+ by just locking up already convicted gang members who had dozens of felonies but we let them run around killing people anyway because lmao MN. Now Joe Thompson forfeited his basketball career to LARP black hawk down.