In more reasonable times, our nation’s leaders used to worry about what kind of message their actions would send to our children. They used to worry about how the policies they passed would harm kids. They used to worry about the well-being of those youngsters, who are forced to live in the world we are in charge of.
Those days are over.
And there’s no greater symbol of the moral bankruptcy of the Trump-era Republican Party than the placement of partisan loyalty over the well-being of children.
Mike Johnson and the rest of the Republican Party’s steadfast backing of alleged abuser Max Miller is exactly that. They have decided that placing their political backing behind this unhinged, angry, abusive man is more important — because it might help them pick up one additional seat in the House of Representatives — than the well-being of his ex-wife and his daughter.
Shame isn’t a strong enough word.
Miller has been accused of domestic abuse by his ex-wife, Emily Moreno. Among the allegations are abhorrent instances of physical violence, including holding a gun to Moreno’s head, throwing scalding hot water on her, and shoving her into a wall. Miller is also alleged to have physically harmed their two-year-old daughter. Moreno is one of three women who have accused Miller of violence, with the pattern of abuse dating back a decade.
In an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper last month, Miller denied the accusations and vowed that he will stay in his congressional race, insisting that “Speaker Mike Johnson, everyone else, they’re standing behind me. No one told me to get off the ballot.” That part is true. The Speaker has offered no public call for resignation or withdrawal, not even a condemnation of Miller’s behavior. Instead, he has stood behind Miller, calling him a “great member of Congress” and supporting his re-election campaign.
I have a daughter myself. It is unfathomable to me that a party leader could sit idly by while a member of their caucus is accused of child abuse and domestic violence. The Speaker of the House treating that as nothing more than a private family matter tells every parent that Republicans would rather protect a seat in Congress than protect a kid. That sickens me.
Miller is far from the only Republican House member under Johnson’s tutelage getting a free pass from the Speaker. Predatory behavior has become a routine issue within the Republican Congressional delegation, and the enabling of it has become a routine response from Johnson.
After the House Ethics Committee found "substantial reason to believe” that Rep.Chuck Edwards violated House rules against sexual harassment, the North Carolina Republican withdrew from his re-election campaign. A barrage of evidence shows that Edwards has been inappropriate with young female staffers, yet all he’s received is a censure. In public, Johnson and members of the North Carolina delegation have stayed silent.
Florida Rep. Cory Mills is under a House Ethics Committee investigation into allegations of dating violence. And last year, his ex-girlfriend accused him of threatening to release sexually explicit images of her after they broke up. Johnson’s response when reporters pressed him on the allegations against both Mills and Miller? “The key word there is ‘allegation.’”
Then there’s Tony Gonzales, the former Texas representative who resigned from his seat earlier this year after it was revealed that he had had an affair with a staffer who later took her own life. Johnson refused to join the bipartisan calls for Gonzales to drop out until after Gonzales admitted to the affair and it was absolutely clear there was no viable path to re-election. The Republican now running for that seat, Brandon Herrera, has a documented history of making vulgar, degrading comments about mothers and children. Johnson is fundraising for him anyway.
Mike Johnson’s heedlessness toward predators is despicable, but it isn’t surprising. This is the same man that spent weeks trying to block the release of the Epstein files at the President’s behest. He has built his career as speaker around protecting Trump, which in practice means protecting powerful abusers over children. That’s the path he chose, and he has chosen to keep walking it no matter who that means shielding next.
Johnson’s official government website insists that a “just government” embraces “morality.” Yet when members of his own conference are accused of violence against children or women or using the power differential of their office to pursue young staffers, Johnson’s moral rhetoric becomes deafeningly silent.
Johnson has the power as Speaker to hold his own members to some standard of conduct, to help root out the predators in his caucus, or at minimum say that credible allegations of violence are not tolerated in his party. He has chosen instead to wield that power to run interference and shield the men committing these acts. He doesn’t care about the dignity of survivors of abuse or the integrity of his party, just holding on to the majority.
Pat Dennis is the president of American Bridge 21st Century, a progressive research and rapid response operation affiliated with the Democratic Party.