Ryan Thorpe

Like they have been failed by their government officials, by the people who are supposed to keep their eyes on the public purse.

They have been exploited by their fellow residents in the state.

And, you know, ultimately this money, you know, we can talk about whether or not government welfare is, you know, what we think about that politically, but

This money was earmarked for people who had some needs.

And as a result, those needs went unmet and the taxpayer still got hit with the bill.

And it went to fund lavish lifestyles and luxury vehicles and real estate purchases in Africa and across America.

I get the sense that there is, you know, a lot of anger in the state.

Now, I can't speak for everyone, but I have been, you know, pretty consistently working the phones since this story broke, keeping in touch with the contacts that I've developed to try and, you know, get a sense of what they're hearing and what the situation is on the ground.

You know, I also spend time in Minnesota while reporting this piece.

And, you know, I definitely think that a lot of the people I'm speaking to at least are

one, outrage, but two, they're also happy that this is now a national conversation.

There have been people at the state level who have been trying to raise alarm bells about this for a while, and I think they felt like this is a huge scandal.

Why is no one paying attention?

And now it's finally kind of broke through on the national level.

Well, I mean, I have a few ideas, I suppose.

One would be, you know, I think that there was a real political risk admitting how bad the situation was for the people that were overseeing it, right?

So that's not in their immediate political interest to kind of admit, hey, we totally dropped the ball here.

We're out billions of dollars, but don't worry.

Trust us, the people who oversaw the mess to now clean it up.

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