Is this Member of Congress Getting a Pass Over Sexual Assault Allegations?
The Daily Caller reports that though “Democratic Rep. Keith Ellison is facing accusations that he abused his ex-girlfriend, Karen Monahan, a liberal activist for Sierra club,” and that story is largely being ignored by the media and the #METOO movement.
The Minnesota Congressman has just won the Democratic nomination for the state Attorney General. It would certainly be devastating to his campaign if these charges were to gain traction. Imagine, the chief law enforcement officer of the state, accused of assaulting his ex-girlfriend.
The charges seem credible (but are still, of course, still just accusations), yet has received little attention.
Vox reports:
“On Saturday night, the son of Ellison’s ex-girlfriend Karen Monahan wrote a lengthy Facebook post saying that he saw a video of Ellison grabbing his mother and swearing at her in a bedroom.
“This is the second time Ellison has been publicly accused of domestic violence. Another woman, Amy Louise Alexander, , going public with her account that Ellison verbally abused her while they were having an affair. She also said he grabbed and pushed her during an argument. Ellison denied even having a relationship with her.
“There are several similarities between the accounts: Both women were involved in Minnesota progressive politics, and they described Ellison losing his temper and using threats, verbal harassment, and violence.
“But unlike other cases in the #MeToo era, where media outlets, in many cases, have asserted that women endured sexual harassment, assault, or other abusive behavior, the media has been much more ambivalent about asserting whether the claims are reliable.”
There seems to be several factors driving the lack of action: people did not want to derail the Congressman’s AG race if the charges are unsubstantiated at the end. In addition, Monahan’s son claims there’s a video of the incident, but has yet to produce it.
With the primary now behind Ellison and there being a few months until the general election, hopefully the media will begin to ask tougher questions and get to the bottom of these accusations.
