But despite the controversy, Paul won the election and has remained in Congress since.
Newsletter Articles Railed Against Gays, Israeli Lobby and Dr. King
The controversial newsletters include rants against the Israeli lobby, gays, AIDS patients and the late civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. -- who was described as a "pro-Communist philanderer." The national holiday honoring what would have been Dr. King's 79th birthday will be observed next Monday.
The Rodney King case was the most notorious in a decades-long series of racially-charged incidents that poisoned relations between the Los Angeles Police Department and the city's African American community. The officers were later found guilty in federal court on charges of violating King's civil rights.
Another anonymously-written rant in the newsletter says, "The criminals who terrorize our cities -- in riots and on every non-riot day -- are not exclusively young black males, but they largely are. As children, they are trained to hate whites, to believe that white oppression is responsible for all black ills, to 'fight the power,' to steal and loot as much money from the white enemy as possible."
In his 1996 interview with the Morning News, Paul denied suggestions that he was a racist and said he was not evoking stereotypes when he wrote the columns. He told the newspaper they should be read and quoted in their entirety to avoid misrepresentation.
He did not deny writing that, "If you have ever been robbed by a black teenaged male, you know how unbelievably fleet of foot they can be." When asked what he meant by that, Paul responded, "If you try to catch someone that has stolen a purse from you, there is no chance to catch them," Paul told the newspaper.
Other Articles Make References to Paul's Texas Hometown
Other excerpts in the Ron Paul Political Report refer to Lake Jackson, Texas, where the candidate lives -- references that could lead readers to believe that the articles were written by Paul himself. In an October 1992 article, the newsletter describes "carjacking" -- literally hijacking cars, often at gunpoint, from motorists while the driver is behind the wheel -- as the "hip-hop thing to do among the urban youth who play unsuspecting whites like pianos."
The article goes on to offer advice from others on how to avoid being carjacked, including "an ex-cop I know," and says, "I frankly don't know what to make of such advice, but even in my little town of Lake Jackson, Texas, I've urged everyone in my family to know how to use a gun in self-defense, for the animals are coming."
In his interview with CNN, Paul insisted he would never use such language. "People who know me, nobody is going to believe this," he said. "That's just not my language. It's not my life. Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, [Mahatma] Ghandi -- they're the heroes [of my life]."
That CNN and The New Republic were able to obtain copies of the newsletter -- the title of which was changed in 1993 to the Ron Paul Survival Report -- is something of a coup. The newsletter, produced during the 12-year period in between Paul's two stints in Congress (from 1979 to 1985 and from 1997 to the present), had only about 7,000 subscribers, and Paul, not surprisingly, had steadfastly refused to make copies available to the media.
Indeed, so obscure was Paul's newsletter that a Lexis/Nexis search for the publication by the liberal-leaning opinion site Daily Kos -- which posted passages from the article on the L.A. riots far more incendiary than those quoted by CNN -- turned up nothing.
Paul Campaign Won't Return $500 Donation From White Supremacist
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