Writing on the Walz: Details Revealed as Tim Walz Announces Exit

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz announced he will not seek a third term – just four months after stating he would indeed run for office again. This pivot comes amid ongoing investigations into the multi-billion-dollar fraud at Minnesota medical offices and childcare sites – as well as the taxpayer money being funneled overseas.

As reported by the Associated Press:

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Democrats’ 2024 candidate for vice president, is ending his bid for a third term amid President Donald Trump’s relentless focus on a fraud investigation into the state’s child care programs and its Somali community.

Less than four months after announcing his reelection campaign, Walz said Monday that negative attention and Republican attacks have contributed to an “extraordinarily difficult year for our state,” making it impossible for him to serve full time as governor while also being a candidate to keep his job.

“Every minute that I spend defending my own political interest 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 want to prey on our differences,” Walz said at the state capitol. “So I’ve decided to step out of this race, and I’ll let others worry about the election while I focus on the work that’s in front of me for the next year.”

The report goes on to speculate about who might replace Walz as the Democrat nominee, stating, “Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar is considering entering the Minnesota race, according to a person close to her.” ”

For weeks, Minnesotans were told there “wasn’t much there” – that concerns about fraud were exaggerated or politically motivated. But now, the numbers tell a different story. What initially looked like roughly $1 billion in fraud has ballooned to estimates as high as $9 billion, prompting serious federal scrutiny. Even the Assistant U.S. Attorney described it as “industrial scale fraud.”

In his lengthy statement, Walz blamed nearly everyone except himself – from Republicans to President Trump specifically, to independent journalists, and to his political opponents. He insisted he has done more than anyone to fight fraud, while simultaneously arguing that election-year politics would only distract him from governing. His solution? Step out of the race and “let others worry about the election.”

That explanation strains a credibility that was already stretched seemingly pretty thin.

Politicians rarely abandon reelection bids lightly – especially after they already announced that they were running. This feels less like a selfless act of leadership and more like a calculation driven by internal polling, political reality, and pressure from within his own party. The writing was on the Walz, if you will. Consultants likely told him the same thing many on the far Left told President Biden last year: Don’t become the cautionary tale.

By stepping aside now, Walz gives his party nearly a full year to regroup and find a replacement candidate, possibly even Senator Amy Klobuchar (MN). But stepping aside does not resolve the underlying issue. The fraud investigation isn’t going away. If anything, this decision signals that we may only be seeing the tip of the iceberg.

This isn’t about partisan talking points. It’s about accountability. You don’t preside over a scandal of this magnitude without consequences. Walz might finish his term, but he will do so under a cloud – and Minnesota voters deserve full transparency about how this happened and who was responsible.

Meanwhile, if you’d told me a week ago that Nicolás Maduro and his wife would be standing before a judge in New York City, I might have thought you were getting your news from TikTok. And yet, here we are.

Over the weekend, the U.S. captured Venezuela’s longtime strongman and brought him stateside, where he has now pled “not guilty” in federal court. The moment feels surreal – and historic. It has been decades since we’ve seen a foreign dictator arrested and arraigned on U.S. soil.

Reactions were immediate and intense. The far Left rushed to call the operation illegal or impeachable. Yet many of those same voices ignored the fact that the Biden Administration itself had placed – and later actually increased – a bounty on Maduro’s capture. The Trump Administration didn’t just talk about it. It acted.

ACLJ Senior Counsel for Global Affairs Mike Pompeo joined us to put this moment into perspective:

We now have a narco-terrorist who’s in a U.S. court system. He’ll get his legal due process, but he can no longer wreak havoc either on the United States or the risk that it has presented to us for years and years and years. He can no longer cooperate with the Russians and the Iranians and Hezbollah down in Venezuela, not too far from our southern shores. But importantly, the Venezuelan people now have a chance to live a life that is more decent, and when they do, they will be more productive, and that will be good for the United States of America as well. This was once a thriving economy. It can be so again, and a thriving Venezuelan economy is great for the American economy as well, and I think President Trump appreciates all of that, and it’s why he did what he did this past weekend.

Across the U.S. and abroad, Venezuelan communities celebrated. People who fled their homeland, believing they might never return, suddenly saw hope. That matters. If you want to understand whether an action like this was right, look at the people who lived under the regime.

Maduro’s capture sends a message: The United States is once again willing to act against those who profit from chaos, drugs, and oppression in our own hemisphere. Now the hard work begins – for Venezuela, and for the international community.

Today’s Sekulow broadcast included more discussion of Tim Walz announcing that he would be giving up his bid for another term in the Governor’s mansion.

Watch the full broadcast below: