Republicans’ glee over Graham Platner has caught up with them.

A few weeks ago, news broke that Emily Moreno, the ex-wife of Ohio congressman Max Miller, had accused him of several shocking acts of abuse, both toward her—those included scalding her with hot water and holding a gun to her head—and toward the couple’s baby daughter, whose collarbone was allegedly fractured by Miller. For weeks now, journalists, Democrats, and plenty of American voters have been pushing powerful Ohio Sen. Bernie Moreno to say something—anything—in defense of his daughter and granddaughter. For weeks, Bernie Moreno stayed silent, even as Miller went on a crusade of character assassination against Emily Moreno, saying she was mentally ill with untreated bipolar disorder.

Finally, in a Sunday night tweet, the elder Moreno spoke out, writing, “Out of concern for the safety of my family, I hoped to keep this matter private but Max Miller’s increasingly erratic and dangerous behavior has made that impossible.” He continued: “He is a danger to my daughter, and I hold my breath every minute he has custody of my granddaughter.”

Moreno went on to say that Miller should withdraw from his current congressional race: “If there are any basic standards of character required to hold elected office, Max Miller fails them. He should not serve in the House of Representatives. I believe Max Miller needs to seek professional help to end the clear pattern of abuse he has left in his wake. I believe he should not be free to continue endangering others until he does.”

It’s good that Moreno has finally come to the defense of his own daughter and granddaughter after weeks of silence and dithering, given how easy it was to interpret his lack of comment as support for Miller’s campaign. But it’s reasonable to ask: What took him so long? And given that the deadline for Miller to pull out of the race is Wednesday, where are all the other Republicans—especially those who called on Democrats to force Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner to resign—in demanding that Miller step aside?

Traditionalist conservatives, those who push a nuclear-family model with a male head of household and a female carer for home and the children, make women a clear pledge: Acquiesce to your husband’s authority and you will be protected and provided for; your children will be as well. The Miller-Moreno saga is a textbook example of how this promise of patriarchal protection is a myth. Both of the patriarchs of Emily Moreno’s life have failed to protect her. One is an alleged abuser, and the other seemed to put his party’s political prospects ahead of his own daughter’s well-being.

We should be clear, too, that Bernie Moreno’s decision to speak out against Miller doesn’t seem to stem from an obligation to his family or his own moral code. Instead, it comes after another choice: Moreno put himself in the limelight when he used the Senate hearings of Anthony Fauci to grandstand and play the tough guy, cursing out the doctor and calling his actions “a total disgrace.” The performance made many people wonder: How did Moreno have this much ire for an immunologist but not for the man accused of breaking his grandbaby’s bone?

Some have suggested that Moreno had been silent because Miller was blackmailing him. Moreno, this theory goes, is a closeted gay man, as evidenced by a 2008 post on Adult Friend Finder in which Moreno appeared to be looking for men for sex. Moreno said it was a prank pulled by an intern, a story the former intern confirmed. But in recent text messages unearthed by Mother Jones as part of the ongoing custody dispute between Emily Moreno and Miller, Miller does seem to have recently threatened the senator. “Everyone is going to get to know you better than your wife does,” he wrote to Bernie Moreno.

Whatever the case, Moreno appears to have determined that the questions and criticisms had become too loud to ignore. And good: At least someone in the GOP is still responsive to voters. The MAGA Republican tolerance of male abuse of women, so long as the male in question is a MAGA Republican, has gotten so extreme that I’ve often wondered where the party would draw the line: at a politician’s own daughter? It turns out the answer was not even there—it was only after the public outrage spilled over that they would speak out.

After all, Emily Moreno is not the first woman to accuse Miller of abuse. She’s not even the first woman surrounded by powerful Republican men to accuse Miller of abuse. Former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham also dated Miller, and also said he became physically violent when she tried to break up with him. She told Donald Trump, who had insisted that Miller was a “great guy.” Trump initially did nothing—but ultimately went ahead and backed Miller’s congressional campaign anyway.

No other leading Republicans have come out to demand that Miller step aside. Ohio congressman Jim Jordan was on television just days ago, calling Miller “a good man” whom he’s helping to reelect. Asked about the allegations against Miller, House Speaker Mike Johnson told the press, “The key word there is ‘allegation.’ ”

One explanation here is that the Republican Party has simply abdicated all standards when it comes to its own candidates. Another is two words: Donald Trump. Trump, after all, has faced two dozen accusations of sexual harassment, abuse, and mistreatment. Importantly, he was held liable for sexual abuse in court. It is awfully difficult for Republicans to say that men like Miller, who have faced repeated accusations of abuse from multiple women, should be kicked out of their party, while continuing to champion a president who has faced repeated accusations of abuse from multiple women—and who was found to be abusive by a jury of his peers.

The GOP strategy of simply ignoring or waving away the Trump accusations as part of a broader left-wing “witch hunt” against the president has worked. And it might have worked for Miller, too, the way it has for Rep. Cory Mills, who is also running for Congress again and has also been accused of assaulting women.

But then Graham Platner happened, and Republicans just couldn’t help themselves.

Platner, who was set to be the Democratic candidate for Senate in Maine, was accused of physically assaulting one woman and raping another. Democrats and Republicans alike swiftly condemned him, and his own party rightly pushed him to drop out of the race. Republicans had a field day with the Platner allegations, claiming that Democrats tolerated abuse of women and that liberals were hypocrites. Then, when it turned out that Democrats didn’t tolerate abuse of women and liberals weren’t hypocrites—when Platner was forced out—smug Republicans were left to hope that no similar allegations about their candidates would see such intensive media coverage. Now that hope has been dashed. “The key word there is ‘allegation’ ” was not an excuse Republicans were willing to make when the allegations were against Platner, and they shouldn’t make it when the allegations are against one of their own.

It remains the case that Republican politicians, party members, and voters seem to give GOP men a pass, while Democratic politicians, party members, and voters continue to hold their candidates to a higher standard. But while Trump can get away with just about anything, other GOP members don’t see quite the same deference. Which is why the Miller story continues to be a problem—even as the candidate tries the Trump strategy of denying it all and forging ahead.

Miller has released a video that he says debunks Emily Moreno’s abuse claims. It contains footage of him wondering why she would cook him dinner or go to the park with him and their child if he had abused her, despite the well-known dynamic of abuse victims trying to appease their abusers. The video itself has been roundly seen as damaging to Miller, who comes across as bullying and condescending, and whose rage at the situation seems to be boiling just below the surface. (“These are the words of an unhinged, sociopathic narcissist with zero sense of accountability,” reads one representative reaction.) He has also said that he did not scald her with water on purpose; it was “horseplay in our kitchen,” and he released phone audio of him telling her that he didn’t throw water on her on purpose and that it wasn’t even boiling. She had taken a photo of her burned skin; Miller claims that that was a sunburn.

The whole thing is repulsive and sordid, another case of men jockeying for power and viewing women as barriers. This is in line with the wider conservative vision of women in the first place: We are meant to help men, to prop them up, to be dutiful wives and daughters even if it means sublimating our own desires—or our own safety. Republicans have already shown themselves to be spineless, misogynistic cowards in this case. Hopefully voters will see that—and will understand that it’s not just about the GOP maintaining its political power, but about a much broader conservative project that aims to consolidate power in the hands of men, whatever that means for their wives and daughters.