Speaker 1: Hey, folks, it is Friday, August seventh, and he is
Speaker 1: already facing a House ethics investigation. He is facing accusations
Speaker 1: of domestic violence. But now Congressman Max Miller is facing
Speaker 1: new allegations. There is some of the cruelest stuff you
Speaker 1: will ever hear that a dad could do to his child.
Speaker 1: And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ.
Speaker 1: Let me start with saying he says this is not true.
Speaker 1: He says, these allegations aren't true. Allegations robes of holding
Speaker 1: a bunny.
Speaker 2: Hostage, a blue bunny hostage, a stuffed blue bunny hostage.
Speaker 1: This is an ugly story already robes. This is true,
Speaker 1: and it does come with some level of receipts.
Speaker 3: Jesus, there are text messages. This is a thing, that's
Speaker 3: for sure. And look, anyone who's had a young child
Speaker 3: knows that oftentimes, and especially if you've got a child
Speaker 3: of divorce, where there is some insecurity just built in
Speaker 3: where your family is now divided. Yes, kids cling to
Speaker 3: their stuffed animals. They cling to their My kids had
Speaker 3: their baby blankets, and they each had names for them,
Speaker 3: and they went everywhere with those blankets. To this day,
Speaker 3: my youngest still has her baby blanket, and she would
Speaker 3: take it back and forth to her father's house. I
Speaker 3: get it, and I think a lot of parents get it.
Speaker 1: Parents also get if you're a parent who has divorced.
Speaker 1: Hopefully yours went smoother than some, but if you have
Speaker 1: a contentious divorce, all kinds of things, little things, petty
Speaker 1: things get argued about, where's the pan right, where's my
Speaker 1: favorite pillowcase? Did you really take the toothpaste? Like all
Speaker 1: kinds of the dumbest stuff ever. But robes, you're supposed
Speaker 1: to keep the kids out of it. He's supposed to
Speaker 1: be keeping the kids items certainly out of it. And
Speaker 1: we're talking about now Max Miller, who's facing all these
Speaker 1: allegations and now an allegation of cruelty robes in which
Speaker 1: he is being accused by his former father in law.
Speaker 1: And there are text messages that reporters have gotten their
Speaker 1: hands on that suggest that he kept his two year
Speaker 1: old daughters stuffed blue bunny, held it hostage and wouldn't
Speaker 1: give it back.
Speaker 4: For what.
Speaker 3: Power, perhaps or wanting her to want to be at
Speaker 3: his place where the blue bunny is. Who knows, But yes,
Speaker 3: that is called weaponizing your children, if true and true.
Speaker 3: As awful as it sounds, it is actually, as we
Speaker 3: were discussing, pretty unfortunately damn common. It's it's adults acting
Speaker 3: like children children to hurt the child. You hear about
Speaker 3: this all the time, not allow parents to see children,
Speaker 3: not giving access to children, not letting them talk on
Speaker 3: the phone, and who does that do work to tod children?
Speaker 3: So you do kind of see it. So whether it's yes,
Speaker 3: not letting them get on the phone to FaceTime the
Speaker 3: other parent, or yes, with holding a child's favorite toy
Speaker 3: and keeping it at your place. There have even been
Speaker 3: stories about like not allowed to bring clothing back and forth.
Speaker 3: I think many people have experienced this, and it's just
Speaker 3: awful because the people who get hurt the most are
Speaker 3: the people you're supposed to be protecting your children.
Speaker 1: And let's tell you where this is coming from now,
Speaker 1: I think a lot of people are familiar with this.
Speaker 1: With what's going on with Max Miller facing reelection in
Speaker 1: Ohio seventh District, a lot of people want him to
Speaker 1: get out, including some increased call from Republicans, but he
Speaker 1: has gone through a pretty nasty divorce. He is divorced,
Speaker 1: but now he's dealing with a custody dispute back and
Speaker 1: forth with his two year old daughter with his now
Speaker 1: ex wife Emily what They were married in twenty twenty
Speaker 1: two too, divorced in twenty four or five.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was like a two year marriage at most.
Speaker 1: So this is what we're talking about. So now the senator,
Speaker 1: Senator Moreno, whose daughter is Emily, has come out and
Speaker 1: said that the guy should is not fit to serve,
Speaker 1: So that kind of ramped everything up. Miller has denied
Speaker 1: all these accusations, and meanwhile, robes are at least two
Speaker 1: other women who have come out with allegations against Miller
Speaker 1: for domestic violence. But let's get into what we have
Speaker 1: seen now through reporting and various emails and text messages,
Speaker 1: robes that are flying between Emily Moreno, Max Miller, Senator
Speaker 1: Moreno and.
