Dishonor should be disqualifying in politics. It is not. Scandalous behavior or public corruption should end political careers. They do not. Ohio politicians proved the point last week.
U.S. Rep. Max Miller was a political appointee in the first Trump administration who promoted Trump’s false claims of a “rigged” 2020 election before being elected to Congress in 2022.
The 37-year-old has a history of alleged physical assaults against women dating back to high school. Recently, shocking new allegations of domestic violence surfaced.
His ex-wife, Emily Moreno, accused him of throwing burning water on her, holding a gun to her head, and possibly fracturing the collarbone of their two-year-old daughter.
Miller denied the accusations, rebuffed belated calls to resign, and vowed to stay in his 2026 reelection race.
In a damage control media tour (that backfired), Miller dismissed the wife-beating and child abuse claims raised in a contentious custody dispute as “politically motivated” allegations cooked up by his lying ex-wife and her father, Ohio U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno.
The embattled congressman compared his bad press and party badgering to quit with Trump’s bad press in the 2016 presidential campaign for bragging (on the infamous Access Hollywood video) about grabbing women sexually without asking permission and party badgering for him to drop out.
Miller said the (cringe) comparison bolstered his decision to remain the GOP nominee in Ohio’s 7th District.
If Trump could beat scandalous recordings of him laughing off predatory sexual assault, “When you’re a star, they let you do it,” his volatile former aide could be equally resilient with serious accusations of physical abuse, threats, and protective restraining orders.
Trump reacted to those accusations the way a person found liable by a jury for sexual abuse and defamation might — with defensive praise of the former White House staffer.
“I know Max. He’s a good person. It’s a very sad thing to be going through that,” said Trump. “But it’s accusations.”
The convicted felon endorsed Miller in May and has not withdrawn support. He warned his one-time aide that he faced a tough reelection cycle with severe domestic and child abuse allegations hanging over his head but stopped short of asking the Ohio Republican to step aside.
Trump’s political hand puppet in the U.S. House, Speaker Mike Johnson, likewise dodged questions about Miller being allegedly violent toward his ex-wife and daughter — “There’s all sorts of domestic events going on with 435 members of Congress all the time, it’s not my business to get engaged in it,” — and suggested Miller’s request for a House Ethics Committee investigation into the allegations be allowed to play out. Well beyond the November election.
That gives other House Republicans, desperate to retain their slim majority, an excuse to ignore the elephant in the caucus and pretend an alleged abuser of women and a toddler isn’t their problem.
The deer-in-the-headlights approach to the Miller scandal is a political calculation to minimize the GOP fallout in the midterms. It is far from a principled stand against indefensible conduct.
Republicans are simply terrified of losing a solid red seat.
A smattering of Capitol Hill Republicans urged Miller to withdraw from the race while there was still time to replace him with a less flawed candidate. But otherwise, the response of Ohio Republicans, the state party, and local GOP chairs has been underwhelming.
No emphatic zero-tolerance messaging about abusive behavior with candidates. The GOP has to keep the R+5 district in its column. Alleged victims of an incumbent with a bad temper are not part of the calculus.
Ohio U.S. Sen. Jon Husted stayed mum on the matter until last Thursday when he posted that Miller should resign in the best interest of his daughter. Initially, Husted had been satisfied to let Miller and his ex-wife “sort through this at a family level.”
Sen. Moreno said nothing about his former son-in-law’s alleged violence against his daughter and granddaughter for years until publicly denouncing him a week ago.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune stuck to his “it’s a family matter” refrain about the searing accusations of domestic abuse leveled at Miller. But Thune could downplay the issue of a Republican congressman accused of violently abusing his ex-wife and child because it is no longer a disqualification for elected office.
According to a recent Politico poll, most of Trump’s MAGA base would vote for a GOP candidate confronted with an array of scandals from grift to sexual assault. A whopping 72% of those voters said they would support a GOP candidate accused of domestic violence.
Maybe that’s why Thune and his Ohio colleagues, Sens. Moreno and Husted, felt invincible confirming Trump’s openly corrupt henchman to head the Department of Justice.
When Moreno and Husted made Todd Blanche U.S. Attorney General, they surrendered the rule of law in America. But will it matter at the polls?
They endorsed the most reprehensible candidate ever for the job, a man facing multiple ethics complaints who had already used the DOJ (as deputy and acting AG) to shamelessly advance Trump’s breathtaking corruption.
Blanche is still ignoring the law on the Epstein files, still likely to fleece taxpayers of $2 billion in a slush fund (to reward Jan. 6 insurrectionists), still insulating the president, his family and businesses from IRS audits. So what?
Political tribalism absolves all; the moral rot destroying impartial justice, the domestic abuse allegations destroying a family.
What should be disqualifying for positions of power is not. And here we are.
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