Some supporters of Republican politician Judge Roy Moore are so intent on getting him elected they appear willing to justify underage sex and potential statutory rape.

Mr Moore has denied claims in a Washington Post report that he molested Leigh Corfman when she was 14 years old.

Mr Moore, then 32, took her to his home in 1979, undressed her and “touched her over her bra and underpants … and guided her hand to touch him over his underwear”, the alleged victim told The Washington Post.

The age of consent in Alabama was and is 16.

Many Republicans denied the veracity of the allegations, but incredibly some appeared willing to support Judge Moore even if the allegations were proven:

• “Take Mary and Joseph. Mary was a teenager and Joseph was an adult carpenter. They became parents of Jesus,” Alabama State Auditor Jim Zeigler told The Washington Examiner. “There’s just nothing immoral or illegal here. Maybe just a little bit unusual.”

• “It was 40 years ago,” Alabama Marion County GOP chair David Hall told the Toronto Star. “I really don’t see the relevance of it. He was 32. She was supposedly 14. She’s not saying that anything happened other than they kissed.”

• “You can’t be a victim 40 years later, in my opinion,” State Representative Ed Henry told the Cullman Times.

• “Other than being with an underage person – he didn’t really force himself,” Alabama Geneva County GOP chairman Riley Seibenhener told the Toronto Star.

• Paul Reynolds, the Republican national committeeman from Alabama, told The Hill that if he had a choice between believing The Washington Post’s reporting and Russian President Vladimir Putin: “Putin wins every time.”

• “There is nothing to see here,” Alabama State Auditor Jim Ziegler told The Washington Examiner. “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.”

Mr Moore has publicly dismissed the story as “false and misleading” and questioned the timing of the allegations amid his political campaign, with the Alabama special general election scheduled for next month.

“To think grown women would wait 40 years before a general election to bring charges is unbelievable,” he said at a public library in Vestavia on Saturday.

Mr Moore’s campaign chair Bill Armistead blamed “fake news and intentional defamation”, discarding the Washington Post report as a “systematic campaign to distort the truth”.

“Judge Roy Moore is winning with a double-digit lead. So it is no surprise, with just over four weeks remaining, in a race for the US Senate with national implications, that the Democratic Party and the country’s most liberal newspaper would come up with a fabrication of this kind.”

Jerry Moore likened his brother Roy’s situation to “being persecuted like Jesus Christ was”, he told CNN.

US President Donald Trump declined to comment on the allegations of his fellow Republican, claiming he did not have time to watch television because he was too busy reading.

“I haven’t been able to devote very much time to it … Believe it or not, even when I’m in Washington or New York, I do not watch much television,” Mr Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.

“People that don’t know me, they like to say I watch television – people with fake sources. You know, fake reporters, fake sources.

“But I don’t get to watch much television. Primarily because of documents. I’m reading documents. A lot. I actually read much more than I watch television.”

Other Republicans have distanced themselves from Mr Moore since the Post‘s article ran on Thursday.

Look, I'm sorry, but even before these reports surfaced, Roy Moore's nomination was a bridge too far.

— Senator Bob Corker (@SenBobCorker) November 11, 2017

Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy said he withdrew his support “based on the allegations against Roy Moore, his response, and what is known”.

The National Republican Senate Committee withdrew a fundraising agreement with Mr Moore.

Some Party members explored ways to have Mr Moore’s name removed from the ballot and to push back the election from December 12 to early next year, according to The New York Times.

However, these moves proved unsuccessful with Governor Kay Ivey’s office releasing a statement on Saturday that there were “no plans” to change the election date.