Welcome to Wednesday’s Washington Secrets. Did you see Rep. Max Miller’s two interviews last night, when he tried to defend himself against abuse allegations? They were a textbook example of how not to do crisis communications. Plus, there’s more bad news for Republicans on gas prices ahead of the midterms.
A member of Congress sees his chances of reelection slipping. A scandal is engulfing his career.
He lines up an interview with one of CNN’s most high-profile interviewers to claim that he is untouchable on policy, which is why opponents have taken to lying about him.
“It’s an honor for me to have a platform like this to continue to fight and to continue to show the American people that I’ve already been looked into, right?” Rep. Max Miller (R-OH) told Jake Tapper. “I’m happy to be looked into again.”
That was about as good as it got for a father accused of abusing his wife and child, allegations he denies. Miller presented himself as the victim, but struggled to deal with simple questions about the last time he used illegal drugs, why he had been accused of withholding his daughter’s favorite bunny, and why his team shared an image of his undressed daughter in files intended to show that he was a good father.
Senior Republicans are worried enough that President Donald Trump called him on Monday to warn him that he didn’t know whether Miller could still win.
In the meantime, Miller has embarked on an extraordinary PR campaign, starting with a Sunday livestream and escalating to the CNN appearance and a Newsmax interview.
The result has been an agonizing time for his former family, said Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH), father of Miller’s ex-wife, Emily.
“Pretty horrible,” he told Secrets. “Beyond anything I’ve ever experienced.”
As a piece of crisis management, it was a disaster, said a source close to the White House.
“I’ve never seen someone come across so obviously guilty when they’re ‘defending’ themselves,” they said.
Miller and Moreno divorced in 2024 and have been at loggerheads in court over custody of their daughter.
Moreno has accused her ex-husband of scalding her chest by throwing hot water from a skillet at her body, of holding a gun to her head, and fracturing their daughter’s collarbone.
Court documents claim their two-and-a-half-year-old daughter at one point told Moreno: “Daddy kill you.”
Miller has denied all the allegations, but his hold on his Ohio district has been slipping, and he faces intense pressure to stand aside.
In the past 24 hours, he has adopted the Trump approach to controversy: Meet it head-on with denials.
When he joined Tapper, he had the wrinkled brow and clear eyes of a wronged man, ready to explain the truth.
But at times, he rolled his head backward, jaw jutting forward in a more defiant posture. At times, he blinked hard and looked away from the camera before answering questions, displaying what poker players might call a “tell.”
Throughout, he denied the core allegations.
“These matters have already been looked into. Miss Moreno has already gone to the police,” he said. “The police are not investigating it.
“Ask yourself, why aren’t they investigating these things?”
That provided an opening for Tapper, who said that there were different standards ruled by courts and those expected of public officials. He began describing past allegations that he had pushed a woman downstairs while at college, when Miller tried to interrupt.
“Hold on,” said Tapper, “because I’m not done with the list of women that have accused you of violence.”
He went on to detail allegations made by former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham against Miller when they dated. It was that sort of performance.
When Miller said those allegations were “hearsay,” Tapper responded: “I just named three people who are providing firsthand testimony. That’s not hearsay.”
And when Tapper brought up the shirtless photographs of his daughter that were made public in a folder of files designed, Miller’s response will likely haunt him in attack ads for weeks to come.
“There was no genitalia of my daughter that was exposed,” he said.
His central argument that he had been a good member of Congress went unnoticed.
“This is why no one’s attacking me on my policy, Jake, because they can’t,” he said. “I’ve been a good legislator. All they’re trying to do is create rumor mills without evidence. It’s all hearsay.”
The consensus among Republicans was that his Newsmax interview (later in the evening, as one pointed out) was even more of a car crash.
Miller claimed his wife’s father had offered her $5 million to cut off ties with the Moreno family. And, in potentially the most explosive moment, he dropped dark hints about his former father-in-law and why he had kept silent on his daughter’s allegations.
“No father of a daughter who would come to them with these ridiculous allegations would wait on their hands for two years and do nothing,” he said, “only because he felt the political pressure, because some of the nasty rumors that were circulating about him … that he doesn’t want to get out … and that has nothing to do with me. I have no intention of sharing what will eventually become public.”
Was Miller really bringing up a long-since dismissed claim that Moreno once posted a message looking for men on an adult site?
The reviews were brutal among the people he needed to help him survive.
A source familiar with White House thinking messaged Secrets: “Despite his lack of talent, he was gifted a congressional seat that he never deserved, and now we’re all watching the end result of that: total self-immolation and humiliation for him and the entire GOP.”
MAX MILLER’S CAREER IS OVER: IT’S JUST A QUESTION OF NOW OR NOVEMBER
Poll shows gas price worries are increasing
Another day, another Axios story claiming that we are minutes, seconds from a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Of course, oil prices have dropped amid a wave of optimism, but there is something that can’t be quite so easily gamed with a White House briefing: American anxiety about gas prices.
Voters across party lines report feeling more affected by gas prices since April and increasingly blame Trump for the higher costs, according to the latest polling from More in Common.
In April, 54% of Americans reported feeling the impact of rising gas prices. In June, that number rose to 63%.
The proportion of Democrats who feel that way rose from 63% to 72%. The increase among Republicans was greater, from 41% to 52%.
And the proportion of Republicans who believe that Trump is to blame rose from 37% to 44% (compared with the U.S. average, which rose from 65% to 67% over the same period).
The president went to war in the belief that a short, sharp campaign to force Iran into line would go the same way as his incursion into Venezuela, burnishing his credentials as a strong, decisive leader ahead of the midterm elections. That opportunity seems to have disappeared, and the longer this goes on, the more impact it will have on Republican midterm hopes.
Quote of the day
Someone did indeed take a knife to the liner of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. But it was not Olympic canoeist David Hearn, who was arrested for alleged vandalism.
“The government’s own engineer determined that it was better to cut off the peeling sections than to let them flap around,” his lawyers wrote in a court filing, before the case against him was dropped.
Lunchtime reading
James Talarico accused Ken Paxton of voter fraud. His own voter registration is raising questions: Uh oh. Texas state Rep. James Talarico voted in five elections using his parents’ address after purchasing a home for himself nearby, a practice that may have violated state voting laws, ProPublica and the Texas Tribune found.
Democrats fear leftward lurch could muddle midterm message: Are progressive candidates the best way for Democrats to develop their own economic populist messaging? Or do they alienate more voters than they attract?
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