Paul Disavows Newsletters, But In '95 Video He Seems To Claim Credit

By Debra Rosenberg

Published December 26, 2011 at 10:02 AM CST

Ron Paul's struggles to distance himself from some decades-old controversial newsletters got a bit tougher over the holiday weekend.

On Sunday, Buzzfeed posted a YouTube video of Paul seeming to take credit for the Ron Paul Survival Report.

Buzzfeed says the footage is from a 1995 interview filmed for students in the MBA program at University of New Mexico.

In the video, Paul does not address any of the newsletters' racist content, such as this passage Frank James posted on Friday courtesy of blogger ITALKYOUBORED:

"Boy, it sure burns me to have a national holiday for that pro-communist philanderer, Martin Luther King. I voted against this outrage time and time again as a Congressman. What an infamy that Ronald Reagan approved it! We can thank him for our annual Hate Whitey Day."

In recent days, Paul has disavowed the newsletters, saying he is not a racist and claiming that his libertarian views preclude him from seeing people in "collective groups."

Before storming out of a recent CNN interview with Gloria Borger, Paul said: "I didn't write them. I didn't read them at the time, and I disavow them."

But in the 1995 video, Paul seems to take credit for the Ron Paul Survival Report. He describes himself as a physician but says, "I also do an investment letter," and mentions the Report. "I put that out on a monthly basis," he adds, explaining that it is "a gold-oriented newsletter but it's also expressing concern about surviving in this age of big government where there's a lot of taxes, a lot of regulations and attacks on our personal liberties."

On Sunday, the New York Times also reported on Paul's support among "white supremicists, survivalists and anti-Zionists." Paul told the Times he "wouldn't be happy" getting volunteer help from volunteers with anti-Jewish or anti-black views. (Slate's Dave Weigel has written about this over the years too.)

Now the newly surfaced video footage isn't likely to help Paul's efforts to put the controversy behind him.