Tim Walz established snitch line for Covid mandate violators

Gov. Tim Waltz (D-MN), who was selected Tuesday to be Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate in the 2024 presidential election, had a notorious Covid snitch line established in March of 2020.

“Tim Walz set up a snitch line for people who were violating Covid rules,” Center for the Study of Partisanship and Ideology President Richard Hanania posted on X. "Thousands of complaints came in as people reported their neighbors for things like going to church, hosting a birthday party, buying nonessential items from stores, and not enforcing mask mandates.”

Walz ordered that a hotline be established and his administration encouraged people to call in reports on their friends, family, and neighbors who weren’t following Covid mandates to the letter. 

In March 2020, Minnesota Democratic Gov. Tim Walz’s administration implemented a hotline encouraging people to snitch on their neighbors who weren’t following the government’s COVID lockdown orders. The snitch line enabled thousands of people to spy and report on people who were violating Covid lockdowns by playing sports outdoors, going to church or taking their pets for a walk.

Alpha News reported in 2022 that one caller phoned to say that a local church wasn’t conducting its services in accordance with “legal requirements.” “I am aware that the apostolic Lutheran church at [address] is planning to hold church services oct 2-4th [sic]. Hundreds are expected And [sic] they will be serving meals in the church dining hall. I don’t believe this fits with legal requirements and I am. Aware [sic] that multiple families that attend this church currently have coronavirus.”

Alpha News spoke with Kevin Gutknecht of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety (DPS), who said the agency ceased monitoring the hotline in November 2020. Gutknecht told the outlet that DPS did not have precise numbers of those who participated in the program but "that approximately 10,000 COVID-related emails passed through the hotline."

“I think we would need to clarify types of emails as well. I suspect a lot of the emails are spam emails, which we know were not generated because of the purpose of the phone line,” Gutknecht told Alpha News.

People contacting the snitch line would be informed by a prerecorded message that they have reached the “Office of Public Safety Stay At Home Hotline.”

“The information you leave is considered public information,” it explained. “At the tone, please leave the following information: your name, your callback number, how the stay-at-home order is being violated, and where the stay-at-home order was violated.”

Walz was also embroiled in more Covid controversy, by offering financial incentives for people to have their children vaccinated.

“Tim Walz poisoned low incomes families who desperately needed money and gave their children, who had zero risk of Covid, an experimental vaccine,” Cernovich posted on X. 

The governor offered $200 to families who offered their five to 11-year-old children for Covid vaccination. “That’s cash in your pocket for starting the year off right by protecting your child from Covid,” Walz announced in January 2022. A previous iteration of the program saw families receive $200 for children between the ages of 12 and 17 who received the vaccine.