Speaker 4: Also up was it a parenting coordinator?
Speaker 1: They pull it who's supposed to be helping during the
Speaker 1: custody dispute dealing with the child. So those are all
Speaker 1: the people on these messages, and these are the ones
Speaker 1: we've gotten a hold of world to start with, this
Speaker 1: was kind of a I don't know, this one isn't
Speaker 1: so terrible, but it seems Emily, the ex wife, is
Speaker 1: asking Max about the bunny.
Speaker 3: Yes, she in an email says, ken, our daughter, please
Speaker 3: have her her bunny back. She's had it since birth,
Speaker 3: sleeps with it every night, carries it with her around
Speaker 3: the house, and sees it as a source of comfort.
Speaker 3: You have always delivered it back to me when you
Speaker 3: drop her off. Please don't punish her. If you're upset
Speaker 3: with me, I'm willing to pick it up from your house,
Speaker 3: your mailbox. You can drop it in my mailbox please.
Speaker 4: Okay.
Speaker 1: She didn't sound combatith, not at all. We have no
Speaker 1: idea what happened leading up to this before after, we
Speaker 1: don't know. But at least that robe sounds like a
Speaker 1: woman who is like, let's not have a problem. Let's
Speaker 1: just let me get the bunny. So the thing is
Speaker 1: now being held hostage.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 1: This is a follow up email, and again this is
Speaker 1: coming to us from mother Jones, a reporter over there
Speaker 1: who has been getting her hands. She's been doing some
Speaker 1: good reporting. I'm sorry her name is slipping my mind,
Speaker 1: but she's been doing a lot of reporting on this.
Speaker 1: But the follow up email to that one from Emily
Speaker 1: saying to Max, quote, if you lost it, please let
Speaker 1: me know if you're choosing to not return our daughter's
Speaker 1: favorite toy for another reason, that's just cruel. So don't
Speaker 1: know what direction things are going. And again we don't
Speaker 1: have his responses. We don't have what was happening before
Speaker 1: or after. But these are the ones we've gotten our
Speaker 1: hands on. Now, the one rodes this is typical divorce
Speaker 1: lawyer type stuff. Yes, Emily's lawyer sends one to Max's
Speaker 1: lawyer asking about this bunny.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Always Look, I know it's a tough job, I'm sure,
Speaker 3: being a divorce attorney, but it does always often appear
Speaker 3: that when you have the attorneys communicating back and forth,
Speaker 3: things get uglier. You would think that things would get better,
Speaker 3: would be more civil, but it actually almost always makes
Speaker 3: it worse. But so, Emily's lawyer sends this email to
Speaker 3: Max's lawyer. For no apparent reason, Max is not returning
Speaker 3: the child's blue bunny to Emily. Doctor Koric, who is
Speaker 3: the parent coordinator, tried to get the blue bunny back.
Speaker 3: Doctor k made clear that despite her recommendation that the
Speaker 3: bunny stay with Emily, Max refuses to return it. Why
Speaker 3: must this be a controversy? This is totally ridiculous, Please
Speaker 3: have Max return the bunny.
Speaker 2: Forthwith that's so silly, fourthwith, but well, it's a bunny
Speaker 2: like he should be desperate to get it to her,
Speaker 2: should he not forget everything else?
Speaker 1: He knows his child loves this stuffed animal. Sho'd be
Speaker 1: jumping through hoops if he missed a vote in Congress
Speaker 1: because he needed to get her the bunny. I would go, Okay,
Speaker 1: that makes sense to me, and that's the way it
Speaker 1: should be. This is so and again, as folks who've
Speaker 1: gone through divorces, so much money is wasted in divorces
Speaker 1: because of the time it takes to get an answer.
Speaker 1: When two people just can't community. You can send one
Speaker 1: text to your soon to be ex and say hey,
Speaker 1: blah blahlah blah, and they can respond. But instead, in
Speaker 1: a divorce, I have to call my lawyer to ask
Speaker 1: a question. My lawyer then calls her lawyer for that question.
