(Image Source: Business Insider)

BY CHRISTINA HARTMAN

The words themselves -- are shocking. But who wrote them?

Iowa frontrunner Ron Paul is fending off questions about writings that appeared in a newsletter bearing his name and circulated in the late 80s and early 90s.

Here’s KTBC with more.

“Here's one snippet that went out in a letter after the Los Angeles riots. It said quote: ‘Order was only restored in L.A. When it came time for the blacks to pick up their welfare checks.’ Another poked fun at the justice system in Washington, D.C., saying, quote: ‘I think we can safely assume that 95 percent of the black males in that city are semi-criminal or entirely criminal.’”

The contents aren’t new -- in fact, they were hashed out pretty extensively during the last presidential election cycle.

But when CNN’s Gloria Borger brought them back up Wednesday, the congressman cut the interview short.

BORGER: “Is it a legitimate question?”
PAUL: "Yeah and when you get the answer, it's legitimate that you sort of take the answers I gave. You know what the answer is? I didn't write them, didn't read them at the time, and I disavow them. This is the answer.”
BORGER: “It’s legitimate, it’s legitimate. This stuff is incendiary.” …
PAUL: “Goodbye.”
BORGER: “Alright. Alright.”

The newsletters bore titles like “The Ron Paul Political Report” and “Ron Paul’s Freedom Project” -- and it appears -- Paul’s been fielding questions about their content for more than a decade. In 1996, the Dallas Morning News reported the congressman had written the letters, and asked him about them -- specifically one that called black teenagers quote “unbelievably fleet of foot.”

“Dr. Paul … 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. … 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’...”


Yet -- at least since 2008 -- Paul staffers and the candidate himself have been saying he didn’t write the newsletters. But to The Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart, it doesn’t matter who put pen to paper.

“...Paul literally attached his name to newsletters that published vile, racist statements about African Americans. … The Republican Party has a serious problem. … Previous flavors-of-the-month — Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry and Herman Cain — had no business running for president, given their disqualifying baggage. Now we can add Paul to the list.”

But The Atlantic’s Michael Dougherty is willing to cut Paul some slack. Just a little.

“The newsletters don't ‘sound’ like Ron Paul -- he doesn't do wordplay ... or use prefixes... Further, most newsletter and direct-mail operations in politics employ ghostwriters. … But the questions remain. If Ron Paul is so libertarian that he won't even police people who use his name, if his movement is filled with incompetents and opportunists, then what kind of a president would he make?”