Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and the Minnesota Star Tribune are facing significant backlash after the newspaper's columnist defended the governor's decision to grant clemency to Tou Lue Vang, an undocumented immigrant convicted of raping a child.
Walz, along with State Attorney General Keith Ellison and state Chief Justice Natalie Hudson, voted on June 10 to grant clemency to Vang. At the time of the pardon, Vang, a Laotian national, was facing deportation from the United States. He had been convicted in 2006 for repeated rapes of a child between 2002 and 2004.
The Star Tribune's opinion columnist, Rochelle Olson, included a "Cheers to Gov. Tim Walz" section praising the governor for defending the pardon. The column stated that Vang received unanimous support from the state Board of Pardons. However, Olson's writing did not explicitly mention that Vang's victim was a minor or that the assaults occurred multiple times over two years, though it did reference a letter from the victim to the board supporting clemency.
A spokesperson for the Star Tribune told Fox News Digital that the paper "regularly publishes a wide range of opinions across the political spectrum" and that the columnist "agreed with a unanimous pardon by the Minnesota state board of pardons."
Critics, including House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., expressed strong disapproval online. Emmer called the newspaper a "depraved rag" and criticized the decision to protect an individual convicted of raping a child. Other online commentators also condemned the comparison made by Olson between Vang's actions and the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol rioters, whom she also mentioned in her column.
Despite the clemency granted by the state board, Vang was deported to Laos on July 10. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the deportation, stating that he had terminated Vang's legal status in the United States. Rubio criticized Walz's decision, asserting that the pardon allowed Vang to "endanger American families once again" before his removal from the country.
Following Vang's deportation, Governor Walz defended his decision, questioning the impact of the pardon on safety and the concept of not judging individuals by their worst days.
