The current administration is refusing to use emergency funds to avoid a lapse in benefits for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which will have dire consequences for the 1 in 8 Americans who rely on monthly food assistance.

More than two dozen states are suing the administration to make the funds accessible, but far-right Daily Wire commentator Matt Walsh says the millions of Americans who are terrified their families will go hungry are actually just “lazy” and “entitled” thieves.

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“Has anyone ever starved to death in the modern history of this country because they haven’t had access to food?” Walsh said. “I mean, has that actually happened in this country?”

Walsh claimed that a loss of SNAP benefits shouldn’t be worrisome because people should have other “lines of defense,” like family, friends, and soup kitchens. He then went on a long diatribe about how most people who utilize the benefits are actually just “bad.”

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“And in fact, if you look at what food stamp recipients are saying in their own words, you come away with the distinct impression that almost none of these people actually need the food stamps. Instead, you come away with the impression that many of these people are simply entitled, lazy, barely literate, and, like, some of them are just frankly bad people.”

“That is a moral outrage that we, as taxpaying Americans who are funding this, have every right to be upset about that. When people are stealing our money who don’t even need it and just wasting it in this profligate way, don’t let anyone morally blackmail you.”

“There are a lot of people who, rather than get a job, would prefer to rob grocery stores and the people shopping inside them.” 

Walsh is repeating age-old stereotypes about folks who utilize welfare programs. In reality, a January report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found that 38% of SNAP recipients are working families, 37% include a disabled family member or older adult, and 62% include families with children.

The Center called SNAP “the nation’s most important anti-hunger program.” In another report, it stated that SNAP helps 1 in 10 low-wage workers in the country put food on the table.

“Millions of Americans work in jobs with low wages, inconsistent schedules, and no benefits such as paid sick leave,” the report explained, “all of which contribute to high turnover and spells of unemployment. Many of these workers get help putting food on the table through SNAP.”

The administration is blaming Democrats for the potential lapse in SNAP benefits, accusing them of refusing to reopen the federal government to fund the program because they are holding out “for healthcare for illegal aliens and gender mutilation procedures.”

As the shutdown stretches into its fifth week, Senate Democrats have indeed refused to throw their full weight behind a Republican-backed stopgap bill to reopen the government and fund it at previous levels through November 21. But contrary to the USDA message, Democrats are actually holding out for legislation extending federal subsidies that would prevent the cost of Affordable Care Act (ACA) health insurance plans from skyrocketing next year. Republicans, meanwhile, refuse to negotiate on those subsidies until Democrats agree to reopen the government.

Walsh is known for creating anti-trans documentaries and spreading hateful rhetoric online. He has compared raising gay children to human trafficking and cutting off arms, and he has said “two men shouldn’t be allowed to adopt.”

He has stopped at nothing to attack trans people in every capacity, even going so far as to star in a feature-length comedy film written to mock trans women and girls who are fighting for the right to participate in sports as their gender. Last year, he called for trans people to be “entirely erased from the earth” at an anti-trans rally outside the Supreme Court.

And in 2022, Walsh told conservative podcaster Joe Rogan that homosexuality is a result of humans being a “fallen species” and that it comes from “our fallen human nature” and “proclivities towards sin” while explaining why he opposes same-sex marriage.

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