An Ohio state senator says U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno’s profanity-laced confrontation with Dr. Anthony Fauci on Wednesday only sharpened a question Moreno has spent months declining to answer: why he has never publicly confronted the congressman his own daughter accuses, in sworn court filings, of abusing her and their 2-year-old.

State Sen. Casey Weinstein, a Hudson Democrat who represents Ohio’s 28th Senate District, wrote on his Facebook page Wednesday:

“My GOD watching bernie moreno embarrass himself and our entire state while acting like a tough guy on tv today while COMPLETELY failing to call out max miller - the MAGA Congressman who his daughter says abused her and his grandchild - is maybe the weakest and most pathetic thing I’ve ever seen in politics. And that’s saying a lot.”

Weinstein is an Air Force Academy graduate and Air Force veteran who serves as ranking member of the Ohio Senate’s Armed Services, Veterans Affairs and Public Safety Committee and its Government Oversight and Reform Committee. He is among the first Ohio elected officials to state the contrast publicly and by name.

U.S. Rep. Max Miller, the Rocky River Republican who represents Ohio’s 7th District, denies every allegation against him. “They’re false allegations,” he told Spectrum News in a June interview, adding that no police reports were ever filed. Miller’s legal team has said he has never had criminal charges filed against him, according to the Ohio Capital Journal, and he has accused his ex-wife and her attorney of running a smear campaign. He has attributed her allegations to untreated bipolar disorder; her attorney, Subodh Chandra, says she has no such diagnosis.

What happened at the hearing

Fauci appeared Wednesday before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee under a subpoena from its chairman, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., to testify about the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic and the federal response to it. The retired former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases read an opening statement and then invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination rather than answer questions, telling the panel that Paul has an “unhinged obsession” with him.

Moreno used his questioning time to demand an apology. He said an Ohio mother’s September 2020 arrest at a middle school football game over a mask policy was what pushed him to run for the Senate.

“Here I am sitting in front of you six years later saying, who the f— do you think you were for doing that?” Moreno said, according to Spectrum News. He told Fauci there was no defense for what he had done and that a five-decade career in public service was ending in disgrace. Fauci declined to respond and declined Moreno’s request to turn and face audience members.

Moreno also described part of the purpose of the exchange. He said he hoped voters would watch clips of Democratic senators “doting on a guy who was more interested in being a celebrity than saving American people” — an acknowledgment that the confrontation was built partly for the November midterms.

What Moreno has said about Miller

Miller was married to Emily Moreno, the senator’s daughter, in August 2022. Miller filed for divorce two years later, and the two have remained in a custody dispute over their young daughter.

In a May 26 affidavit filed in Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas, Emily Moreno swore that Miller threw hot water at her on Saturday, June 8, 2024, after she told him she intended to leave the marriage. She has also alleged in the custody case that he held a gun to her head and pushed her into a wall. Bay Village police opened an investigation in February into how the couple’s daughter suffered a broken collarbone. Miller has denied causing any of it, and no charges have been brought.

Miller sued Emily Moreno for defamation in May. She has moved to dismiss that suit under Ohio’s Uniform Public Expression Protection Act, the state’s anti-SLAPP statute. Separately, former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham sued Miller this month, arguing he violated a nondisparagement agreement the two signed after he dropped an earlier defamation case against her. Miller has denied Grisham’s allegations as well.

Sen. Moreno’s public comment on any of it amounts to a single statement from May, when he told reporters his only remark would be that he loves his daughter and that her safety and his granddaughter’s are his priority. He has not asked Miller to resign, has not asked the House to act, and has not publicly endorsed or disputed his daughter’s account. His office declined to comment to Spectrum News in June and did not respond to the Ohio Capital Journal in July.

The pressure is building anyway

Giffords, the gun violence prevention group founded by former U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords, called Wednesday for Miller to resign, citing the allegations. Asked on Tuesday, July 21 why House Republicans have kept Miller in their conference while Democrats forced a Senate candidate out of a race over an assault allegation, House Speaker Mike Johnson offered one line: “The key word there is allegation.” No prominent Ohio Republican has called for Miller to step aside.

The politics have moved regardless. The Cook Political Report shifted Ohio’s 7th District from Solid Republican to Likely Republican on June 18, one of seven House races it moved toward Democrats that day. Miller faces Democrat Brian Poindexter, a union ironworker, in a district President Donald Trump carried by 11 points in 2024.

Moreno is not on the ballot this year. He represents every county in Ohio, including Seneca and Sandusky, until January 2031. Weinstein’s complaint is not about a vote or a bill; it is about which Ohioans a sitting U.S. senator is willing to raise his voice for, and which ones he is not.

TiffinOhio.net has covered this case since spring, including the gun and hot-water allegations and the Republican silence around them, Emily Moreno’s anti-SLAPP motion, and the contempt motion filed after Miller gave a media interview hours after a judge issued a restraining order.

If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 or text START to 88788. Help is available 24/7.