Speaker 1: Her lawyer then calls her. After that, she answers the question,
Speaker 1: then she has to tell her lawyer the answer, who
Speaker 1: tells my lay of the answer, and then it comes
Speaker 1: back to me. This when the lawyer has to do that,
Speaker 1: when it's something as simple as a bunny or it
Speaker 1: just it's.
Speaker 3: Really really, really tough. I mean it's awful. So yeah,
Speaker 3: And the next one actually is a text between Max
Speaker 3: and Senator Moreno. So Senator Moreno says, evidently I was
Speaker 3: supposed to get his granddaughter's blue bunny at pickup, she's
Speaker 3: asking for it. That's actually Moreno I believe, because he says,
Speaker 3: evidently I was supposed to get the blue bunny at pickup,
Speaker 3: she's asking for it. Do you have it by chance?
Speaker 3: And then Max tells his father in law to go
Speaker 3: through the parent coordinator, saying, you can go through the
Speaker 3: parent coordinator. I'm sure I'll see this one at the
Speaker 3: next hearing. If you need anything, have Emily call. Yes,
Speaker 3: doctor k I have no note or record of what
Speaker 3: you're referring to. So he's acting like he doesn't know
Speaker 3: about the blue bunny. And that's when Senator Moreno says,
Speaker 3: it's the blue bunny she sleeps with, but got it.
Speaker 3: So he was pretending like he didn't know.
Speaker 4: Oh, Max was trained that Max.
Speaker 3: Wasn't aware that I don't know what you're referring to.
Speaker 1: She's had since birth. There's nothing else to talk about.
Speaker 1: That one just doesn't fly it doesn't make any sense.
Speaker 1: And then the parent coordinator gets involved. And this was
Speaker 1: interesting that she used this phrase coddling. She said, I'm
Speaker 1: not coddling him. This is her to Emily saying, I'm
Speaker 1: not coddling him. Talking about Max, I advise him to
Speaker 1: let your dad get the bunny, preferably from the mailbox,
Speaker 1: but he adamantly refused. But I've suggested you keep the
Speaker 1: bunny at your house to avoid these situations because unfortunately,
Speaker 1: in a high conflict divorce, these situations blow up often.
Speaker 1: Now that's just confirmation of what the parent coordinator at
Speaker 1: least was trying. Now that is probably the most damning
Speaker 1: evidence absolutely against him, because this is an impartial person
Speaker 1: who is actually have no idea that the text she's
Speaker 1: sending is going to be made public.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and she said that Max adamantly refused, So there
Speaker 3: you go. And then with the text with Senator Moreno
Speaker 3: acted like he didn't know what he was talking about.
Speaker 3: That seems a little disingenuous given the emails that we've
Speaker 3: seen from Emily to Max.
Speaker 1: Si Moreno continued to speak, or has been. He was
Speaker 1: quiet for a long time. He said he didn't want
Speaker 1: this to be out in public. But he told this
Speaker 1: to reporters on Capitol Hill. They were asking him questions
Speaker 1: about it, and he said, quote, Max would not hand
Speaker 1: over the little Blue Bunny, literally held it hostage for
Speaker 1: forty eight hours. This girl is crying at night because
Speaker 1: she can't sleep without her little Blue Bunny. And his
Speaker 1: answer is, I'm just not going to give it to you.
Speaker 1: So finally, yesterday he lets the little bunny go. This level,
Speaker 1: this is the level of total, incomplete depravity. I mean, Roseie,
Speaker 1: he spoke of it like it was literally being held hostage.
Speaker 3: My favorite was the next quote, took five lawyers to
Speaker 3: get the bunny back forty eight hours later. That's sad.
Speaker 3: And if that's where things stand, that's just icky. And again,
Speaker 3: all of this is going on without any real knowledge
Speaker 3: that any of this will be made public. And I
Speaker 3: believe Senator Moreno did make this point clear. The one
Speaker 3: person you haven't heard from during all of this is
Speaker 3: his daughter, Emily. She has not gotten in front of
Speaker 3: a camera, she has not been speaking out. She is
Speaker 3: mortified about all of this coming out and being as
Speaker 3: public as it is. I can't even imagine having this
Speaker 3: type of detail and just all of this ugliness being
Speaker 3: displayed for everyone to discuss.
Speaker 4: And that's one place where I will give her credit. Rope.
