How Hard Was That? ABC Chooses to Stop Lying About Trump’s Somalia Comments

If at first you don’t succeed try and try....and try again? ABC must have thought that was the way in spending one news cycle each on their flagship newscasts Good Morning America and World News Tonight falsely spinning viewers there was no context to President Trump’s scathing comments about Somalis living in the United States.

But on the third try on Thursday’s World News Tonight, someone there must have decided to grow a spine and tell Disney viewers the truth that Somalis have been on the President’s mind given both planned Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) raids and the bombshell revelation about Somalis allegedly orchestrating a massive welfare fraud scheme in Democrat-run Minnesota.

 

It must have pained chief White House correspondent Mary Bruce to not be a liberal partisan for a few seconds in noting ICE was out in Minneapolis “targeting the Somali community as the President doubles down on his attacks” and a day after he called them “garbage.”

It was then she actually explained why Somalis were causing such a stir:

BRUCE: It comes as House Republicans launch an investigation into widespread Covid-era fraud involving some members of Minnesota’s large Somali community. The New York Times reports 59 people have been convicted in schemes involving more than $1 billion in stolen taxpayer money that was supposed to go to children and other social services. President Trump seizing on this story as he widens his immigration crackdown. But Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey defending the Somali community.

MAYOR JACOB FREY (D): He’s wrong and we want them here. Somali people have been an extraordinary benefit.

Bruce should try this fairness and honesty act more often. Unfortunately, Thursday’s Good Morning America didn’t rerack this story and moved on all together.

CBS and NBC, meanwhile, covered the ICE raids and fraud scheme angles on both their main Wednesday night and Thursday morning shows, but colored it as offensive Trump would be weighing in.

“Now to those new ICE enforcement operations in Minneapolis coming just as President Trump is doubling down on his inflammatory comments about the large Somali community in the city,” said anchor Tom Llamas on NBC Nightly News.

Correspondent Maggie Vespa griped about ICE operations “as President Trump is doubling down on his comments railing against the Somali community here, the largest in the U.S.” and sucked up to Somali immigrant and Minneapolis City Councilman Jamal Osman, who claimed his young daughter asked him “why are we being singled out.”

 

Only later in the piece did she mention the welfare fraud and run to another Somali to explain away said crimes (click “expand”):

VESPA: Federal prosecutors have charged dozens of people in Minnesota’s Somali community for allegedly stealing hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer money, including from government programs meant to give meals to low income children.

TRUMP: This beautiful place and I see these people ripping it off. [SCREEN WIPE] We don’t want them in our country. Let them go back to where they came from and fix it.

VESPA: This son of Somali immigrants, who does not want to give his name, says the President is creating fear and unfairly blaming the whole community.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Other people hearing that, you know, they’re going to really use that to come at us. That is what I’m really scared of.

Vespa returned for Thursday’s Today and griped Trump’s comments “taking aim at the large Somali community here” were “stoking widespread anger and fear.”

Large portions were repeats from Wednesday night, but she had more from Osman, who claimed without pushback that Somalis are being “hunt[ed]” by ICE.

She also had more form the unidentified Somali male, who said Trump’s been using “that one percent” who participated in the scheme as “scapegoat to do whatever he wants.”

Going lastly to CBS, both Wednesday’s CBS Evening News and Thursday’s CBS Mornings at least had the respect to offer more than a sentence explaining why Somalis are seen as running afoul of the law.

As you’ll see with the former, it was still rather soft

 

That said, CBS Minnesota’s Jonah Kaplan had the most meat on the bone about the rampant corruption (even though he didn’t mention the refusal to put a stop to it earlier likely stemmed from not wanting to appear racist) (click “expand”):

KAPLAN: Minnesota is reeling from a fraud scandal involving $1 billion siphoned from multiple federal programs during the COVID pandemic. In the past three years, 87 people have been charged, 61 convicted, most of Somali descent. Erica MacDonald was U.S. attorney for the district of Minnesota during the first Trump administration. [TO MACDONALD: What happened in Minnesota where fraud was able to run rampant that it didn’t in other states?

ERICA MACDONALD: Lack of accountability, frankly. We knew that fraud occurs and there’s warning signs that come with it, and they were ignored in this case.

KAPLAN: According to investigators, the schemes involved bogus receipts and invoices for meal programs, housing assistance and behavioral health services, charging the state millions for services that were never provided.

(....)

KAPLAN: Some House Republicans on an Oversight Committee in Washington announcing in a news release they’re launching their own investigation into the allegations of fraud and accusations that some of that money could have been funneled directly to terror groups overseas, but I spoke with a number of federal investigators, and they tell me there is no evidence that that happened. Instead, the fraudsters allegedly stole the money and kept it for themselves and spent it on things like cars, houses, diamonds, and so much more[.]

Kaplan’s story nearly reaired in full for Thursday’s CBS Mornings, but Kaplan’s live read-in described the Twin Cities as “a community on edge” with “roughly 80,000 Somalis living here in the area, and their leaders are warning that they’re being unfairly blamed and targeted because of a fraud scandal worth more than $1 billion that have implicated more than a dozen Somalis.”

To see the relevant transcripts from December 3, click here (for ABC), here (for CBS), and here (for NBC). To see the relevant transcripts from December 4, click here (for CBS) and here (for NBC).