Everybody knows that there were Ron Paul newsletters published with racist articles in them. Everybody who knows Ron Paul (even his political enemies) are sure he didn’t write them; he says as much, has taken moral responsibility for his lack of oversight, and regrets the content.
A fair question to ask, though, is how much racist content was there in these newsletters? It’s often said that “surely he must’ve read his own newsletters.” Reporter Ben Swann at WXIX has compiled the data and concluded that racist content appeared in nine newsletters over a twenty year period. Here’s what it looks like visually:
So, how do Ron Paul’s claims hold up? Do his claims that articles were often written by freelance writers seem reasonable? How about his claims that he sometimes was too busy to read the newsletters while running his medical practice? Could he have read most of his newsletters but still missed these?