A Minnesota Star Tribune column praising Democratic Gov. Tim Walz for refusing to retreat from the controversial clemency decision ignited outrage over the weekend, with critics accusing the paper of minimizing a monstrous crime and omitting essential details about the victim.
“The Minnesota Star Tribune is cheering on Tim Walz protecting an illegal alien monster who raped a 10 year old girl,” House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., wrote on X. “No one should read this depraved rag. They are sick.”
Minnesota’s Board of Pardons voted unanimously on June 10 to grant clemency to Tou Lue Vang, a Laotian national convicted in 2006 of felony sexual assault.
The board consists of Walz, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and state Supreme Court Chief Justice Natalie Hudson.
Vang repeatedly assaulted a child between 2002 and 2004, according to the account provided. He was facing deportation before receiving clemency.
Star Tribune columnist Rochelle Olson applauded Walz in a section titled “Cheers to Gov. Tim Walz,” arguing that the governor deserved credit for standing by the decision.
“The governor refused to back down from his vote to pardon a Hmong man convicted of felony sexual assault in 2006,” Olson wrote. “It’s significant that Tou Lue Vang needed only two of three votes from the state Board of Pardons, but he received unanimous support.”
Fun fact: The Minnesota Star Tribune is run by one of Tim Walz’s former commissioners….
So it’s absolutely going to spread propaganda for him… no matter how deranged. https://t.co/jL0akHBu1T
— Tim Young (@TimRunsHisMouth) July 19, 2026
The column referenced a letter from the victim supporting Vang’s clemency, an important factor in the board’s decision. But it did not tell readers that the victim was a child or that Vang had repeatedly assaulted the girl over a two-year period.
Those omissions became the heart of the backlash.
The newspaper defended its decision to publish the column by pointing to the diversity of views appearing on its opinion pages.
“The Minnesota Star Tribune regularly publishes a wide range of opinions across the political spectrum,” a spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
“In this case, our opinion columnist agreed with a unanimous pardon by the Minnesota state board of pardons, including Governor Tim Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison and state Supreme Court Chief Justice Natalie Hudson,” the spokesperson added.
But Olson poured gasoline on the controversy by comparing the case to President Trump’s pardons of people involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
“Vang’s actions 20 years ago were awful, but so were the violent protests at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and those folks received presidential pardons,” Olson wrote.
Critics called the comparison both irrelevant and grotesque.
“The Star Tribune likens repeatedly raping a 10-year-old girl to protesting in the Capitol on Jan 6,” author Dennis Neale wrote on X. “You fluppin’ idiots.”
Another social media user expressed disbelief that the Capitol riot had been invoked to justify the clemency decision.
“Minnesota’s largest paper actually figured out a way to shove January 6th into this as a way to excuse an illegal immigrant who sexually assaulted a child,” the user wrote. “One of the most insane things I’ve ever seen.”
More over at Fox News:
More details here 👉 https://t.co/BwSBAl0GKm
— Fox News Politics (@foxnewspolitics) July 20, 2026