Speaker 1: She could have gone, she's the one. All this stuff
Speaker 1: we're hearing and we know about is because of court filings,
Speaker 1: not because she went in front of a camera or
Speaker 1: did an interview or spoke to anybody so real that
Speaker 1: the evidence shows she didn't. She wasn't trying to go
Speaker 1: after him or his political career in some way.
Speaker 4: Somebody could argue maybe some leaks.
Speaker 1: Or something like that, but as far as she goes,
Speaker 1: she has not been out there speaking on this. Miller, though,
Speaker 1: has been talking Robes. He did post something on x
Speaker 1: in which he was I mean, quite simply, he said, quote,
Speaker 1: please stop the lies. But he spoke directly to Robes
Speaker 1: if you see there. In his ex posts to his
Speaker 1: former father in.
Speaker 3: Law, he said, mine and your daughter's parenting coordinator reached
Speaker 3: out about the bunny, asking if you can come pick
Speaker 3: it up for me after she forgot it at my house.
Speaker 3: I said sure. Then a man who is not on
Speaker 3: our approved list reaches out to me offering to come
Speaker 3: to my house to get the bunny, to which I
Speaker 3: said it was inappropriate of him to insert himself in
Speaker 3: family business and that I was waiting for you, Bernie Moreno,
Speaker 3: like we agreed upon. Gosh, this is just difficult, just
Speaker 3: the back and forth.
Speaker 4: But it's public.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: Off he's respond I mean, I guess he has to
Speaker 1: defend himself because of allegations of being made in public.
Speaker 1: So he's responding in public. But there's a level of
Speaker 1: ugliness now robes and they're trying to keep the two
Speaker 1: year old out of it. But now what's smack dab
Speaker 1: in the middle is that now you're being called a
Speaker 1: bad boyfriend, a bad husband.
Speaker 3: And a bad parent.
Speaker 1: That's a that's as bad as a dad is going
Speaker 1: to get. Now you can add some elements to it
Speaker 1: for a lot of dads out there knowing this is
Speaker 1: a two year old girl, right, whatever fair shot I
Speaker 1: was giving him on allegations of one thing, this one,
Speaker 1: he's crossing a line for some dads at least at
Speaker 1: least winning back some type of any type of sentiment
Speaker 1: in the public. Yeah, this is this is hard to understand.
Speaker 3: It's a power struggle. And unfortunately, when you now have
Speaker 3: a power struggle over something that the child wants and
Speaker 3: that you have, and you use it to your advantage,
Speaker 3: where you think you're somehow feeling powerful or in control
Speaker 3: in that moment. That is the ugliness right there.
Speaker 1: Tim and the she the senator from Montana, a Republican,
Speaker 1: put it this way on social media. What kind of
Speaker 1: person would treat their daughter this way? This guy is
Speaker 1: clearly a degenerate sociopath. Max should step aside and seek help.
Speaker 1: Now that's just the personal side. He went on Robes
Speaker 1: to make this make sense politically, staying in the race
Speaker 1: makes it far more likely we lose this seat and
Speaker 1: hand Democrats and majority to impeach President Trump.
Speaker 4: He didn't have to say that part.
Speaker 1: It seems like he's almost trying to tell the president, yoyoyol,
Speaker 1: get involved here. This could be a problem for you, sir.
Speaker 1: That last line, it seemed like he got very specific.
Speaker 3: That was dramatic. That last line he went, he went
Speaker 3: right for He took a leap. I was not expecting.
Speaker 1: Well, Rose, I mean, I haven't thought about this a
Speaker 1: whole lot, but my goodness, do we really Rose.
Speaker 4: It might be the first thing they do.
Speaker 3: Try to impeach President Trump if they have the majorityes.
Speaker 1: Pick a crime like they would think they have a
Speaker 1: long list of things they could impeach this guy for.
Speaker 1: But if this wasn't the only significant update in the
Speaker 1: Max Miller case, stay here there was an alarming, very
Speaker 1: concerning I guess update from Cenera Moreno about where his wife,
Speaker 1: his daughter, and his granddaughter now are staying.
Speaker 3: Welcome back everyone to Amy and TJ. And we were
Speaker 3: just discussing it's probably going to be a hell of
Speaker 3: a weekend for Max Miller because there is a deadline
Speaker 3: looming where if he makes it past Monday, he's staying
Speaker 3: on the ballot.
Speaker 4: I mean, they don't have a choice to replace him.
Speaker 1: They have until the tenth there's some somewhere around midnight Monday,
Speaker 1: Tuesy whatever. You don't want to mess around with us.
