Miss USA winner responds to Miss Pennsylvania Sheena Monnin’s rigged allegations

Newly crowned Miss USA Olivia Culpo said she’s not a drama queen and is not letting the allegations made by Miss Pennsylvania Sheena Monnin that the pageant was rigged get to her.

“I’m very much laid back and I’m not a drama queen. I’m a beauty queen now, but I’m not a drama queen. I just let it roll off of my back. I think most Americans are smart enough to know that it’s not rigged,” Culpo told Metro today. “It’s silly she would say something like that because it’s just so clear that … they make it fair. There’s no two ways about it.”

Culpo, a 20-year-old Boston University student, also said that she spent time with Monnin over the two weeks just before the pageant and said “she’s a nice girl.”

Monnin, 27, resigned her title as Miss Pennsylvania Monday night and took to Facebook to talk about her thoughts on the pageant.

She claimed she talked with another pageant competitor who saw a list of the final five contestants days before the show in Las Vegas and that the competitor told her who the final five would be and that it matched up the night of the show.

“After it was indeed the Top 5 I knew the show must be rigged,” she said on her Facebook post.

Donald Trump, the Miss USA pageant organizer, told NBC’s “Today” show this morning that he planned to sue Monnin because of her claims and that she was just bitter that she didn’t win.

Pageant organizers said in an e-mail statement that they received an e-mail from Monnin that said she was resigning because the organization allowed a transgendered woman to compete in the Miss Universe Canada pageant.

Culpo has won over many supporters for her answer to a pageant question that asked her if transgender people should be allowed to compete in the competition. She said she supported that.

“I think that everyone is entitled to their own opinion of course, but I think it’s sad she’s giving up her title,” Culpo said today.