Ron Paul: Racist newsletters had 'some very bad sentences'

Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul on Sunday admitted that racist and homophobic newsletters published in his name called into question his management style, but insisted there were only eight offensive sentences.

"I wrote a lot of part of the letter," Paul told ABC's Jake Tapper. "And I've never said I didn't. I wrote some of the -- you know, the economic parts. I was not the editor. I was the publisher. And there were some very bad sentences put in. I did not write those. I did not review them."

"I think that people ought to, you know, look at my position there, rather than dwelling on eight sentences that I didn't write and didn't authorize and have been, you know, apologetic about, because it shouldn't have been there and it was terrible stuff," he added.

As Tapper observed, there are significantly more than eight offensive sentences in the newsletters. The New Republicrecently published about 30 excerpts that many would consider inflammatory.

"You published a for-profit newsletter under your own name for decades, didn't know it included extremely offensive statements," Tapper noted. "Assuming what you're saying is 100 percent true, you did not see these sentences, doesn't this call into question your management style?"

"Well, yeah, I think so," Paul agreed. "But nobody -- I don't think anybody in the world has been perfect on management, everybody that's ever worked for them. So, yes, it's a flaw. But I think it's a human flaw."

Tapper also asked Paul about a former staffer who claimed that the candidate had suggested President George W. Bush had known ahead of time about the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

"That's complete nonsense," an irritated Paul objected. "About the conspiracy of Bush -- of Bush knowing about this? No, no, come on. Come on. Let's be reasonable. That's just off the wall."

In a statement to Right Wing News last week, former senior aide Eric Dondero wrote that Paul shared the beliefs of some so-called 9/11 truthers.

"He engaged in conspiracy theories including perhaps the attacks were coordinated with the CIA, and that the Bush administration might have known about the attacks ahead of time," Dondero said.

Watch this video from ABC's This Week, uploaded Jan. 1, 2012.