So much for “believe the woman” I guess.

While most of the media attention regarding sexual abuse allegations is focused on the Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation these days, a far more recent (and likely credible) case against former Minnesota Congressman Keith Ellison is flying almost entirely under the radar. As Ed Morrissey noted yesterday, even the voters in Minnesota don’t seem interested in the stories Ellison’s accusers have to tell as he runs for the office of Attorney General in his home state. But that may have changed last night as Ellison debated his Republican opponent, Doug Wardlow. The moderators, to their credit, didn’t shy away from the subject, reading out the allegations made against Ellison by both Amy Alexander and his former girlfriend, Karen Monahan.

As you’ll see in this short video clip, Ellison dismisses both charges as being unfounded and repeats that an “independent investigation” is underway. Wardlow wasn’t having any of it, though, pointing out that the investigation was being conducted, “by your friends and fellow party members. That’s not an independent investigation.”

Things really get spicy when one of the moderators asks Ellison if he’s sure that no other women will be coming forward with allegations. Rather than simply saying that couldn’t happen, Ellison smears his accusers and any potential future claimants by saying he can’t possibly know who else might “cook up” a story about him.

Fox News has a bit more video and some of the transcripts from the key portions. (Emphasis added)

Ellison stumbled to find words when the moderator continued to quiz him on Monahan and asked why he declined the offer to meet her together with the investigator.

“Well, because I — we broke up two years ago for a reason,” Ellison said. “I didn’t want to be in the relationship and therefore, I left the relationship. And to get back in touch with her again is not something that I am interested in doing.”

The moderator then asked: “Are you confident that no one else will step forward with any other allegations?

“Look, in this political environment, I don’t know what somebody might cook up,” Ellison replied. “But I could tell you that there is absolutely nobody that I am aware of who has any sort of — who is threatening or suggesting or who has ever made a prior accusation about me.”

Interestingly, nobody on the panel (including his opponent) chose to pick up on that “cooked up” comment and challenge Ellison about it. Perhaps because they really can’t. Monahan’s case is far more recent than the accusations against Kavanaugh, and she seems to have some documentation supporting it. But if you read the text of the medical report she submitted, there’s really not much there to go on. It’s basically just a doctor repeating things that Monahan told them about the stress she’s been under, perhaps leading to a diagnosis of anemia. The references to abuse by Ellison are couched by the doctor’s comment that , “she did not have any physical injuries that required a physical examination in the past.” So this report is basically the doctor repeating back the story Monahan has already told the press.

When I post this, it gets deleted every time pic.twitter.com/uAJNx8AgF5

— Karen Monahan (@KarenMonahan01) September 19, 2018

As Ed noted, even CNN has come around to the point where they suggest that Ellison can’t stay silent about this much longer. Last night he was forced to break his silence. But rather than believing the women, Ellison is blaming the women. If more accusers come forward, he’s preemptively accusing them of lying and “cooking up a story” about him. And plenty of people in the media and back home in Minnesota seem fine with that. But any suggestion that Kavanaugh’s accuser might be making her story up or even simply being confused about who was at the infamous party are met with cries of misogyny and hate speech.

Funny how that works, eh?