Far be it from me to defend Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., but he’s right that his former girlfriend, Karen Monahan, should produce the video evidence of abuse that she claims to have.
To be perfectly clear, I have no idea who is telling the truth here, and firmly oppose efforts to cast unwarranted doubt on the harrowing stories women have shared over the course of the #MeToo movement, which was long overdue. Further, it’s perfectly understandable that Monahan wouldn’t want to grant millions of eyeballs access to graphic footage of her trauma. But she doesn’t have to.
After her allegations first surfaced, Monahan shared more than 100 text and Twitter messages with Minnesota Public Radio. By sharing the video (which she says she has on a thumb drive) with a news outlet, Monahan could avoid releasing it to the public, while still cementing her credibility. Unfortunate as it is, her choice to privately share the messages but not the video with the press looks strange.
The pain of reliving and sharing video of your private trauma with a reporter must be incredible. I understand. But Monahan is making damning, public accusations about a national political leader who’s on the ballot this fall. Voters are reasonably confused about these allegations, and she could go a long way toward helping them determine the truth by allowing the press to confirm that the video shows what she says it shows. Monahan has already been willing to open up a good deal about the Sept. 2016 incident that the video allegedly documents.
Monahan told CBS on Thursday that Ellison, then her boyfriend, requested that she take out the trash while she was listening to a podcast in bed. She says she shook her head in response. “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,” she explained. “That’s when I put my camera on to video him.”
That may very well be exactly what happened. And if so, it’s unfair that Monahan should have to suffer again by reliving her pain in public. But an obvious motivation for not sharing the video is that it doesn’t corroborate the allegations.
Still, while the video is a significant part of her story, Monahan’s full allegations implicate Ellison in long-term emotional abuse. And this is not the first time he’s been accused of that.
Either way, the information that’s publicly available in this case is far from conclusive. But the behavior Monahan says she has on video is serious enough that voters should know as much as they possibly can before deciding whether to install him as their next state attorney general. I know that it’s tough, but by providing the video to a news outlet, she wouldn’t have to share footage with the public for it to speak volumes about Ellison’s fitness for office, and boost the credibility of her entire story. If she chooses not to, the credibility of her accusations will inevitably be lessened with the public.
I have no interest in defending Ellison, and sympathize deeply with women in Monahan’s position, but if the video exists, she should allow the press to corroborate it.
