Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy blasts Gov. Walz on CDL’s
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy blasted Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, saying he gave 33% of CDL licenses unlawfully to people that shouldn’t be driving big rigs on American roads.
Fox – Fox 9
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is hitting back at President Donald Trump’s repeated comments targeting the state’s Somali immigrant community.
During a press conference on Dec. 4 announcing Minnesota’s new budget forecast, Walz called the president’s series of social media posts and public remarks “vile” and “racist lies.”
“This creates danger,” Walz reportedly said during the news conference. “We know how these things go, they start with taunts, they turn to violence.”
In recent weeks, Trump has zeroed in on swaths of Somali people in the state, issuing several insults toward Somalia, the Somali-American immigrant population and some of Minnesota’s Democratic lawmakers.
Starting on Thanksgiving, Nov. 27, Trump posted about a massive fraud and money laundering investigation in the state, in which a group of people allegedly perpetuated what the state’s district attorney’s office called the “largest Covid-19 fraud scheme in the country.” Many of those accused in the scheme, though not all, are of Somali descent.
Trump falsely said “hundreds of thousands of refugees from Somalia are completely taking over the once great State of Minnesota,” and used the “r-word” slur to describe Walz. A few days later at a Dec. 2 Cabinet meeting, the president called Somali immigrants “garbage.” The posts and comments attracted widespread condemnation from critics, including over the “r-word” slur. Many Minnesota officials called his attacks on the Somali community racist and un-American.
During the Dec. 4 press conference, Walz condemned what he called Trump’s conflation of the individuals accused in the fraud scheme with an entire population.
“You commit crimes, you go to jail. Doesn’t matter what your race is, what your ethnicity, religion,” Walz said. “But demonizing an entire group of people by their race and their ethnicity? A very group of people who contribute to the vitality − economic, cultural − of this state, is something I hoped we’d never have to see.”
Minnesota is home to the largest Somali immigrant community in the country, estimated to be between 60,000 and 80,000 people.
Kathryn Palmer is a politics reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach her at kapalmer@usatoday.com and on X @KathrynPlmr. Sign up for her daily politics newsletter here.
