Speaker 1: And no, Max, it's a good person. I mean, I
Speaker 1: always thought he was a very good person, and I'm
Speaker 1: going to let the families figure that out.
Speaker 2: But it's accusations, and I'm going to let them figure
Speaker 2: that out.
Speaker 1: President Trump publicly standing by embattled Republican Congressman Max Miller,
Speaker 1: even as his former press secretary launches a new legal
Speaker 1: battle against Miller. So on Monday, Stephanie Grisham's lawyer filed
Speaker 1: for a temporary restraining order against Miller. Now she's suing
Speaker 1: him for breaking the terms of a non disclosure agreement,
Speaker 1: an agreement that stems from twenty twenty one. In a
Speaker 1: Washington Post off ed, Grisham had written about abuse allegations
Speaker 1: dealing with an ex boyfriend and miller suitor at the time,
Speaker 1: but they settled out of court and agreed not to
Speaker 1: disparage each other publicly. Grisham now claims Miller violated the deal.
Speaker 1: In this interview back in June, with.
Speaker 3: That question, every allegation should be taken seriously. What should
Speaker 3: be noted is that allegation came out on the same
Speaker 3: day as somebody's book launch. And the other part what
Speaker 3: I would like to discuss is my ex wife was
Speaker 3: with me every single day during that time of my
Speaker 3: life and that election, and she, in her own words,
Speaker 3: will tell you that I never did any of those things,
Speaker 3: and she never saw evidence of me ever doing those things,
Speaker 3: and that was nothing more than somebody trying to get notoriety.
Speaker 1: Joining the group. Chat Harry Lee, political correspondent at Spectrum News.
Speaker 1: She conducted that interview with Congressman Miller. This is a
Speaker 1: fascinating conversation that you got to have with him before
Speaker 1: we get to the allegations within his family and ex wife.
Speaker 1: Can you talk about this issue with Stephanie Grisham. Why
Speaker 1: they are all of a sudden back in court.
Speaker 4: Well, they're back in court partly because of that interview.
Speaker 4: In their non disclosure agreement back in twenty twenty one,
Speaker 4: it appears this was a confidential agreement, so we didn't
Speaker 4: know until she filed this suit, but it appears that
Speaker 4: they agreed to disparage each other, and she's saying that
Speaker 4: in that interview by denying the claims that she made,
Speaker 4: as well as the claims by his now ex wife
Speaker 4: that he broke that agreement. And as you know, yesterday
Speaker 4: she also filed a restraining order.
Speaker 1: Right, because he's basically saying there are not multiple allegations, right.
Speaker 1: He doesn't want this to sound like it's piling up,
Speaker 1: and so he reached back to this conversation and she's like, no,
Speaker 1: keep me out of it. Yes, all right, so let's
Speaker 1: talk about the Moreno family. The Senator Bernie Moreno has
Speaker 1: been obviously like very upset and frustrated. He has called
Speaker 1: for Miller two step down, saying he shouldn't be in
Speaker 1: Congress anymore. Joining him Senator Shelley more Capedo and Roger Marshall.
Speaker 1: Are we going to see any other senators speak up?
Speaker 5: I think Rick Scott might have said something to that effect.
Speaker 1: When does it reach the House, the people who actually work.
Speaker 3: With this guy.
Speaker 6: I think it's getting to that point now. We're seeing
Speaker 6: signals coming out of the White House where at least
Speaker 6: Trump is apparently privately saying that he doesn't think Max
Speaker 6: Miller can win reelection. That seems like the beginnings of
Speaker 6: kind of a subtle pressure campaign to convince this person
Speaker 6: to at least step aside from his reelection campaign. And
Speaker 6: there's a very good reason for that, you know, even
Speaker 6: besides from aside from kind of the details of the allegations.
Speaker 6: This is a district that Republicans would worry about losing
Speaker 6: if Max Miller is on the ballot in November. That's
Speaker 6: the same with some of these other congressmen which we're
Speaker 6: talking about.
Speaker 1: Now, we're talking about family. So for instance, Senator Mareno,
Speaker 1: like I said, he put out a statement where he says,
Speaker 1: as he admitted privately, Max Miller needs serious psychological help.
Speaker 1: He's a danger to my daughter. I hold my breath
Speaker 1: every minute he has custody of my granddaughter. And then
Speaker 1: also this audio obtained from earlier this year, Emily Mareno
Speaker 1: is telling police about an incident on New Year's Eve
Speaker 1: where she alleged that Miller held a gun to her
Speaker 1: head when she was changing their infant daughter. So just
Speaker 1: give you a moment to listen to this.
