Congress

Mike Johnson breaks his silence on Max Miller, calls for ‘process to play out’

Published

1 day ago

August 5, 2026

Speaker Mike Johnson broke days of silence on explosive allegations of domestic abuse by Rep. Max Miller, calling for investigations to play out as Miller’s former father-in-law, a GOP senator, calls him unfit for office and Republican operatives fret about losing his Ohio House seat.

“I haven’t spoken to Max about this in the last few days. Of course, I will,” Johnson said in an interview for Blue Light News’s “The Conversation” with Dasha Burns. “There’s all sorts of domestic events going on with 435 members of Congress all the time, it’s not my business to get engaged in it.”

Pressed on the severity of the claims against Miller — which include holding a gun to the head of his ex-wife, Emily Moreno, and breaking the collarbone of his daughter — Johnson called the allegations “serious” but said he would let an Ethics Committee investigation run its course. Miller denies any wrongdoing and called the claims “politically motivated” Tuesday.

“I think Max is taking them seriously. I think our colleagues are,” Johnson said. “But, again, we have to allow this process to play out. It’s just begun.”

The Ethics panel announced Tuesday it would investigate the domestic abuse claims as well as allegations of illegal drug use by Miller, who had requested the probe earlier in the day in a bid to clear his name.

Hours later, in a CNN interview, Miller said, “Speaker Mike Johnson, everyone else — they’re standing behind me.”

Asked about his name being invoked, Johnson said, “I think what Max is suggesting there is that I’ve been intellectually consistent. … We don’t take disciplinary action against members for allegations.”

“It’s, in his own words, a nasty divorce proceeding, and it’s gotten ugly and it’s gotten public,” he added. “But he’s saying the same things privately to members that he is publicly, that he denies all this. … There’s a process. The House Ethics Committee does that. We always withhold judgment on this, whether it’s Republicans or Democrats.”

Johnson’s comments came amid a campaign swing in Phoenix, where he is raising money for a pair of key races and touting legislative victories just months before the midterms. But he was also forced to address controversies plaguing Republican members that have snowballed as he and other leaders have largely stayed silent.

Johnson was more candid about the sexual harassment charges faced by Rep. Chuck Edwards of North Carolina, who is facing a censure recommendation from the Ethics Committee. The panel concluded in a report issued Monday that he engaged in “persistent unprofessional and inappropriate conduct towards two young female staffers,” lavishing them with gifts and inundating them with unwanted texts, calls and invitations.

Edwards cooperated with the probe and did not challenge the factual findings, but his lawyers argued they did not rise to the level of censure.

In the interview, Johnson said those, too, are “serious allegations” and that he spoke with Edwards briefly Tuesday. He said he plans to talk to Edwards again soon about his reelection plans.

Like Miller, Edwards is facing a vigorous and well-financed Democratic challenger in a district that usually trends Republican but is unusually competitive this year due to the national political environment and the incumbents’ ethical challenges.

Asked if Edwards should drop his reelection bid, Johnson said, “He’s got to make a big decision, and I hope he does the right thing for him and his family.” As for Miller’s seat, he said, “I’m confident we’ll hold that district.”

Johnson noted that unlike with Miller, the Ethics Committee has completed its process, even though Edwards has contested the findings endorsed by the bipartisan panel.

“So we have to let our colleagues decide the fate of that,” Johnson said. The House could vote as soon as September on the censure recommendation.

Johnson said he also plans to speak with Miller. The Ohio lawmaker has until the end of this week to drop out if Republicans want to replace his name on the ballot.

The pressure on him to drop out exploded Sunday after his ex-father-in-law, Ohio Sen. Bernie Moreno, broke months of silence and denounced Miller, saying he needed “professional help” and should not continue serving in the House. Several other Republicans followed suit — though not Johnson or other senior House GOP leaders.

Miller and Johnson have had a testy relationship in recent months. Miller told Blue Light News in May that he would not vote again for Johnson as speaker and that he “divided us with a smile.”

“I wouldn’t trust him to get out of a wet paper bag with an M4,” he said of Johnson at the time.

Asked to respond in the interview, Johnson said, “I think you could ask every other Republican — they would tell you that’s not true.”

“Max has had a lot of issues in his life. I don’t return fire. That doesn’t bother me. And there’s a lot of criticism that comes with the job,” Johnson continued. “I’m not going to use this situation to say something negative about him.”

Miller, a former aide to President Donald Trump, said in the BLN interview that Trump called him Monday and said “it’s going to be a tough race” but did not insist he drop out. Miller went on to say he would take a page out of Trump’s book from the 2016 presidential election and carry on with his campaign.

Johnson said he was not positioned to intervene if Miller continues his campaign.

“I mean, [the allegations] don’t look good right now, of course. But again, what should a speaker do in this case?” he said. “I call out alarming behavior. I try to work every day on decorum and on the ethics of the House.”

“Look, I pine for the days when we don’t have these kinds of disturbances, when we got people who act in accordance with the dignity of their office. But people have domestic disputes,” he continued. “It’s part of being flawed humans, as we are, and we have to let those processes play out.”

