Garrison Keillor: One sexual harassment accuser ‘enjoyed the flirtation’

Fired Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) host Garrison Keillor on Wednesday fired back at his former station’s leadership over his ouster, telling reporters that one of his alleged victims “enjoyed” the harassment she reported.

Keillor told MPR in a statement that if he is guilty of sexual harassment, then every employee who has ever taken a company pencil is guilty of “embezzlement.”

“The allegations are untrue … whatever flirtation occurred between the complainant and me was mutual, believe me.” He added that “she enjoyed flirtation, as many people do,” Keillor told local news station KARE 11.

{mosads}

“If I am guilty of harassment, then every employee who stole a pencil is guilty of embezzlement. I’m an honest fiction writer and I will tell this story in a novel,” he said.

“I’m a writer and I have better things to do than fight with a committee of faceless people who are in a panic,” Keillor continued. “And I’m glad not to have any connection with an organization that operates like that.”

Despite his statement, Keillor’s production company behind “A Prairie Home Companion” allegedly offered $16,000 for the silence of one of Keillor’s accusers, who never cashed the check or accepted the money.

Keillor’s statements to reporters come days after an internal MPR investigation found “dozens” of complaints that Keillor had sexually harassed and belittled women who worked for him over a number of years. Keillor was fired in November ahead of further investigation by the network.

“When we reached a point that from all sources we had sufficient confidence in facts that really required us to act, we took the action we did,” MPR’s CEO Tim McTaggard said. “It was the right thing to do. It was the necessary thing to do, and we stand by it.”