Speaker 5: So when does the gun and come into play?
Speaker 6: Let change and what does he do? Holds up me,
Speaker 6: holds it on you?
Speaker 7: Okay, can you show me where he held it to you?
Speaker 3: It's okay, that's fine, that's fine.
Speaker 2: Like I said, I that's a hard thing to talk about.
Speaker 1: Has he said anything about this incident or others? Because
Speaker 1: I know he released his own drop box of audio
Speaker 1: so he does want people to kind of hear his
Speaker 1: side as he's denying these allegations.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and I think that's part of the problem, is
Speaker 4: that he keeps releasing more and more information and more
Speaker 4: evidence that can then be used against him. In certain cases.
Speaker 4: He does deny that this incident even happened.
Speaker 1: What does he say about his father in law? Has
Speaker 1: he talked about what's going on publicly?
Speaker 4: So for a long time, he said that they could
Speaker 4: work together. He said that he could walk in chew
Speaker 4: gum at the same time. But after a while he
Speaker 4: was saying that his father in law was helping his daughter,
Speaker 4: enabling her in what he said was lying, and so
Speaker 4: that is when he started taking to social media to
Speaker 4: criticize him. Bernie Marino didn't say anything for a very
Speaker 4: long time. His team consistently said no comment until Sunday,
Speaker 4: and that is when he released that scathing post.
Speaker 8: On x SO.
Speaker 2: Miller's ex wife, As you noted, it is not the
Speaker 2: only woman to accuse him of abuse. Former White House
Speaker 2: pre Secretary Stephanie Grisham, Trump's first term pre secretary, was
Speaker 2: also Miller's ex girlfriend. She detailed an abusive relationship with
Speaker 2: an unnamed White House staffer in her memoir later that
Speaker 2: was identified as Max Miller, also denies these allegations. Stephanie
Speaker 2: Grisham was on the lead in twenty twenty one talking
Speaker 2: about that relationship.
Speaker 5: Take a listen.
Speaker 9: I had an ex that I dated, and there was
Speaker 9: an abuse in every way there, and that's something I
Speaker 9: actually told the President and the first Lady about and
Speaker 9: they did nothing.
Speaker 2: The person you're talking about, you don't name him in
Speaker 2: the book, but his name is Max Miller. He is
Speaker 2: running for Congress. And it's not just that President Trump.
Speaker 2: Then President Trump didn't do anything about it. Trump is
Speaker 2: now backing this guy for Congress.
Speaker 9: I'm not gonna lie it. It was like a gut
Speaker 9: punch when I saw that he endorsed him.
Speaker 2: Now in response to Grisham's book, then Trump said that
Speaker 2: Grisham shouldn't be taken seriously because she was quote very
Speaker 2: angry and bitter after the breakup. So the idea that
Speaker 2: President Trump is standing by a guy accused of some
Speaker 2: horrific behavior, abusive behavior, is not new.
Speaker 5: No, it's not new. We've seen a long pattern of
Speaker 5: this with Trump, and Trump often feels that he's the
Speaker 5: victim and subject of false allegations and so forth. But
Speaker 5: I watched that video in one bad communications politically one
Speaker 5: oh one. He looked like somebody on an episode of SVU,
Speaker 5: where you're like, oh, he definitely did it. This is
Speaker 5: not how you want to communicate to your constituents. It's
Speaker 5: why the best thing to do would be to drop
Speaker 5: him now so you can replace him and ultimately as Republicans,
Speaker 5: you know, we stood really tall against Graham Plattner on
Speaker 5: all the awful things that that have been alleged about him,
Speaker 5: and he thanked God, yeah, and they got out, Let's
Speaker 5: do the right thing on our side.
Speaker 7: And now at this point, drag me now Democrats. Traggist
Speaker 7: Julie Riginski. She's also the author of the substat column
Speaker 7: Salty Politics. Julie, thank you for being here. I mean,
Speaker 7: the latest reporting is that Trump told Miller privately that
Speaker 7: his reelection is not going to be easy. But you
Speaker 7: heard his comments today where he called Miller a very
Speaker 7: good person and refused to get involved. What does that
Speaker 7: tell you, Well.
Speaker 8: It tells me that Donald Trump couldn't care less about women.
