Investigation Finds That Ron Paul Lied About Racist Newsletters

Your Black World reports:

Newsletters that were signed and distributed under the name of Libertarian candidate, Representative Ron Paul (R-Texas), have been wreaking havoc for his presidential bid — a bid that has suddenly gained momentum in the face of the crumbling GOP field.

In the newsletters, he claims that Black people in Watts are “animals,” and specifically, Black men in Washington D.C. are “criminals” or “semi- criminals,” among other objectionable rhetoric.

He has continued to adamantly deny all knowledge of the content of the newsletters to the press, blaming the bigoted material on his “lack of editorial oversight.” He walked off the set of a CNN interview after being questioned about them, saying angrily: “I didn’t write them. I disavow them. That’s it.”

Well, surprise, surprise…

When Paul was vying to reclaim his seat in Congress in 1996 against Lefty Morris, he had an entirely different explanation. In an exclusive expose, Huffington Post Black Voices has uncovered old newspaper clips where Paul makes it very  clear that the statements are, in fact, his own — they were merely “taken out of context.”

The Dallas Morning News — May 22, 1996:

Dr. Paul denied suggestions that he was a racist and said he was not evoking stereotypes when he wrote the columns. He said they should be read and quoted in their entirety to avoid misrepresentation.Dr. Paul also took exception to the comments of Mr. Bledsoe, saying that the voters in the 14th District and the people who know him best would be the final judges of his character.

“If someone challenges your character and takes the interpretation of the NAACP as proof of a man’s character, what kind of a world do you live in?” Dr. Paul asked.

In the interview, he did not deny he made the statement about the swiftness of black men.

“If you try to catch someone that has stolen a purse from you, there is no chance to catch them,” Dr. Paul said.

Austin American-Statesman — May 23, 1996

“Dr. Paul is being quoted out of context,” [Paul's spokesman, Michael] Sullivan said. “It’s like picking up ‘War and Peace’ and reading the fourth paragraph on page 481 and thinking you can understand what’s going on.”"You have to understand what he is writing. Democrats in Texas are trying to stir things up by using half quotes to impugn his character,” Sullivan said. “His writings are intellectual. He assumes people will do their own research, get their own statistics, think for themselves and make informed judgments.”

Austin American-Statesman — July 25, 1996

Morris distributed Paul’s article to reporters at a Capitol news conference. It was not the first time. Morris has been scrutinizing Paul’s writings and sharing his findings with reporters. In May, he released an article in which Paul described a majority of black men in Washington, D.C., as ”semi-criminal or entirely criminal.”Morris, a Bee Cave lawyer, once again called on Paul to release back copies of the newsletter he has published for more than a decade. Paul, a Surfside obstetrician, has refused.

He said he has written ”thousands of items” during the past 20 years and that releasing these materials would be impractical. Paul said releasing all those writings would be like asking Morris to ”provide documents for every lawsuit he has been involved in during his lengthy legal career.”

Paul was in the news yesterday responding to his unsettling support among neo-Nazis and other racists. While he rejected their views, he did not reject their support, saying: “They’re endorsing what I do or say, not vice versa. I’ll go to anybody I can convert … to look at liberty the way I do.”

Though African-Americans have continued to support Ron Paul, even defending his newsletters as “not as important” as his views on the “War on Drugs” and decreased military spending, it will be interesting to see how his fledgling support is affected by these revelations.