Karen Monahan, the woman accusing Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) of abuse, sat down with CBS News to describe the incidents for the first time on camera:
“He looked at me, goes ‘Hey you f***ing hear me … and then he looked at me, he goes ‘Bitch, get the f*** out of my house,’ and he started to try to drag me off the bed,” Monahan said. “That’s when I put my camera on to video him.”
Ellison, now a candidate for Minnesota attorney general, has denied abusing Monahan. She alleges the abuse happened two years ago.
Monahan also has not shared the video with anyone since “it’s too traumatic for her.” CBS continued:
She said she called a friend after the incident and told them she was “at the lowest of the low.”Monahan said she saved the video on her computer. This past Saturday, Monahan’s son, Austin, posted a message on Facebook saying that in the middle of 2017, he found the video, almost two minutes long, showing Ellison dragging his mother off a bed and telling her to get out of his house.Monahan said she should not have to release the video of the incident in order to be believed. She believes her words should be enough.Monahan told CBS News she has the video on a thumb drive.
Monahan said that she decided to speak out now because she followed her gut, the same “gut that I kept trying to push down.” She previously shared text messages between her and Ellison with CNN:
Monahan provided one text of her mentioning the physical altercation to Ellison in December 2017.“Keith, We never discussed — the video I have of you trying to drag me off the bed, yelling get the f*** out now, calling me a bitch and saying I hate you bitch,” the text message read. In follow up texts viewed by CNN, Ellison did not directly address the physical altercation.Other messages viewed by CNN do not specifically show incidents of verbal abuse.In one, she tells Ellison that she plans to mention him in her book and he says she does not have his permission to do so. Other text messages showed Ellison and Monahan discussing removing her things from the apartment they shared after Monahan moved out. The conversations are at times cordial.
Despite the accusations coming out last weekend, the DNC didn’t respond until Tuesday. From National Review:
“These allegations recently came to light and we are reviewing them. All allegations of domestic abuse are disturbing and should be taken seriously,” read a DNC statement to NPR, published shortly before polls closed in Minnesota.“The party has no choice but to suspend him at a minimum until they figure out what’s going on,” former DNC communications director Luis Miranda told NPR. “Frankly, it would be malpractice not to. We’ve made it clear we’re going to take these accusations seriously, at a minimum. We set too high a standard not to take this seriously.”
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