Congress

Capitol agenda: Summer exit eludes Senate

Published

31 minutes ago

August 6, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Don’t expect the typically strong smell of Thursday jet fumes in the halls of the Senate just yet.

Ideally, senators would be leaving town for a five-week recess after business Thursday, but a legislative pile-up and pressure from President Donald Trump has made that impossible.

All 100 senators still need to agree to a deal to speed up consideration of a measure to extend government funding through Dec. 11, a Russia sanctions bill, dozens of nominees including Todd Blanche and a bipartisan college athletics bill — an agenda that would otherwise take weeks to accomplish.

Republicans also need to make a decision about whether they’re going to attempt to take an initial step on a third party-line spending bill, which includes election security measures Trump is demanding.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Wednesday evening the vibes were “starting to pick up” in terms of a deal taking shape. But he cautioned on jet fumes:

“You’re not going to be smelling those anytime real soon. …We’ve obviously got, like I said, a stack of stuff to do,” he said.

While Thune hasn’t ruled out taking up a budget blueprint for the GOP bill, he said it was “hard to say at this point” if the votes were there.

However senators are eyeing an exit strategy to allow Republicans to leave town while giving Trump a small win by taking up his elections measure. With that option, Republicans would bring up legislation related to the SAVE America Act instead of advancing a budget resolution, three people granted anonymity to discuss internal discussions said.

Thune said it “remains to be seen” whether that’s enough for hard-liners who have threatened to oppose leaving town without a vote on it.

Also still in limbo is Trump’s attorney general pick Blanche, who met Wednesday with GOP holdouts Sens. Bill Cassidy and Lisa Murkowski. Neither said afterward how they would vote on the nomination — and Blanche needs to secure at least one of their votes.

Government funding legislation is also stuck in the pile-up, with Republicans grappling with intraparty wrangling over hemp language. And an agreement to speed up consideration of the Russia sanctions measure is also in limbo as Democrats work through concerns in their ranks about it.

And Democrats are waiting for smoke signals from Republicans on whether they’ll force them to vote on cryptocurrency legislation that many of them currently oppose (more on that below). Dems are eager to avoid taking that vote ahead of the recess, potentially fueling tens of millions of dollars of campaign spending by industry allies.

What else we’re watching:

— JOHNSON BULLISH ON SPEAKERSHIP: Mike Johnson said he is planning to remain speaker if House Republicans hold onto the House — but didn’t weigh in on his future plans if Democrats flip the majority. “I don’t have to answer that question because we’re gonna win,” Johnson told Dasha Burns on Tuesday in an interview for Blue Light News’s The Conversation. “I’m gonna remain speaker of the House,” he added. Johnson would face difficult political headwinds to stay on as minority leader if Democrats take back the chamber, but he dodged on the topic, reiterating his optimism.

— FARM BILL OUTLOOK DIMS: Agriculture ranking member Amy Klobuchar is signaling she’ll oppose the GOP-led farm bill up for a markup Thursday, likely scuttling chances it’ll advance. At issue is a provision to delay requirements that states pay for part of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits. Agriculture Chair John Boozman has offered a one-year delay while Democrats are asking for two years. The nutrition aid requirements were passed as part of the GOP’s megabill last summer. Boozman needs to win support from at least one Democrat to advance the bill out of committee given Sen. Mitch McConnell’s prolonged absence.

Jordain Carney, Mia McCarthy and Grace Yarrow contributed to this report.

Congress

Senate’s summer pileup is threatening a quick recess escape

Published

12 hours ago

August 6, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Ideally, the Senate would be adjourning for a five-week break in less than 24 hours.

Instead, Republican senators are still navigating what Majority Leader John Thune described as a “train wreck” as they face a pileup of legislation, key nominations and public pressure from President Donald Trump and angry conservatives to show progress on a GOP election bill Trump views as his “No. 1 priority.”

They’re heading into Thursday — when the scent of jet fumes typically starts wafting through the halls of Congress — without a deal that would let them speed up votes on a government funding bill or long-stalled Russia sanctions bill.

Meanwhile, Todd Blanche’s attorney general nomination is still stuck in limbo after he came to the Capitol Wednesday for a roughly hourlong meeting with two key Republican holdouts.

That said, the general outlines of a deal that would allow senators to quickly get out of Washington and onto the campaign trail has started taking shape, even as senators and aides acknowledged they might have to stick around at least a little bit longer than they’d hoped.

“Don’t kill the vibe — it’s starting to pick up,” Thune said in an interview, while cautioning that “you’re not going to be smelling those [jet fumes] anytime real soon. … We’ve obviously got, like I said, a stack of stuff to do.”

One key issue Republicans haven’t yet settled is a new party-line spending bill that would pump billions of dollars into the Pentagon, to ailing farmers and into some elections-related spending that could take some of the Trump-fueled pressure off — even as several people with knowledge of the discussions said the votes aren’t there.

Thune hasn’t formally ruled out taking up a budget blueprint for the GOP bill, saying Wednesday it was “hard to say at this point” if he had the votes. But he indicated there was progress behind the scenes toward an exit strategy that would allow Republicans to start their recess with minimal internal friction.

