On Thursday, July 30, CNN's Kasie Hunt asked Jim Jordan a simple question about his fellow Ohio Republican, Rep. Max Miller: should he resign?

Jordan's answer:

"Well, look, this, this is a family matter. I know Max is a good man. I was up there campaigning for him. I hope he wins reelection. He's done a good job as a member of Congress, and we should all pray for his family. These are difficult times that they're going through."

A family matter. Difficult times. Let's talk about what those "difficult times" actually are.

What Jordan called a family matter

Miller's ex-wife is Emily Moreno — the daughter of Ohio's other Republican senator, Bernie Moreno. In court filings tied to a custody fight over their 2-year-old daughter, she laid out a list of things she says Miller did to her.

CBS News reviewed the filings. Here is what's in them:

• In 2024, she says Miller threw hot water on her from a pan of eggs after she told him she was leaving.
• She told police he had previously held a gun to her head.
• In February 2026, she says he threw her against a wall during a custody exchange, leaving bruises and grab marks on her arm and stomach.
• Two weeks later, their daughter turned up with a fractured collarbone. A police report noted a bruise that "appears to be a handprint."

Miller denies all of it. He says he has video and text messages that contradict her account, and he has sued his ex-wife and her attorney for defamation.

Then, in late July, it got stranger. Moreno filed for a new restraining order saying that at a court hearing, Miller physically grabbed her lawyer — in a courthouse, in the middle of a custody case, with everyone watching. She says she told him, "Get your hands off of him."

That's the situation Jordan described as a family matter we should all pray about.

"I've not heard all this stuff"

When Hunt walked through the allegations one by one on air, Jordan cut in.

"Yeah, Kasie, I'm not, I've not, I've not, I've not heard all this stuff."

Hunt's reply was short: "Well, it was in The New York Times."

Take Jordan at his word for a second. He says he hadn't heard the details. But by his own account in the same interview, he had already been "up there campaigning" for Miller. He had already decided Miller is "a good man." He had already decided he hopes Miller wins.

He made up his mind about the case without learning what was in it. That's not neutrality. That's a choice.

He had no trouble hearing about the Democrat

Here's the part that makes this more than a bad TV hit.

Hunt played Jordan a clip of himself going after Graham Platner, the Maine Democrat who was running for U.S. Senate. Platner suspended his campaign in July after a Maine woman told Politico he had forced sexual contact on her in 2021, and a second woman said he had removed condoms without her consent. Platner called the accusations false. Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Ro Khanna told him to get out anyway. He got out.

So Hunt asked Jordan the obvious question: why does that standard not apply to Republicans who want to keep power in this seat?

Jordan's answer, per Mediaite's account of the exchange:

"Well, I don't know the context of the question I was asked about Mr. Platner, but my guess is it was about all the ridiculous positions he's taken."

Hunt pointed at the banner running across the bottom of the clip he was watching. It said Platner's ex-girlfriend had accused him of abuse. That was the context.

Jordan tried again. He said he must have been talking about Platner's politics — his views on Israel, his tattoo.

So: when a Democrat is accused, Jordan is on cable television talking about it. When his own colleague and campaign trail buddy is accused, Jordan hasn't heard about it, it's a private family matter, and it's up to the voters.

That's not a principle. A principle applies to everyone. This applies to one party.

He has been here before

Jordan's shrug would land differently if this were the first time.

It isn't. Jordan was an assistant wrestling coach at Ohio State University from 1987 to 1995, during the years the team doctor sexually abused at least 177 student-athletes. Former wrestlers have said publicly that Jordan knew and did nothing. Jordan denies it.

One former wrestler said Jordan called him and pressured him to walk back his account — to not support the reports of abuse.

In July 2025, Jordan was deposed under oath in the federal lawsuit over that abuse. That case is not ancient history. It is still live, and so is he.

Thirty years apart, the same answer: I didn't know, it's not my business, and the guy accused is a good guy.

What he does when he actually cares

Jordan is not a passive man. He is the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, one of the most powerful jobs in Congress. He has subpoena power. He has investigators. He can make almost anyone in America show up and answer questions under oath — and he uses it. From that chair he has issued at least 91 subpoenas, spending roughly $20 million of our tax dollars chasing Trump's enemies. This is the same man who refused to comply when Congress subpoenaed him in 2022 over January 6.

When Jim Jordan wants to know something, he finds out. He does not wait for the newspaper.

So when he tells a national television audience that he hasn't heard the details about a colleague he campaigned for, the honest translation isn't that the information was unavailable. It's that he didn't want it.

Ohio's 4th District has been sending Jordan back to Washington since 2007. Nineteen years — and in all that time he has never sponsored a single bill that became law. Not one. What he has built instead is a national brand on being the loudest man in the room about other people's misconduct.

The test of that brand was a question from Kasie Hunt about a guy on his own team. He failed it in about fifteen seconds.

Source

Manny Gómez, "Jim Jordan defends GOP colleague accused of abuse — after slamming Democrat over similar allegations", cleveland.com, July 31, 2026. Photo: CNN, via Mediaite.