Bunny Dolls and Disturbing Allegations: Max Miller’s Strange CNN Interview

It was the cable news equivalent of tweeting through it. Or trying to.

Representative Max Miller, the Ohio Republican facing a pileup of allegations that he emotionally and physically abused his ex-wife and his toddler daughter, submitted to a live on-air interrogation from CNN’s Jake Tapper on Tuesday.

For Mr. Miller, the 23-minute appearance was a high-stakes attempt to confront the questions surrounding his personal conduct, as he tries to salvage his flailing re-election campaign amid mounting calls for him to drop out of his state’s Republican primary.

For Mr. Tapper — who personally booked the interview — it was an opportunity to pin down Mr. Miller about his reaction to several shocking allegations. And while Mr. Miller remained defiant, insisting he would not abandon his candidacy, he repeatedly evaded, deflected or struggled to respond to Mr. Tapper’s queries.

Afterward, many reviews, even within Mr. Miller’s own party, were not kind.

The congressman cannot keep “litigating this on national TV day after day,” Scott Jennings, one of CNN’s lead Republican commentators, said on the network hours later. He called on Mr. Miller to drop his bid for re-election. “Mr. Miller, whatever you think your future is going to be,” Mr. Jennings said, “put your family first.”

Mr. Miller’s team decided to book one lengthy interview with a newscaster they believed would be tough but fair with their candidate, according to a person with knowledge of their discussions about strategy. The team also wanted to pick a news outlet that could not be dismissed as too friendly to the candidate, the person said.

Mr. Miller is seeking a third term. He has denied the accusations from his ex-wife, Emily Moreno; the couple divorced in 2024 and have been embroiled in a custody battle. Ms. Moreno has said that her ex-husband held a gun to her head and threw hot water from a skillet at her, and fractured their daughter’s collarbone; Mr. Miller has said without evidence that Ms. Moreno has mental health problems and has called her a liar and stalker.

Mr. Miller is a former aide to President Trump, who has warned the congressman that the allegations were politically problematic but has stopped short of calling for him to abandon the race. During his CNN appearance, Mr. Miller compared his own defiance to that of the president, who refused to leave the 2016 presidential race after leaked audio surfaced in which he bragged about groping women.

“People in the media, very much like yourself and others, said that he would have no shot at winning, that he should not be the president of the United States,” Mr. Miller told Mr. Tapper. “But guess what? He stayed in and he was resilient.”

With the screen split between Mr. Tapper in his studio and Mr. Miller in Los Angeles, the CNN anchor opened the interview by asking about a claim that Mr. Miller had refused to give his daughter a favorite stuffed animal. Senator Bernie Moreno, also an Ohio Republican and the father of Mr. Miller’s ex-wife, told reporters about the doll on Tuesday.

“Let’s start there, with your former father-in-law’s story today about your daughter and the little blue bunny doll that she cannot sleep without,” Mr. Tapper said. “If it’s true, that sounds like emotionally abusive behavior toward a toddler to refuse to give it to her.”

Mr. Miller bobbed and weaved, criticizing Mr. Moreno, until Mr. Tapper interrupted. “It’s not really the issue, though, right?” the anchor said. “The issue is — the one I asked you about is — did you hold this doll hostage?” (Mr. Miller said “no” before returning to his harangue about his father-in-law.)

At one point, Mr. Tapper ticked through abuse accusations leveled by three women against Mr. Miller. The congressman tried to interrupt to criticize one of the women. Mr. Tapper replied, “Hold on, because I’m not done with the list of women that have accused you of violence.”

Mr. Miller also would not specify the last time he had used illegal drugs.

Another notable exchange occurred when Mr. Tapper brought up a picture of Mr. Miller’s toddler that was included in a file posted online Sunday by the congressman in an effort to rebut the allegations. Lawyers for his ex-wife accused Mr. Miller of disseminating an image that could be considered as child ***ual abuse material. The image was eventually removed after being viewed at least 204,000 times.

“It is shockingly reckless behavior by you and your team,” Mr. Tapper said.

“I wouldn’t say that it’s shockingly reckless,” Mr. Miller replied, adding, “This is being taken very much out of context. There was no genitalia of my daughter that was exposed.”

The ugly allegations, along with Mr. Trump’s reluctance to call for Mr. Miller to leave the race, have left Republican Party officials scrambling to determine a path forward, with a House seat up for grabs that could be crucial in the party’s effort to retain control of the chamber.

Mr. Tapper concluded the interview by asking if “anyone in your life” is telling Mr. Miller that “it really might be in the best interests for your daughter and for your own mental health to drop out.”

“My daughter is going to grow up one day, and she’s going to see all of this,” Mr. Miller said. “And she’s not going to see that her father caved to political and social media pressures for something that he never did.”