“There’s not clarity, but it’s getting less cloudy if you put it that way,” Thune said.

Three people granted anonymity to discuss internal discussions said that endgame would not involve the time-consuming process of advancing a budget, but instead calling up a vote related to the SAVE America Act, the Trump-backed elections bill.

Republican leaders are hoping that holding a vote on the elections proposal, at the Senate’s usual 60-vote threshold for legislation, will let them hammer Democrats as the holdup while satisfying Republicans who have been frustrated over the lack of progress and have threatened to oppose leaving town.

“We’re looking at options there,” Thune said about possible SAVE America-related votes.

He added that it “remains to be seen” if that would be enough to placate Trump-allied rabble-rousers, “but we’ve had a number of conversations now about how we get the votes people feel are necessary.”

A key MAGA ally, Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, posted a social media video Wednesday thanking Thune, saying that the conversation has moved in a “favorable direction” and that Republicans were discussing “what procedural vehicle to use in order to get this thing done.”

Thune has several other obstacles to clear besides the SAVE America fight.

Senators want an agreement that would let them extend government funding into mid-December, pass a sanctions bill targeting Russia in honor of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, confirm dozens of Trump nominees, including Blanche, and start work on a bipartisan college sports bill.

The highest drama surrounds Blanche, who met Wednesday with GOP Sens. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. Neither said afterward how they would vote on his nomination. With Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and every Democrat expected to oppose Blanche, and Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) out for health reasons, he will need to win support from at least one of the two.

The legislative targets have issues, too: Republicans are grappling with intraparty wrangling over hemp language included in the stopgap bill, and Democrats are working through concerns in their ranks about the sanctions bill.

They also want to know if Republicans are going to force them to take a vote on cryptocurrency legislation that many Democrats currently oppose. They are eager to avoid taking that vote ahead of the recess as bipartisan talks happen behind the scenes — especially because a failed vote could potentially fuel tens of millions of dollars of campaign spending against Democratic opponents by industry allies.

Democrats are also looking for signals from Republicans about whether they will move forward with the party-line budget plan. But it was clear by Wednesday afternoon that major obstacles remained.

One GOP senator said Wednesday evening that “there won’t be the votes to do reconciliation and that will simplify things” for the rest of the schedule.

At a Senate GOP lunch meeting, Budget Chair Ron Johnson of Wisconsin presented his ideas for the budget blueprint. It would closely mirror a version that the House advanced last month, but it would also instruct a host of new committees to help draft the bill — expanding the range of issues Democrats could force vulnerable GOP incumbents to take tough votes on just months before the midterms.

Besides ongoing intra-GOP disputes about the amount of Pentagon funding to include and whether to offset the spending with cuts elsewhere, Thune is dealing with senators who aren’t convinced that they should force the issue just months before voters cast ballots.

Retiring Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who described himself as a “lean no” on the budget, said his views were being influenced by wanting to protect vulnerable colleagues.

“There’s only like five members of my conference that I care about. and they’re the ones who are running in at-risk states,” he said.

Asked if he would vote “no” to protect them, Tillis added, “I’m going to support my members who are up for election. They’re the most important priority right now.”

Congress

Trump urges GOP senators to back off hemp ban

Published

14 hours ago

August 5, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

President Donald Trump and top White House officials are privately lobbying Republican senators to delay a ban on intoxicating hemp that’s set to kick in this fall.

At the Trump administration’s urging, the government funding patch the Senate is working to pass this week would push off the forthcoming ban of some cannabis products derived from hemp. But several Republican senators are demanding a vote to strip the delay out and let that prohibition kick in come November.

They’re hearing from the White House about it.

Trump called Sen. Ted Budd on Tuesday night, after the North Carolina Republican filed an amendment to ensure the ban kicks in as mandated on Nov. 12, according to a Senate aide granted anonymity to describe the private discussion. On the call, the president discussed creating a federal regulatory framework for hemp but did not ask Budd to withdraw his amendment, the individual added.

“I’ve been asked by lots of people to stand down on this amendment,” Budd told reporters Wednesday.

Budd noted that the Trump administration has had almost nine months to come up with a plan for implementing the ban.

“So why all of a sudden pop up for some seemingly innocent delay?” he asked, accusing the White House of instead preparing to “jam this on some must-pass” funding package at year’s end to further delay the prohibition.

A White House official granted anonymity to discuss the private debate said the Trump administration is seeking “a modest four-week delay” through the Dec. 11 expiration of the funding patch “to allow for productive conversations to continue.” Some synthetic cannabis products would be permanently banned in the meantime, the official added.

The administration lobbying has successfully swayed some Senate Republicans, such as Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), who said in an interview that “the White House has committed to me that they’re committed to regulate the industry.”

Republican Sen. Rand Paul of hemp-rich Kentucky said the issue came up “in a big way” during Senate Republicans’ private lunch meeting Wednesday. Paul said he spoke in support of delaying the ban and said those arguing for a delay “aren’t very rational.”

“They’re wanting to hold up the funding for the government over one month,” he said. “It’s kind of insane.”

Grace Yarrow contributed to this report.