Ron Paul has fired back over a scathing report written by former staffer Eric Dondero for the website RightWingNews.com. In the report Dondero calls the GOP presidential hopeful “intolerant” of Spanish speakers, anti-Israel and anti-Israeli, personally uncomfortable around homosexuals, and “out of touch” with black and Hispanic culture, among various other claims.
Responding to the column was Jesse Benton who said in an email:
“Eric Dondero is a disgruntled former staffer who was fired for performance issues,” while adding, “He has zero credibility and should not be taken seriously.”
The scathing column comes after 20 year old racist newsletters containing Ron Paul’s signature caused him to walk away from a CNN interview.
In his column Dondero writes that he is attempt to “set the record straight.” In the column he says:
“Is Ron Paul a ‘racist.’ In short, No. I worked for the man for 12 years, pretty consistently. I never heard a racist word expressed towards Blacks or Jews come out of his mouth.”
However goes on to note:
“Is Ron Paul an Anti-Semite? Absolutely No. As a Jew, (half on my mother’s side), I can categorically say that I never heard anything out of his mouth, in hundreds of speeches I listened too over the years, or in my personal presence that could be called, ‘Anti-Semite.’ No slurs. No derogatory remarks.”
Then his column turns negative when the topic of Israel comes up to which he says Paul is:
“Most certainly Anti-Israel, and Anti-Israeli in general. He wishes the Israeli state did not exist at all. He expressed this to me numerous times in our private conversations.”
The column then tells the story of how Ron Paul refused to use the bathroom at a gay man’s house and instead opted to stop at a nearby fast food chain. Although Dondero does state that Paul supports gay rights:
“He is not all bigoted towards homosexuals,” and “He supports their rights to do whatever they please in their private lives. He is however, personally uncomfortable around homosexuals, no different from a lot of older folks of his era.”
Dondero also claims that Paul is not necessarily racist but rather “out of touch” with Hispanic and Black cultures.
Dondero worked for Paul from the 1980s when he served as a campaign operative until the late 1990s when he then became a congressional aide until quitting in 2003.
Ron Paul has been attacked in the past by former employees including a disgruntled former staff who in 2007 called him “looney-tunes.”
In response to the column Paul told the New York Times on Monday that he wouldn’t “be happy” if anti-Jewish or anti-Black people working on his behalf but he also said he would not disavow their support. Paul told the times:
“If they want to endorse me, they’re endorsing what I do or say — it has nothing to do with endorsing what they say.”
The Times points out that most extremist groups including “white supremacists, survivalists and anti-Zionists” have rallied around Ron Paul, while many of his closest political allies have willingly and sometimes unwittingly courted disaffected white voters and their extremist views towards gays, blacks and other minority groups.
Do you think Ron Paul is a racist or an “assumed racist” by association?
There is one thing we know Ron Paul is a fan of, unpasteurized milk:
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