Max Miller Is Everyone's Problem Now

Today’s headline on POLITICO. Screenshot by author

Yesterday, even before I hit “send” on my post about Congressman Max Miller (R, OH-07), accused by his ex-wife Emily Moreno of abusing her and their child, there was breaking news.

At 10:00 a.m., Miller went on X live for a promised “special announcement”—not a decision to drop out of the race at a difficult time for his daughter, but to defend himself and call his wife a liar. The evidence offered by Moreno is devastating: that he scalded her, that he pointed a gun at her head, that he pushed her up against a wall and struck her (something former Trump aide Stephanie Grisham alleges that Miller did to her when they were dating), and that he broke their 2-year-old daughter’s collar bone.

In the video, Miller denies all of it, and blames the reputational damage these allegations have done on the “left-wing media.” He is referring principally to Politico, which has been covering the story since May, but Miller and Moreno’s conflict has clearly escalated over the summer, perhaps because of their daughter’s injury.

Before we go further, let’s stipulate that domestic abuse cases are tough, precisely because this violence usually occur in private. Miller’s claim in the video that “there is no evidence” is hard to make credibly. Adults and children who are physically or abused routinely lie about it. Sometimes it is because they are afraid, and sometimes it is because the value the connection to the abuser, even if it means risking their physical safety. Traumatized people also behave in contrary ways, for example, as we saw during #MeToo, there are women who send friendly texts to men who have just raped them. It is also the case that false accusations of domestic violence and child abuse are common in acrimonious divorces, particularly when a custody arrangement is at stake.

But Miller’s broadcast—which is full of self-justification and elaborate alternative explanations—”if I had abused her, why did she offer to cook me dinner six days later?” (I dunno, because she is afraid of you and the custody arrangement mandated a family dinner?)—was a terrible mistake. In it, he comes off as the whiny, entitled son of privilege that he is, repeatedly citing uncorroborated accusations, or attempts to keep commitment and lead her life, as factual evidence that the Moreno’s charges against him are malicious and false. Moreno’s text—“I think it’s great that you and I are in friendlier place”—could be proof that their relationship was truly amicable, or it could be a commentary on how unfriendly it felt to be scalded in the kitchen.