An American judge, and candidate for Alabama’s upcoming special Senate election, has been accused of romantically pursuing teenagers when he was in his 30s.
While Roy Moore has denied the allegations, other Republicans have been dismissing the rumours as “much ado about nothing” even if they are true.
If you thought politicians not being able to agree whether pursuing underage girls is really that bad was as Trump-y as this story would get, you’ve got a big storm coming.
An Alabama state auditor, Republican Jim Zeigler, decided “there is nothing to see here” because of scripture.
“Take the Bible. Zachariah and Elizabeth for instance. Zachariah was extremely old to marry Elizabeth and they became the parents of John the Baptist,” Ziegler told The Washinton Examiner.
“Also take Joseph and Mary. Mary was a teenager and Joseph was an adult carpenter. They became parents of Jesus.”
Not only is that creepy as hell, it’s so wrong. The whole basis of Christianity is that Jesus was born from an immaculate conception; millions subscribe to the religion because they believe he’s the the son of God, not Joseph.
Also, who trusts the ages in the bible? The early patriarchs apparently lived to be nearly 1000 and Moses died ‘young’ at 120.
And while we’re here, I would really recommend not taking relationship advice from a time in history that used marriage to sell women and had no problem with child brides.
Other Republicans predictably questioned the veracity of the claims from 1979, because if there’s one thing the Harvey Weinstein catastrophe has taught us, it’s that we shouldn’t believe women who speak out about sexual assault.
“They got some pictures? That’ll do,” Alabama State Rep. Ed Henry told TPM.
“You can’t sit on something like this for thirty-something years with a man as in the spotlight as Roy Moore and all of a sudden three weeks before a senatorial primary all of a sudden these three or four women are going to talk about something in 1979? I call bull. It’s as fabricated as the day is long.”
But if it is true? Well, he’ll still get the vote from Alabama Bibb County Republican chairman Jerry Pow.
He’s not supporting what he did, just not not supporting what he did – nice.
This feels weirdly reminiscent of something… oh right, the president when he was accused by more than a dozen women of sexual harassment.
No wonder some Republicans are being so glib about the whole thing.
