World News: OnPolitics Today: Alabama auditor compares Roy Moore allegations to Mary and Joseph

with Josh Hafner

OnPolitics Today: Alabama auditor compares Roy Moore allegations to Mary and Joseph

Former Alabama Chief Justice and U.S. Senate candidate

A bombshell report that four women accused Senate candidate Roy Moore of groping, kissing and pursuing them as teens has prompted a fallout as his fellow Republicans gauge how to respond.

The report, published Thursday in the Washington Post, identifies women who claim Moore asked them on dates while while he served as an assistant district attorney in his home state of Alabama in the 1970s and 1980s. Moore, a firebrand and religious conservative, called the report "completely false," blaming the Democratic Party.

Senate Republicans quickly distanced themselves. John McCain called the allegations "disqualifying." John Cornyn, a Moore backer, described them as "deeply disturbing." Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he "must step aside" if the allegations are true.

But the state auditor of Alabama's home state rushed to Moore's defense. And he invoked the mother of Jesus, Mary, and her husband, Joseph.

"There is nothing to see here," 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."

He later added: "Also take Joseph and Mary. Mary was a teenager and Joseph was an adult carpenter. They became parents of Jesus."

It's OnPolitics Today, the daily politics roundup from USA TODAY. Subscribe here.

A war with China? Some see a collision course

President Trump palled around this week with Chinese President Xi Jinping during his trip through Asia. And while Trump's discussed a looming threat of North Korea, some analysts see China's economic rise as the precursor to a military war . "China and the United States are currently on a collision course for war - unless both parties take difficult and painful actions to avert it," Harvard political scientist Graham Allison writes in his new book, "Destined for War," which compares China's rise to that of Athens in the ancient world, which he argues led to rising fear in Sparta - and inevitable war.

The latest on taxes: Senate GOP wants deep cuts on corporate rate

Senate GOP leaders on Thursday pushed out a tax plan that would slash the top corporate rate by a year, USA TODAY's Herb Jackson reports. It would also lower the top tax bracket while sparing some deductions and credits at risk for elimination. It's that corporate delay, though, that could spark conflict with House lawmakers as the two chambers look for compromise. Dive into the plan's details here.

Elsewhere in politics:

•	Rand Paul's neighbors still wonder: Why did neighbor break senator's ribs?
•	Air Force has interviewed 100 people since Texas church shooting
•	Liberal billionaire pledges $10 million toward Trump impeachment
•	Cellphones in prisons: Congress looks to stem flow