An aide to Kentucky Senator Rand Paul is coming under fire for his political views on race relations and more.
According to a report in The Washington Free Beacon, Jack Hunter, who co-authored Paul's first book and now serves in his Washington office, worked as a radio personality in South Carolina in the '90's using the name "The Southern Avenger". In that capacity, he expressed sympathy for President Lincoln's assassin, John Wilkes Booth, said slavery was not the cause of the Civil War, bashed Hispanic immigrants, and advocated secession for South Carolina.
He did repudiate some of his more controversial statements in the Free Beacon story, saying it was his job back in his radio days to "provoke and inflame", but that he now abhors racism and advocates equal protection under the law for all people. The story notes he did not rule out his support for secession.
A spokeswoman for Sen. Paul said their policy is for all employees to treat individuals with the equal protection of the law and they've found no evidence that Hunter violated that policy.
Hunter also claims Sen. Paul is "simply pretending to be more moderate" than his father, former Congressman and presidential candidate Ron Paul.
Hunter said Rand Paul is "willing to play the game" on foreign policy in order to seem more mainstream than his father who advocated strict non-intervention.
