Donald Trump is declining to say whether representative Max Miller, of Ohio, should withdraw his reelection bid following domestic abuse allegations levelled against him by his ex-wife.
Trump was asked about the embattled Republican congressman while taking questions from reporters in the Oval Office at a Thursday signing event.
“Well, I’m not going to get involved in that,” Trump said. He echoed his earlier comments, calling it a “very sad situation.” Miller was a senior adviser to Trump during the president’s first term.
Miller’s ex-wife is the daughter of Republican senator Bernie Moreno of Ohio, who has said Miller should not be serving in the House.
“If there are any basic standards of character required to hold elected office, Max Miller fails them,” Moreno, an ally of Trump, posted on Sunday. “He should not serve in the House of Representatives.”
Moreno’s comments came after Miller posted a livestream video defending himself against the abuse accusations and saying his former wife had “significant mental-health challenges”.
Ohio’s other Republican senator, Jon Husted, on Thursday called for Miller to resign and not seek reelection.
Under Ohio law, Miller would need to withdraw by Saturday to allow enough time for the replacement process to play out before the 4pm Monday deadline.
One month after the United States supreme court struck down his first attempt to restrict the guarantee of birthright citizenship enshrined in the US constitution, Donald Trump signed executive orders on Thursday that aim to deny US citizenship to children born in the United States to so-called “birth tourists”.
The two new orders came just five weeks ago after the US supreme court struck down Trump’s previous order denying citizenship to the children of non-citizens, a right that has been guaranteed since the 14th amendment was ratified in 1868.
The orders were part of a quixotic campaign Trump has waged for more than a decade, since he promised to eliminate the right at a 2015 campaign event.
Despite an endorsement from Trump, congressman Andy Ogles, a virulently anti-Muslim Tennessee Republican, was in danger of losing his re-election bid to a primary challenger backed by the state’s governor, Bill Lee.
Trump refused to confirm a Washington Post report that he told donors at a recent meeting that they need to help JD Vance win the 2028 presidential election.
