Miss Pennsylvania is taking her ball and going home.
Yes, Sheena Monnin, Pennsylvania’s rep at the 2012 Miss USA pageant has resigned, saying that the contest was rigged.
Pageant officials, meanwhile, contend that she simply disagrees with the organization’s decision to allow transgender contestants.
Monnin posted to Facebook on Monday announcing that she’s stepped down.
In a separate post, Monnin claims that another contestant saw the list of top 5 contenders on Sunday morning, hours before the show had aired on television.
Pageant organizers have confirmed that Monnin has resigned, but not for the reason she claims.
A statement from the Miss USA organization includes text from an email it claims Monnin sent citing the decision to allow natural born males into the competition as the reason she’s resigning.
Sounds like an interesting drama unfolding here.
UPDATE: Donald Trump has stated that the organization will be suing Monnin for calling the Miss USA pageant “fraudulent” and “trash” on Facebook (comments she has since removed from her page).
“What we’ve authorized today is we’re going to bring a lawsuit,” Trump told Ann Curry on the TODAY show. “She said some really strong things. When she’s using the word ‘fraud,’ that’s pretty strong, so we’re going to be suing her on that basis. I did see her for about a second. I never felt that she had a chance, and all this is is buyer’s remorse.”
She certainly seemed pretty upset on Facebook.
“I witnessed another contestant who said she saw the list of the Top 5 BEFORE THE SHOW EVER STARTED proceed to call out in order who the Top 5 were before they were announced on stage,” Monnin wrote on Facebook on Tuesday. “After it was indeed the Top 5 I knew the show must be rigged; I decided at that moment to distance myself from an organization who did not allow fair play and whose morals did not match my own.”
Trump replied on TODAY, saying, “The person that supposedly showed the list (to Monnin) totally denies that that ever took place,” Trump said. “This is a girl who went there, lost, she wasn’t in the top 15, and she’s angry at the pageant system.”
More in the video below.
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