Bernie Moreno lashed out at reporters over his former son-in-law’s alleged abuse of his daughter and granddaughter.
The GOP senator was asked on Monday why he waited so long to put out a statement about Rep. Max Miller, his daughter Emily Moreno’s ex-husband, after he was accused of abusing both her and the former couple’s 2-year-old daughter.
The question came after Miller called out Moreno in an X post on Sunday, saying, “If my daughter said the same thing to me, I personally wouldn’t wait two years before holding him accountable.”
Emily’s allegations against Miller, 37, first emerged following the couple’s 2024 divorce and subsequent custody battle. Sources close to Moreno told CNN that he wanted to speak out months ago, but was asked not to by his daughter.
“I hope you never have to go through this situation, because you wouldn’t ask that kind of f--king question,” Moreno, 59, said Monday, according to congressional reporters Burgess Everett and Frank Thorp. The statement was also confirmed by CNN’s Manu Raju on OutFront.
“Look guys, this is about my personal family situation,” the Ohio senator added. “It’s pretty grotesque.”
The senator waited weeks to comment on the allegations against his former son-in-law, which include claims that he pointed a gun at Emily’s head, threw her against the wall, poured hot water on her, and potentially fractured their 2-year-old daughter’s collarbone. Miller has denied all the allegations against him.
Moreno finally broke his silence in a statement on Sunday, calling for Miller’s immediate resignation and saying that the congressman should “seek professional help to end the clear pattern of abuse he has left in his wake.”
“He is a danger to my daughter, and I hold my breath every minute he has custody of my granddaughter,” he wrote on X. “If there are any basic standards of character required to hold elected office, Max Miller fails them. He should not serve in the House of Representatives.”
The Daily Beast reached out to the offices of both Miller and Moreno for comment.
Moreno’s spokesperson, Reagan McCarthy, responded with an unhinged attack on the Daily Beast. “Leave it to a fake-news liberal rag like The Daily Beast to side with an accused wife and child abuser over a Father concerned about his family’s safety. The shameless question from CNN about Senator Moreno’s statement was vile and morally depraved, and the reporter should be ashamed. It’s disgusting that scumbag ‘reporters’ like you are running interference for Max Miller in order to score political points.”
McCarthy, who is not from Ohio, is a former editor for MAGA “news” site Townhall.com. In contrast to her statement, the Beast has covered the Miller-Moreno story since Sep. 2024, when Emily Moreno accused her then estranged husband of being on drugs, and continued to do so. Moreno’s office had until Monday consistently declined to comment on his estranged- and now ex-son-in-law.
In the two years for which Moreno did not speak about Miller, he did launch his own attacks on others. At the same time as Emily Moreno accused Miller of being on drugs, Sen. Moreno was claiming that Haitians in Springfield, Ohio, were eating domestic pets. Last week he hurled the f-word at Dr. Tony Fauci, 85, in a Senate committee hearing last week. “Who the f--- do you think you were?” he spat at the doctor.
Miller has vehemently denied the accusations and refused to drop out of the race for Ohio’s 7th District. In a video shared on Sunday, Miller said in front of a blurred background that seemingly contained a child’s drawings that he had “never abused” his daughter.
“This isn’t about defending myself. I’m speaking up as a father, trying to protect our daughter,” he said. “For months, my family and I have watched how people have been relentlessly attacked.
Miller suggested, without evidence, that his ex-wife suffered from mental health issues and had lied repeatedly during their custody battle.
“Ask yourself: If I had assaulted her, would she have offered to cook me dinner six days later? Would she have invited me to spend an afternoon at the playground with her and our daughter?” he said.
In response to Sen. Moreno’s statement, Miller said that his late response was only “to hide from your own media circus,” saying that the move was “all political.”
Miller did not specify what the “media circus” surrounding Moreno was. However, Moreno was himself embroiled in a potentially career-threatening scandal during his 2024 run for a Senate seat in Ohio.
Moreno, who was endorsed by Trump and pushed an anti-LGBTQ+ agenda throughout his campaign, was linked to a 2008 online profile on the hookup website Adult Friend Finder that was “looking for young guys to have fun with while traveling.”
The Associated Press reported that the account was linked to Moreno’s work email, but could not confirm whether it was Moreno who made the account. Moreno denied responsibility at the time, and a former intern of the senator said that he had created the profile as an “aborted prank” nearly 20 years ago.
President Donald Trump addressed the allegations against Miller on Sunday, telling reporters that he would “look at it” but that “so far, it’s accusations.”
The president added later on Monday during an Oval Office briefing that he considers Miller “a very good person” and is “going to let the families figure that out.”
