House Republican Hints at Having ‘Deeply… Embarrassing’ Dirt on GOP Senator Who Was His Father-in-Law

Representative Max Miller (R-OH) appeared to argue that his former father-in-law Sen. Bernie Moreno “waited” to acknowledge his daughter’s claims of abuse because he was “afraid a livestream was going to expose deeply personal and embarrassing matter.”

Miller’s ex-wife Emily Moreno, the daughter of Bernie Moreno, accused him of abusing herself and their two-year-old daughter. Emily’s claims were detailed in a report by The New York Times in which she said he “scalded her chest and stomach by throwing hot water from a skillet at her body; held a gun to her head; pushed her against a wall and hit her head; and fractured their daughter’s collarbone and bruised her shoulder.”

While speaking to Jake Tapper on The Lead Tuesday, Miller denied Bernie’s claim he kept a stuffed blue bunny from his daughter for several days. “If that were true, that would be incredibly disturbing and the Senator would be right. However, he has taken two years to publicly acknowledge—for me to resign from my seat. Why is that, Jake?”

He continued, “If he truly believed… I’m a father to a two-and-a-half-year-old daughter. I believe that you’re also a father to children. And I don’t know if you’re actually a father to a daughter … what I can tell you is, is that if my daughter came to me and she said, my ex-husband did X, Y, and Z, and then I waited because I was nervous that a political livestream was going to expose a deeply personal and embarrassing matter for him to take that action. Sadly, this has nothing to do with my daughter, Jake, and that’s what this entire thing is about.”

After Tapper posited it is “possible” Bernie didn’t say anything “because his daughter didn’t want him to say anything because he didn’t want this to become any more of a spectacle than it’s become,” to which Miller said, “You could say that.”

Miller added, “But also, dealing with this as a private family matter, why couldn’t we have had a conversation about this a year ago, if Mr. Moreno felt this was the case?”

“Why do we now have to be here on national TV, exposing all of our personal family drama? Why didn’t he come to me privately and say, ‘Max, I don’t believe that you should be in the United States Congress?'”

Tapper countered: “I don’t know, but it’s not really the issue, though.”

The House Ethics Committee opened an investigation into the allegations against Miller on Tuesday.

Watch the above via CNN.

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