Ron Paul's spokesman says the congressman never wrote a 1993 direct mailer bearing his signature that warns of a "coming race war." He only signed it, he says. Spokesman Jesse Benton told Talking Points Memo in an email on Friday that Paul "did not write that mail piece and disavows its content." But prior to that Paul's Iowa chair Drew Ivers told them that Paul took "responsibility" for the mailer but did not share the extreme views contained in it (Hey, it's just the free market! Paul's newsletter company was just supplying what his subscribers demanded!) But Benton also disavowed that statement: “Drew Ivers is a great guy and leader, but he was not speaking on behalf of the campaign and is not acquainted enough with the issue to have the facts.”  Paul himself hasn't actually come out and said anything about the mailing, which was a pitch for people to subscribe to his newsletters. He walked off a CNN interview asking him about the newsletters themselves earlier this week. As The Atlantic Wire's Elspeth Reeve pointed out earlier in the day, that spotlight shining on Paul's head has begun to cast a bit of heat. 

Update (5:51 p.m. EST): Paul appeared on Fox News on Friday and told Neil Cavuto, "I don't think anybody calls me racist. I think the charge, which could be a correct charge, is that I was pretty negligent as a publisher." Check out the video. The quote is at about 3:35.

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Adam Martin