On Friday night, Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) was pressed on the abuse allegations made against him at a televised debate.

One of the moderators pointed to a statistic that showed 40% of Minnesota voters consider the allegations made by his ex-girlfriend Karen Monahan this summer and a woman named Amy Alexander back in 2006 to be “a factor” in the race for Attorney General against Republican opponent Doug Wardlow.

Ellison told the moderators that Alexander was “harassing” him and his staff and placed a restraining order against her and that a judge ordered her to “stop making falsehoods” against him.

“So this is not multiple cases,” Ellison said.

He then addressed Monahan’s allegation, saying they were in a “long-term relationship” that ended two years ago and that the allegations are “not true.”

“There is an ongoing investigation,” Ellison added, “which we hope will conclude-”

“Will that be done before the election?” a moderator asked.

“I don’t know,” Ellison responded. “It’s an independent investigation.”

“It’s not an independent investigation!” Wardlow chimed in. “It’s independent by your friends and fellow party members. That’s not an independent investigation.”

Then a moderator pointed out how Monahan alleged she offered to meet with Ellison and the investigator together and he “declined.”

“Is that true?” she asked.

“Well, because I- we broke up two years ago for a reason,” Ellison responded. “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.”

“Are you confident that no one else will step forward with any other allegations?” the moderator followed.

“Look, in this political environment, I don’t know what somebody might cook up,” the congressman said. “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.”

“I think two credible, strong allegations of domestic abuse is enough,” Wardlow shot back. “There’s documentary evidence. We have a medical record where we have Monahan reported to her doctor the abuse that was going on.”

The deputy DNC chair dismissed the doctor’s note, saying it was made a year after they broke up.

Watch the clip above, via TPT Almanac.

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