Speaker 8: We've known that all along. We've certainly known that going
Speaker 8: back to the allegations against him over and over and
Speaker 8: over again. I think in fact, he sees these kinds
Speaker 8: of allegations and automatically gets defensive and disbelieves the women,
Speaker 8: or at least doesn't want to acknowledge that this is
Speaker 8: something that women should come forward and talk about. Look,
Speaker 8: this is not the first time that Max Miller has
Speaker 8: been alleged to be a domestic abuser. Stephanie Grisham, Donald
Speaker 8: Trump's former White House Press secretary, said that publicly said
Speaker 8: that she told both the First Lady and President Trump
Speaker 8: during the first term that Max Miller had done this
Speaker 8: to her, and she said that they didn't really care,
Speaker 8: and I think that's probably one of the reasons that
Speaker 8: she ended up severing her ties to them. Look, how
Speaker 8: many times does the president need to hear from how
Speaker 8: many women that this man is not fit for office
Speaker 8: and that he's an abuser before he starts to take
Speaker 8: these concerns seriously. And while of course this is something
Speaker 8: that's between Emily Marino and her ex husband, it also
Speaker 8: has to do with who's fit or unfit for office.
Speaker 8: And this is not the first time the president has
Speaker 8: heard these kinds of allegations, And she is not the
Speaker 8: first woman from whom he's heard those kinds of allegations.
Speaker 7: Now, Miller denies all the allegations of domestic abuse against
Speaker 7: him from every source. And I want to play you
Speaker 7: one moment from this statement yesterday. It's been drawing a
Speaker 7: lot of criticism.
Speaker 3: Listen, only weeks later did the story of February first
Speaker 3: assault a pierce. So ask yourself if I had assaulted her,
Speaker 3: would she had offered to cook meat dinner six days later?
Speaker 7: Look, I was a prosecutor for domestic balance cases, and
Speaker 7: I think it is so insulting to think that people
Speaker 7: could assume the behavior of somebody who is victimized. His
Speaker 7: statement particularly crass from my prosecutorial experience. But how do
Speaker 7: you feel about how he's been addressing the allegations.
Speaker 8: I mean that made my blood boil, probably more than
Speaker 8: anything else. How many times we heard stories about women
Speaker 8: who for whatever reason, can't leave or just in no
Speaker 8: position to leave, particularly if their mothers, particularly if they
Speaker 8: share a child with their alleged abuser. How many times
Speaker 8: have we heard women, for reasons one reason or another,
Speaker 8: stay after being abused, and then something happens, and sometimes
Speaker 8: they don't survive those situations. You know better than anybody
Speaker 8: else as a former prosecutor, exactly what happens in those
Speaker 8: kinds of situations. I've never been in that situation myself,
Speaker 8: but I certainly talked to nuts survivors over the course
Speaker 8: of my nonprofit work to know that this is not
Speaker 8: a typical So even if you take him at his
Speaker 8: word that six days later she offered to cook him dinner,
Speaker 8: which is a very weird turn of phrase to begin with.
Speaker 8: Also a little tradwayfe there that he's putting her in
Speaker 8: that position. Look, you have the Republican senator from the
Speaker 8: state of Ohio, somebody who has zero interest in seeing
Speaker 8: a Democrat win the seat, break his silence after many,
Speaker 8: many many days, for my opinion, waited a little too
Speaker 8: long to do that. Finally, say that he holds his
Speaker 8: breath when his granddaughter is in the presence of her father.
Speaker 8: And that's still not good enough for the President of
Speaker 8: the United States to listen to a senator of his
Speaker 8: own party, somebody who he supported and continues support very
Speaker 8: strongly politically.
Speaker 5: Still this isn't good enough.
Speaker 8: I mean, at some point I think, look, I don't
Speaker 8: care if you are a Republican or a Democrat. Democrats
Speaker 8: just went through something similar, although allegations not quite like this,
Speaker 8: but still very bad allegations in Grand Platner in Maine.
Speaker 8: You have to stop and just think. This should not
Speaker 8: be a part is an issue. It doesn't matter if
Speaker 8: somebody has a D or an R after their name.
Speaker 8: And I said that about Graham Platner months ago and
Speaker 8: got a lot of trouble, you know, into a lot
Speaker 8: of trouble for members of my own party for saying so.
Speaker 8: But I say this to my Republican friends, My God,
Speaker 8: look in the mirror. Surely, surely there is somebody other
Speaker 8: than Max Miller who can run for the seat while
Speaker 8: there is still time. And surely, even if Max Miller
Speaker 8: decides to stay here, this is not somebody who's fit
Speaker 8: to be in office, even if he agrees with you
Speaker 8: in every political issue you stand for. There are things
Speaker 8: in life more important than politics. The safety of women,
Speaker 8: the safety of children should be chief among them. And
Speaker 8: for some reason, I don't understand why we're in a
Speaker 8: world right now where you have Republicans who just can't
Speaker 8: say that Max Miller needs to go. Starting with the
Speaker 8: President United States