The Democratic National Committee released its first statement on Tuesday regarding the abuse allegations recently made against Deputy Chairman Keith Ellison — conveniently waiting till just hours before polls closed in Minnesota’s primary elections.
“These allegations recently came to light and we are reviewing them,” the DNC said in a statement to NPR. “All allegations of domestic abuse are disturbing and should be taken seriously.”
The statement comes days after a social media post went viral over the weekend that alleged that Ellison abused a former girlfriend, allegedly shown in a video that has not been released. The post was allegedly written by the woman’s son, who claims he viewed over 100 text messages and found a video of Ellison dragging his mom off the bed and calling her a “f—ing b—h.”
The DNC has come under intense fire this week for not addressing the allegations sooner as they ignored requests for comment from CNN, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal.
“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 in response to the allegations. “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.”
The allegations come after former Minnesota Senator Al Franken (D) was forced to resign earlier this year after evidence emerged that allegedly showed him groping women.
NPR notes that House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has still not commented about the allegations against Ellison.