Credibly accused domestic abuser Congressman Max Miller (R-Ohio) is still running for reelection, because he’s a Republican in the age of Trump and is certain nothing he does can be bad, certainly not worth resigning over. Just to remind you, Miller’s ex-wife and two other women have accused him of physical abuse, and Miller insisted he couldn’t possibly have assaulted his former spouse, because didn’t she make him a nice dinner the week afterward? (Abusers always insist that their victims’ attempts to appease them proves nothing happened.) Miller has sued his ex-wife for defamation over the allegations, which appeared in court documents and were reported on by the media; as far as we can tell, she hasn’t otherwise said anything publicly about the abuse claims.
Monday was the last day that Ohio Republicans could have chosen an alternative candidate in time to get a name other than Miller’s on the general election ballot. But Miller also would have had to drop out by Saturday to give his party the required two-day notice to pick another person, and he didn’t say anything then, effectively blocking a replacement. Instead, on Friday, he announced he was loaning his own campaign $1 million, and the bastard will no doubt will find donors to cover it eventually.
When Saturday passed without Miller leaving the race, Axios ran a headline (later updated) saying the “GOP may be stuck with Rep. Max Miller in Ohio,” prompting apostate rightwing pundit Bill Kristol to point out that state and national Republicans weren’t exactly powerless bystanders in Miller’s decision to keep campaigning.
Republican leaders aren’t stuck at all. They’re sticking with their boy, because he’s Trump’s boy. Both of Ohio’s Republican senators, the execrable Bernie Moreno and the appointed nullity Jon Husted, have called on Miller to resign, which is notable mainly because Moreno’s daughter Emily is the ex-wife who accused Miller of throwing hot water at her, holding a gun to her head, and breaking their toddler daughter’s collarbone.
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Donald Trump, of course, has called Miller, a former aide in Great Leader’s first term, “a good person” and instead of calling for Miller to resign, he’d prefer “to let the families figure that out.” House Speaker Mike Johnson says he’s waiting for the House Ethics Committee to take a few months to investigate, so he can somehow forget to read the report. Senate Majority Leader John Thune says it’s a “House matter,” and also a “family issue,” so why would he have anything to say about it? My my, such a difficult thing to comment on. It’s not like Miller’s a Democrat or anything.
Hey, speaking of Democrats, Miller’s Democratic challenger for the seat, ironworker and union guy Brian Poindexter, leads Miller by 14 points in one recent poll, and has pledged that he will “serve with honor.” Poindexter, aware of the old wisdom that you should do nothing when your opponent is committing seppuku, hasn’t made an issue of the accusations (yet), telling Semafor simply, “Everybody knows Max Miller’s issues.” Poindexter is staying focused on economic messaging, which may do the job as Miller keeps making a very obnoxious ass of himself.
But that doesn’t mean others have to stay quiet about Miller, who as the American Prospect reports this week, has a long history of escaping accountability for his actions. Just a little over a year ago, Miller used every sleazy technique he could to smear Dr. Feras Hamdan, a motorist who honked at him on the interstate in June 2025, making multiple false accusations that Hamdan had tried to run him off the road, and that Hamdan had shouted antisemitic slurs and detailed death threats against Miller and his little innocent daughter. Court records showed Miller told a dispatcher,
“I was cut off by a man in a Tesla … [who] then rolled down his window and said that I’m going to cut your throat and your daughter’s. And he said you’re a dirty Jew. I’m going to fucking kill you all. And I know who you are and where you live. And I followed him, and he rolled down his window, and I rolled down my window, so I could hear what he was saying …”
You know, just like all the shouted detailed threats we can all hear between two vehicles on the freeway. (Hamdan’s attorney eventually hired an aerospace engineer to demonstrate Miller couldn’t have heard any of it.)
Miller also claimed in a social media video that Hamdan had flung a small Palestinian flag on the ground while making the threats. (Hamdan admits that he held up a photo of the flag to his window when he honked, but nothing more.) Miller later snipped that claim out of the video.
In mere reality, traffic cams showed Miller’s pickup tailgating Hamdan’s Tesla at freeway speeds, an examination of the Tesla’s data showed the window had remained up during the incident — “surveillance capitalism” to the rescue! — and for good measure, Miller pointed out Hamdan’s boss in a lineup as the man who’d threatened him. His boss had a beard and Hamdan didn’t.
Hamdan lost his job and was held on bail of $500,000 on charges of “ethnic intimidation” among other things, meaning he had to put up a nonrefundable bond of $50,000 to be released. He had to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees, and eventually took a very light plea deal that preserved his medical license, just to be done with it. Hamdan’s attorneys filed a defamation case against Miller, and Miller promptly counter-sued, and good lord what a prick.
The Prospect article also reviews Miller’s long history of escaping accountability when he was younger for various offenses — at least four arrests for “assault, resisting arrest, and operating a vehicle while impaired — that Miller and his lawyers either got expunged from his record or substantially downgraded.” It’s nice to have good lawyers. More on that squalid stuff in this 2021 Politico story.
And then there’s the completely unrelated sub-outrage over Miller’s allegedly trying to get at his ex-wife by refusing to return their daughter’s stuffed toy, a blue bunny, after weekend visits. Miller’s car apparently is powered by Divorced Dad Energy. That’s a whole ‘nother level of sleazy. Great guy!
[AP / Axios / American Prospect / MS-NOW / Mother Jones]
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Domestic violence is THE one indicator for future homicide. I might go into making some boilerplate legislation myself…how about we sue every city with a rape kit backlog > 30 day, then demand a national or state mandatory 30-day turnaround on rape kit DNA tests? The city of Houston made rape “disappear” for several years via administrative codes that blocked investigation and evidence processing. Is there a distributed war against women using rape as a weapon via deliberate administrative negligence? DON’T TREAD ON US. There should be no rape kit backlog in this millenium.
I still feel kind of dirty when people like Bill Kristol are out there agreeing with me...