Speaker 1: So by Monday they need he needs to be out
Speaker 1: of there, and that's their last chance to put another
Speaker 1: candidate in his place. After Monday Tuesday, Republicans, that's your
Speaker 1: guy in Ohio seven.
Speaker 3: What's that weekend gonna be like? I mean, because we
Speaker 3: already have a growing number of Republicans asking him to
Speaker 3: step aside asking him to drop out of the race.
Speaker 3: He's obviously done a big media campaign this week saying
Speaker 3: he vows to stay and fight. He's gonna he's never
Speaker 3: been actually criminally accused of anything, and so why would
Speaker 3: he step down? And he is and has been very
Speaker 3: publicly defending himself. However, I think it's gonna be a
Speaker 3: he's gonna have a few phone calls over the weekend.
Speaker 1: Oh, he's gonna be busy. He's gonna be working the phone.
Speaker 1: Was not sure if anybody's gonna call him, But all
Speaker 1: the calls incoming will be get out of the race,
Speaker 1: all the calls out going and trying to convince people
Speaker 1: to probably not to support him, but not to come
Speaker 1: out against him. That's the best he can hope for
Speaker 1: right now. If you just stay quiet, everybody and just
Speaker 1: don't say anything, nobody's gonna come help him report it.
Speaker 3: I'm curious if he doesn't drop out, he stays in
Speaker 3: as he says he is on Monday, August tenth, what
Speaker 3: do Republicans do then? Because now they need him to win,
Speaker 3: So now do they line up behind him? Do they
Speaker 3: start defending him?
Speaker 1: Ew, you can't do that because that hurts the party nationally.
Speaker 1: You can't be seen standing next to a guy who
Speaker 1: won is accused of beating women and two keeping his
Speaker 1: daughter's favorite toy away from her while she's crying at night.
Speaker 3: And apparently is so dangerous. According to Senator Moreno, his
Speaker 3: former father in law that he actually had to take
Speaker 3: action with his wife, his daughter, and his granddaughter said he.
Speaker 4: Sent him out of the state. Robes.
Speaker 1: So he sent them out of the state and won't
Speaker 1: have them come back until they feel safe.
Speaker 4: Robes.
Speaker 1: The things are stacking up against this guy. Now, I
Speaker 1: understand Moreno, no, no, no, no, no, no, no no.
Speaker 4: Robes.
Speaker 1: If they feel I don't think this is for shit,
Speaker 1: I don't. And if a US senator this is not
Speaker 1: left and right, a US senator, a credible guy is
Speaker 1: saying I had to send my family away because a
Speaker 1: member of the House of Representatives is so much of
Speaker 1: a threat. I need to get them away from him.
Speaker 4: Rose.
Speaker 1: That is a powerful statement, and that a very credible guy.
Speaker 3: Yes, And that's coupled with an earlier statement that he said,
Speaker 3: I hold my breath every time he is with my granddaughter,
Speaker 3: that he is nervous. Look, there have been allegations and
Speaker 3: he denied them about a broken collarbone, that he was
Speaker 3: somehow responsible. He says, not true. He was investigated, but
Speaker 3: according to Senator Moreno and members of his family, they
Speaker 3: believe Miller is responsible for that. So there have been
Speaker 3: very serious allegations against this congressman.
Speaker 1: We'll see what happens on Monday, but even if nothing happens,
Speaker 1: that's a very big something, Ohio.
Speaker 4: We wanted to give you this.
Speaker 1: Update that for a moment when I first heard it, Robes,
Speaker 1: I'm like, this sounds silly, and then I heard it
Speaker 1: and it is very serious. Just what that suggests, and
Speaker 1: we don't know the back and forth, Robes, it gets
Speaker 1: very difficult and divorce one side or the other.
Speaker 4: But there was a child here.
Speaker 1: It just seems like this is a non We don't
Speaker 1: have to fight about this here.
Speaker 4: Baby, here's your bunny.
Speaker 3: Here's your blue bunny. Yes, just I can't imagine withholding
Speaker 3: something you know your child needs and wants because you can.
Speaker 1: Maybe there's more to that story, and I certainly hope
Speaker 1: there is.
Speaker 4: But for now, folks, we appreciate you spending a little
Speaker 4: time here with us on TJ. That's Robes. We'll talk
Speaker 4: to you soon.