Sources close to Texas Rep. Ron Paul in the 1990s have confirmed that the controversial survivalist newsletters which went out under his name but which he disavows were personally approved by Paul according to three sources with "direct knowledge of Paul’s business."
The provocative and racially-charged pamphlets that were sent to subscribers in the 1990s, and were produced by Ron Paul & Associates, include damaging misinformation about AIDS patients, black youths, Jews and homosexuals that are explicitly stoking racial animus and which generated millions in revenues for Paul’s firm.
Paul has repeatedly denied that he authored or even reviewed the newsletters, although he has not denied that he profited from them. On Friday, however, a Washington Post story that quotes several sources who worked with Paul in that period say that Paul read and approved every pamphlet that went out under his name.
Renae Hathaway, Paul’s former secretary and a supporter of Paul’s presidential campaign, told the Post, “It was his newsletter, and it was under his name, so he always got to see the final product. . . . He would proof it.’’
Another anonymous source who claims to have been close to Paul in this period said that the Texas libertarian was only practicing good business sense and capturing the attention of a captive market. “It [the newsletters] was playing on a growing racial tension, economic tension, fear of government,’’ the source said. “I’m not saying Ron believed this stuff. It was good copy. Ron Paul is a shrewd businessman.’’
The newsletters informed their readers that “homosexuals, not to speak of the rest of society, were far better off when social pressure forced them to hide their activities,” and that the 1992 Los Angeles riots only ended “when it came time for the blacks to pick up their welfare checks.’’
Those Paul supporters who do not think that these newsletters represent an electoral liability in the miraculous event that Dr. Paul ascends to the nomination to face President Obama in the general are well and truly delusional. So much so, that I doubt even a physician like Paul would be able to diagnose it.
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