With just nine days to go before the midterm elections, Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN-05) accuser Karen Monahan is speaking out on several local and national news programs.
Monahan sat down with KSTP’s Eric Chaloux Tuesday for an in-person interview broadcast live throughout the state. She opened up about her “fears” with bringing the allegation public, saying she has faced “isolation, smears, lies,” and “threats.”
Chaloux asked Monahan for her reaction to Ellison’s repeated denials, one of which occurred Sunday night during a debate with Republican opponent Doug Wardlow.
“I’m pretty numb to that. He’s denied it, denied it, denied it,” she said. “At this point I’m not surprised; he’s backed into a corner for sure.”
At the center of the scandal is a video of the incident that Monahan claims to possess, but has thus far declined to produce.
“I’ve had so many survivors say do not cater into these demands, because we don’t have tape. I’m not trying to make it harder for people who have been victimized to come out,” she told Chaloux, saying she will release the video “in a time that works for me.”
“This is my process, my number one responsibility is my own self-care and doing what I feel I can handle,” she added.
On a similar note, she told WCCO’s Paul and Jordana Show Thursday that she refuses to “be anyone’s pawn,” but is “here to simply share my story.”
“I’ve said it before, if and when I decided to do it, it’s going to be on my own time. It’s going to be something that I choose to do because I feel that it’s the right thing to do. It won’t be because, you know, one side saying, release it, release it, and stick it to him,” she elaborated.
Monahan also shared about her experience living with Ellison, revealing that once he “put his hands” on her she knew she “could no longer live under that roof.”
In an interview with Fox News, Monahan discussed the treatment she has received from fellow Democrats.
“There has been a lot of bullying, there has been a lot of harassment, isolation by many folks I stood side by side with—supporting them in their campaigns, walking with them in various protests, worked together on different issues around social justice,” she told host Tucker Carlson.
She said, however, that she was not surprised by the backlash, since she has “watched both sides basically take women’s pain and use it as a tool for politics.”
Her lawyer, Andrew Parker appeared alongside his client, saying that he doesn’t believe the Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Party’s investigation of Ellison was “legitimate.”
“It wasn’t legitimate at all. Any objective review of it would reach the same conclusion,” he said.
Monahan later revealed in the interview that she “would not allow the public to see” the alleged video of the incident, but would only consider showing the video in private circumstances.
According to the most recent polls, Ellison currently trails Wardlow by seven points.
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Anthony Gockowski is managing editor of The Minnesota Sun. Follow Anthony on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
