Ad for Paul newsletter warns of ‘race war’

Concerns over a series of newsletters published by Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul deepened Thursday evening as a direct-mail solicitation for the newsletters warning of a “coming race war in our big cities” and a “federal-homosexual cover-up” of the AIDS epidemic was revealed.

The eight-page letter, which asks recipients to subscribe to the Ron Paul investment Letter and the Ron Paul Political Report, also suggests that a redesign of federal currency was intended to allow the government to “keep track of” American citizens via “chemical alarms” that “will set off federal cash-detection machines at airports.”

The letter, written around 1993, goes on to warn that the Federal Emergency Management Agency would attempt to “suspend the Constitution” in a falsely declared national emergency and says it will expose “the Israel lobby, which plays Congress like a cheap harmonica.”

{mosads} The revelation of the solicitation came as the Paul campaign has been struggling to explain the contents of the newsletters, published in the 1980s and 1990s, some of which include some openly racist sentiments.

Paul has maintained that he was unaware of and did not write the articles in the newsletter itself, which did not carry a byline.

“I didn’t write them, I didn’t read them at the time, and I disavow them. That is the answer,” Paul said.

But that explanation is drawn into question by the solicitation, which appeared to carry Paul’s signature and be written in the congressman’s voice. 

The ad was first discovered by a contributing editor for the New Republic and provided to Reuters, and can be viewed below.

On Wednesday, Paul stormed off a contentious CNN interview where he was pressed about the contents of the newsletters, published under his name.

The newsletters, mainly a forum for essays on Paul’s brand of libertarianism, once referred to Martin Luther King Jr. as “the world-class philanderer who beat up his paramours” and who “seduced underage girls and boys.”

In another article, the author writes that “given the inefficiencies of what DC laughingly calls the criminal justice system, I think we can safely assume that 95 percent of the black males in that city are semi-criminal or entirely criminal.” 

Paul has insisted that the newsletter issue is settled.

“It’s been going on 20 years that I’ve been pestered about this and CNN does it every time,” Paul said on CNN. “When are you going to wear yourself out?”

But the latest revelations could seriously harm Paul’s chances in the Iowa caucuses, where he is the current frontrunner. An Insider Advantage poll released earlier this week showed Paul with 24 percent of likely caucusgoers, edging Mitt Romney with 18 percent and Newt Gingrich with 13 percent.