Ron Paul Tweets Racist Cartoon, Blames Staffer In Latest Deflection Of Bigoted Remarks Attributed To Libertarian Hero
STUDIO CITY (CBSLA) — Former Texas congressman and perennial libertarian darling Ron Paul has apologized for a racist photo sent out from his official Twitter account.
"Earlier today a staff member inadvertently posted an offensive cartoon on my social media. I do not make my own social media posts and when I discovered the mistake it was immediately deleted," Ron Paul tweeted after the original photo was deleted.
However, this being Twitter, the cartoon showing racist depictions of Jewish, Asian, Latino and Black persons punching Uncle Sam was immediately captured for posterity. An internet archive site also captured the original tweet, which included the following caption:
"Are you stunned by what has become of American culture? Well, it's not an accident. You've probably heard of 'Cultural Marxism,' but do you know what it means?'"
Paul claimed the photo was tweeted by a staffer, and it's not the first occasion in which the three-time presidential candidate has passed on the blame of racism attributed to him to another person, a person who would ostensibly still be in some contact with him.
In 2011, Paul addressed racist editorials published in his monthly newsletters distributed during the 80s and 90s.
In one such article titled "Special Issue on Racial Terrorism" about the 1992 riots in Los Angeles, the unnamed writer says, "Order was only restored in L.A. when it came time for the blacks to pick up their welfare checks," CNN reported in 2011.
The same report includes a quote from a 1990 newsletter referencing Ronald Reagan's approval of legislation declaring Martin Luther King, Jr. Day a national holiday that read, "We can thank for our annual Hate Whitey Day."
Asked by CNN's Wolf Blitzer how the racist articles made it into his publications, Paul deflected, stating,
"I have no idea. Have you ever heard of a publisher of a magazine not knowing every single thing? The editor is responsible for the daily activities, and people come and go, and there were some people that were hired — I don't know any of their names. I do not, absolutely honestly do not know who wrote those things."
In the same interview, Paul went on to say that, because of his busy schedule as a physician and orator, he didn't always read his own newsletters.
One comment he did not deny saying was, "Given the inefficiencies of what D.C. calls the criminal justice system, I think we can safely assume that 95 percent of black males in that city are semi-criminal or entirely criminal."
Paul has repeatedly denied being a racist, saying that Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr. were his heroes "because they practiced the libertarian principle of civil disobedience, nonviolence," The Washington Post reported.
The New Republic pointed to homophobic remarks about the "homosexual lobby" in his newsletters, including one that condemned George H.W. Bush signing a hate crimes bill.
"Homosexuals, not to speak of the rest of society, were far better off when social pressure forced them to hide their activities," the newsletter read.
For a person attempting to disavow the tweet, he seemed to double down on the original intent, tweeting the same caption about "Cultural Marxism" accompanied by the phrase "POLITICAL CORRECTNESS" crossed out in red.
