Ron Paul was a hot topic this week on the talk radio show hosted by prominent white supremacist Don Black and his son Derek. Mr. Black said he received Mr. Paul’s controversial newsletters when they were first published about two decades ago and described how the publications were perceived by members of the white supremacist movement. Former KKK Grand Wizard and Louisiana Congressman David Duke also phoned in to explain why he’s voting for Mr. Paul.
“Everybody, all of us back in the 80’s and 90’s, felt Ron Paul was, you know, unusual in that he had actually been a Congressman, that he was one of us and now, of course, that he has this broad demographic–broad base of support,” Mr. Black said on his broadcast yesterday.
Mr. Black is a former Klansman and member of the American Nazi Party who founded the “white nationalist” website Stormfront in 1995. He donated to Mr. Paul in 2007 and has been photographed with the candidate. Mr. Paul has vocal supporters in Stormfront’s online forum. Mr. Black has repeatedly said he doesn’t currently think Mr. Paul is a “white nationalist.”
Mr. Paul’s newsletters contained threats of a “coming race war,” worries about America’s “disappearing white majority and warning against “the federal-homosexual cover-up on AIDS.” He has since denied writing the newsletters, which appeared under his own name.
“I didn’t write them, I disavow them, that’s it,” Mr. Paul said in a tense CNN interview.
On Monday, Mr. Black said he originally believed the newsletters were written by Mr. Paul.
“They went out under his name in the first person and most people receiving these newsletters, including me, thought he really did write them,” Mr. Black said.
Mr. Black said he understood why Mr. Paul would want to distance himself from the newsletters.
“It was written in the first person frequently and, you know, a normal person would have thought that Ron Paul must have written this, or at least whoever wrote it must have did so with the approval of Ron Paul, but things change,” Mr. Black said. “So, now that he has this new base of support of course, he’s having–frantically trying to disavow himself from the newsletters, and I agree the newsletters were a little over the top.”
Mr. Duke, who was something of a mentor to Mr. Black during their days in the Klan, called in to discuss Mr. Paul. Though he said he wasn’t ready to make an official endorsement, Mr. Duke explained why he’ll be voting for Mr. Paul.
“Again, I go back to that, you know, traditional topic that I always talk about, you know, the powers of international Zionism–a power in banking, a power in media, a power in government influence, in campaign finance–a power that’s, you know, hurting the values of this country on behalf of Israel,” Mr. Duke said. “So, I would vote for Ron Paul at this moment because he’s one of the few candidates who have policies in this regard and this realm that I wholeheartedly support, and that’s why I’d vote for him.”
Mr. Paul’s anti-Federal Reserve, small government platform appeals to many on the far right. In the wake of the controversy over the newsletters, he’s increasingly faced questions about his white supremacist supporters, but he has declined to disavow their backing.
“If they want to endorse me, they’re endorsing what I do or say — it has nothing to do with endorsing what they say,” Mr. Paul told the New York Times on Sunday.