GOP Rep Max Miller pushes back against abuse allegations: ‘I have nothing to hide’

Max Miller decided the best way to handle abuse allegations from his ex-wife was to go live on X and talk to the camera for however long it took to say "I have nothing to hide." Maybe that's true. Maybe it isn't. But going straight to a livestream instead of, say, letting the legal process or an actual investigation sort this out tells you something about how politicians think allegations get resolved now. Not in a courtroom. Not through evidence. On a feed, in real time, with a ring light.

We're not going to pretend to know what happened inside that marriage. Custody disputes get ugly, allegations fly in both directions, and plenty of people have had their reputations wrecked by claims that later fell apart. That caution cuts both ways, though. It means the public shouldn't rush to convict Miller off a single X post from his ex-wife. It also means Miller doesn't get to close the book on it by staring into his phone camera and declaring the matter over.

What's actually notable here is the format. A sitting congressman facing serious personal accusations chose social media as his venue for rebuttal, skipping reporters, skipping any formal response through counsel, skipping the normal channels where claims like this get tested. That's not a defense. It's a press strategy, and voters ought to notice the difference between the two.

If Miller is innocent, he has every incentive to want this examined properly, not performed for an audience that already agrees with him. Ohio's 7th District deserves more than a livestream. So does his ex-wife, whatever the truth turns out to be.