Rep. Max Miller said House Speaker Mike Johnson is standing behind him in his bid for reelection, in a Tuesday interview on CNN about allegations of abuse by several women, including his ex-wife.
“Speaker Mike Johnson, everyone else, they’re standing behind me. No one has told me to get off the ballot, and that’s because they know I can win this seat,” Miller (R-Ohio) told CNN’s Jake Tapper in the 23-minute conversation.
Johnson’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment about whether he supports Miller’s reelection campaign.
Miller said he has no plans to drop out of the race before the deadline despite facing growing calls to do so from within his party, including from his former father-in-law, Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio). The House Ethics Committee has opened a probe into the allegations against Miller after the congressman requested an investigation on Tuesday, saying he thought it would “clear my name.”
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Tapper pushed Miller on the mounting allegations from Miller’s ex-wife, Emily Moreno, who accused the Ohio congressman of domestic abuse and child abuse in court filings, as well as reports from an ex-girlfriend, former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham, and a 2021 Politico report about an alleged incident of violence against a female classmate during high school.
When asked if all three women independently lied, Miller said, “Yes, it’s very easy.”
Miller said his side of the story has been taken out of context in other interviews. He also told Tapper his daughter once said, “I do not want to go to mommy’s” and “I do not feel safe” in audio he recorded.
Tapper said the network would not be able to air those recordings, and brought up a police report in which Emily Moreno said their child told her things like, “Daddy kill you,” and “Daddy’s house is scary.”
“I wish you could talk to my beautiful baby girl. She can’t string together sentences like that. She’s 2½ years old. She doesn’t have the ability to articulate any of what you just said,” Miller responded, calling the claims an “entire fabrication of the truth.”
“You just told me that she had said she was scared to go to mommy’s house, but now you’re saying that she’s not capable of saying, ‘Daddy kill you,’” Tapper rebutted. “It seems like she’s either able to say one but not the other — that doesn’t make sense.”
Emily Moreno also accused Miller of using illegal drugs after finding needles in his bedroom. He told CNN they were for testosterone replacement therapy, and added that the last time he used illegal drugs was “several years ago.”
Miller said that like President Donald Trump — who was reelected despite facing “the most extreme allegations in the world” — he too could win his Ohio reelection campaign in November.
“For no second am I going to sit here and continue to be debased by false and baseless allegations and be pushed out of a seat I have worked so hard to represent and done a terrific job for our community,” Miller said.
Republicans are nonetheless walking a tightrope in this Ohio race. Miller is set to face Democrat Brian Poindexter, a former union ironworker, in November’s election. Poindexter was up by 5 percentage points, and 41% of voters had an unfavorable view of Miller, according to recent polling conducted by a Republican firm that was obtained and reviewed by NOTUS.
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