Republican Rep. Max Miller of Ohio is facing growing pressure to resign amid serious domestic violence allegations brought by his ex-wife, Emily Moreno.
Emily Moreno has accused Miller of emotional abuse, with one specific claim drawing widespread public attention: that he repeatedly withheld their daughter’s favorite blue stuffed bunny doll.
The bunny dispute became a flashpoint after Sen. Bernie Moreno, Emily’s father, broke his silence on the custody battle and called for Miller’s resignation before reporters on Tuesday.
Sen. Moreno described his granddaughter crying through the night while staying with him, distraught over the absence of the small blue toy she relied on to sleep.
“Max would not hand over the little blue bunny,” Sen. Moreno told reporters. “Literally held it hostage for 48 hours. This girl is crying at night because she can’t sleep without her little blue bunny.”
Sen. Moreno went further, saying his daughter lives “in constant fear of” Miller, and characterizing the bunny episode as evidence of a broader pattern of controlling behavior.
“His answer is, ‘I’m just not going to give it to you.’ … This is the level of total and complete depravity,” Sen. Moreno said, in remarks that quickly spread across social media platforms.
Miller denied holding the stuffed animal hostage, but records unearthed by reporters complicated his account, deepening the political fallout around the dispute.
According to Mother Jones, Miller has a history of withholding the bunny, a claim that, if accurate, has drawn condemnation from members of his own party and from the public at large.
A growing number of Republicans are now urging Miller to drop out of his reelection race, citing both the sexual abuse allegations and the bunny matter as grounds for his withdrawal.
The controversy has sharpened Miller’s already difficult path to reelection in Ohio’s 7th Congressional District, a seat President Donald Trump carried by more than 10 points.
In an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, Miller was asked whether anyone close to him had suggested stepping aside for the sake of his daughter and his own wellbeing.
Miller responded: “My daughter is going to grow up one day, and she’s going to see all of this. And she’s not going to see that her father caved to political and social media pressures for something that he never did.”
The public dispute between a sitting U.S. senator and a sitting U.S. congressman from the same party over a child’s stuffed animal has struck many observers as a symbol of how personal and political grievances now play out in the open.
To many Americans on both sides of the political divide, the episode reinforces a broader sense that those in power operate by a separate set of rules, deploying lawyers, law enforcement, and even children’s belongings as instruments in private battles.
