By Sharon Zhang
This text was initially revealed by Truthout
Studies of a nationwide freeze got here after a video with debunked claims circulated social media this week.
The Trump administration has reportedly frozen federal little one care subsidies for each state within the U.S. after a right-wing social media influencer made a debunked video purporting to point out fraud in Somali-run daycares in Minnesota this week.
On Tuesday, Deputy Secretary of Well being and Human Providers (HHS) Jim O’Neill stated that the company had frozen all little one care funds to Minnesota following the unfold of a social media video claiming, with doubtful proof, to have uncovered over $100 million of kid care fraud within the state.
Later, stories emerged saying that the administration was freezing funding for all states till they will present supposed verification concerning their little one care applications. One outlet, Reuters, reported that one official stated that no funds had been frozen, nonetheless, and that the administration was solely initiating probes into fraud in Minnesota.
Federal little one care subsidies fund look after 1.4 million kids throughout the nation, with over half of youngsters receiving subsidies aged lower than 5 years previous, based on HHS’s Workplace of Little one Care. The reported cuts come at a time when households are already dealing with large shortages and an affordability disaster of kid care within the U.S.
The stories got here after a video by a 23-year-old right-wing influencer, Nick Shirley, circulated social media this week. Within the video, Shirley visits a dozen Somali-run little one care facilities with a person recognized solely as David, knocking on their doorways and demanding to see the kids.
The facilities refused to allow them to inside for causes many commentators attributed to the security of the kids, however the males nonetheless took it as proof that the facilities are fraudulent.
The video was debunked by reporters, together with native information outlet WCCO. WCCO visited one of many services that Shirley went to for his video and claimed was empty, and as an alternative discovered that there have been over a dozen kids there, in addition to a number of grownup workers members. Additional, employees shared surveillance footage from the morning of Shirley’s go to that confirmed kids being dropped off on the facility for a traditional day of kid care.
Later, kids have been getting into one of many little one care services that Shirley claimed was empty in a CNN interview filmed with him exterior.
Different circumstances have been additionally debunked by reporters, and WCCO discovered that the licenses have been lively for 10 of the 12 services Shirley visited. In a single case, WCCO discovered that Shirley had merely visited a facility whereas it was closed.
Nonetheless, one of many different services visited by Shirley reported that it confronted vandalism early Tuesday morning as the results of the video.
O’Neill, who can also be performing director of the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention (CDC), praised Shirley’s work in his publish saying the freeze, and Vice President JD Vance stated that Shirley had accomplished “much more helpful journalism than any of the winners of the 2024 [Pulitzer Prizes].”
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) criticized the administration’s transfer, saying that defunding little one care has all the time been the purpose. “That is Trump’s lengthy recreation. We’ve spent years cracking down on fraudsters. It’s a severe difficulty — however this has been his plan all alongside,” Walz stated in a publish on social media. “He’s politicizing the difficulty to defund applications that assist Minnesotans.”
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