Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez was challenged Sunday when he said his party has "never hesitated" to act on sexual misconduct allegations leveled at its members.

Perez made the comments when asked during an interview on CNN's "State of the Union" program why Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., was still serving as his deputy at the DNC, despite being accused of domestic violence by his former girlfriend. A probe by Minnesota's state Democratic Party reported last month that it found no evidence to substantiate Karen Monahan's claims, which Ellison has vehemently denied.

"What I say is that we should always take those complaints seriously, and we do, and that's why an investigation was conducted, that's why Congressman Ellison asked for a House Ethics investigation," Perez said. "And Democrats have never hesitated to take action, unlike Republicans."





The response prompted immediate pushback from anchor Jake Tapper. "Wait a second," he said. "Democrats have never hesitated to take action" Do you mean in the last year or do you mean historically? Because historically, I could go through a list of people."

When questioned about allegations made against former President Bill Clinton and the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., Perez responded by saying he has only been chair of the party for the last 18 months.

"Well, and, again, you saw what happened in Sen. Franken's situation," Perez said, referring to Franken's resignation last year over accusations of misbehavior toward women. "Democrats didn't hesitate to do something, even if it was difficult because that was the right thing to do."

"I think Keith Ellison's ex-girlfriend deserves to be heard, and deserves to be treated with dignity, and deserves to have a fair and full investigation, and that's exactly what has been done," Perez added. "And I also believe that when women succeed, America succeeds. And the agenda of this administration is an agenda that's making it much harder for women to succeed."

Ellison announced in June that he would step down from his House seat to campaign to become Minnesota's next attorney general. He is currently leading Republican challenger Doug Wardlow in the polls.