Incendiary newsletters resurface for Ron Paul campaign

Presidential candidate Ron Paul’s newsletters of the 1990s contain inflammatory, bigoted statements against blacks, Jews and gays, according to a series of reports published as the libertarian leader rises in Iowa polling.

Paul, according to a report in The New Republic, “published a series of newsletters that dispensed political news and investment advice, but also routinely indulged in bigotry.”

TNR’s report includes links to a number of Paul’s newsletters, including a November 1990 issue that contained favorable words for David Duke, a February 1991 newsletter that attacks the “X-rated Martin Luther King,” a September 1994 newsletter that claimed “those who don’t commit sodomy, who don’t get blood a transfusion, and who don’t swap needles, are virtually assured of not getting AIDS unless they are deliberately infected by a malicious gay,” and many more.

Bylines are lacking on the reports, but Paul is listed as an editor, according to the TNR.

Paul repeatedly has tried to distance himself from the newsletters and their content over the last decade, including in 2008, when Paul also ran for the GOP presidential nomination.

Recently, Paul told ABC and CNN that others employed at Ron Paul & Associates wrote the material while he was busy with other work.

Editor’s note: Want to read more on this subject? We recommend this story on the NYT site.