“Take the Bible…”
Former Alabama Judge Roy Moore is in hot water after a woman came forward Thursday, accusing the Republican senatorial candidate of sexually assaulting her many years ago. But one state official is defending Moore in a genuinely bizarre way.
While senators on Capitol Hill have been busy calling on Moore to drop out of the race, should the allegations against him be true, Alabama State Auditor Jim Zeigler is defending the conservative candidate — by invoking Jesus and his earthly parents, Mary and Joseph.
“Take the Bible. Zachariah and Elizabeth for instance. Zachariah was extremely old to marry Elizabeth and they became the parents of John the Baptist,” Zeigler told The Washington Examiner, before adding, “Also take Joseph and Mary. Mary was a teenager and Joseph was an adult carpenter. They became parents of Jesus.”
The auditor used the celebrated Christmas story to suggest there’s “nothing immoral or illegal” about Moore’s alleged sexual advances toward a 14-year-old girl when he was 32 years old, according to The Washington Post .
Zeigler noted Moore never had “sexual intercourse” with the then-teenager, adding the alleged interactions “happened almost 40 years ago,” and the candidate later “fell in love with one of the younger women,” referring to his wife, Kayla, who is 14 years his junior.
“There is nothing to see here,” Zeigler said. “The allegations are that a man in his early 30s dated teenage girls. Even the Washington Post report says that he never had sexual intercourse with any of the girls and never attempted sexual intercourse.”
As for how voters will respond to the Post’s report, Zeigler predicted Alabama voters will be more frustrated with the newspaper for “desperately trying to get something negative” rather than with Moore, whom he described as “clean as a hound’s tooth.”
Moore, for his part, is calling the allegations against him untrue.
“These allegations are completely false and are a desperate political attack by the National Democrat Party and the Washington Post on this campaign,” he told the Post.
