New Republic Writer: Ron Paul Called MLK a "Gay Pedophile"
Matt Welch | January 7, 2008, 7:33pm
On Tucker Carlson's show 45 minutes ago, The New Republic's Jamie Kirchick alleged that Ron Paul called Martin Luther King a "gay pedophile," and stuffed 20 years' worth of "Ron Paul" newsletters full of "racist, anti-semitic, homophobic invective."
Kirchick, whose story for TNR (along with screen-shots of the newsletters themselves) are scheduled to go up at midnight EDT "tomorrow afternoon," said that Paul "called black people animals," and spoke at a "pro-secessionist conference." In teeing up the segment, Carlson, who was skeptical about some of Kirchick's claims, reported that the Paul campaign has apologized for the content of the newsletters to both Kirchick and Carlson.
More to come from here after the gong strikes midnight.
reason on Paul here. Dave Weigel talked about Paul's newsletter racism back in July. Nick Gillespie and I tried to make sense of the rEVOLution for the Washington Post late last year. Brian Doherty covered the Paul campaign from the beginning, asked if Paul was good for libertarians in July, and wrote our current cover story.
UPDATE: Video here.
Max Engel | January 7, 2008, 8:28pm | #
Call for a retraction of these false allegations
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Jeff Winchell | January 7, 2008, 9:40pm | #
This is so absurd. Look at someone's values, and then decide whether a story has merit. Frankly, after spending so much time with Ron Paul, Tucker should have had more skepticism.
Ron Paul doesn't want to force people to do things.
That's a core value of his.
He applies it so thoroughly, that if someone says something racist, it doesn't matter whether the person donated money to him, or whether the person wrote some articles in a publication that he is associated with. He believes in free speech, FAR MORE than the Republican demagogues.
Tactically speaking, I thought his answer about the racist donating $500 to his campaign was perfect. He said that's $500 less that racist doesn't have to spend on something useful, because Paul said he has no intention on spreading a racist message (just go look at his home page, racism is one of menu items on his main menu of issues).
As for apologizing, yes I'm sure Paul doesn't like some of the stuff other people wrote in that publication he put his name to. He also has no desire to ever gamble or go see a prostitute, but he isn't going to turn gamblers or Nevada brothels away from supporting his campaign.
He's a libertarian. Let people do what they want as long as they don't interfere with other people doing what they want.
As Paul continues to get more donations, and better poll numbers, expect more outrageous comments to come out in the media. And if it's like most media, they won't bother to dig in deeply to understand what it's about.
OTOH, when someone from the media does ask Paul and they have the patience to listen. Invariably there is a logical explanation to the controversy.
But you can't have the attention span of a 2 year old if you want to support Paul.
Fin Fang Foom | January 7, 2008, 9:55pm | #
> Mr. X | January 7, 2008, 9:28pm | #
> You know, as a response to an attack alleging > that Ron Paul is racist, claiming that "The
> New Republic is owned by Zionists in bed with > Fox" is a pretty weak argument.
If you were directing this towards my comment, one should note I didn't say that TNR is "owned by Zionists."
However, some people who strongly support Israeli policy vis-a-vis the Palestinians view anyone who is against foreign aid to Israel as anti-Semites.
Note that "some people who strongly support Israeli policy vis-a-vis the Palestinians view anyone who is against foreign aid to Israel as anti-Semites" is not code for "Jews," rather it means "some people who strongly support Israeli policy vis-a-vis the Palestinians view anyone who is against foreign aid to Israel as anti-Semites."
Also, this is obviously a total hatchet job. Even if the article and newsletters reveal that Ron Paul is a frothing Nazi, why is it coming out now? At the beginning of the day of the NH primary? 20 years of analog newsletters seems like a bit much to review such that the proper time for publishing them would be at midnight.
My conspiracy theory is: TNR desperately wants to make sure that someone who supports the war wins the election. This could be HRC or all the Republicans but Paul. If HRC drops out soon, then Paul's criticisms of the war, despite the fact that he no chance of winning, would help to weaken the Republican field in the general election.