Unfairly Edited? Full CNN Video Shows Ron Paul May Not Have Walked Off Interview as Suggested

Uncut footage shows Republican presidential hopeful Ron Paul may not have walked off a CNN interview this week in quite the manner originally suggested.

Paul has been caught in a media storm over incendiary racial statements mailed out under his name in the late 1980s and early 1990s. When asked about the content of the newsletters in an interview with CNN's Gloria Borger Wednesday, a testy Paul pulled off his microphone and walked away. The issue was compounded by reports that the Texas congressman knew about some of the more inflammatory remarks as early as 1996, despite telling Borger he only became aware of them 10 years after the fact.

In the original interview broadcast on CNN, Borger asked Paul whether he ever read the content of the newsletters and if he objected to any of it.

"Not all the time, on occasion, we talked about this twice," Paul replied. "I didn't write 'em, I disavow 'em, that's it."

Borger then asked Paul about reports he had made $1 million dollars off of the newsletters in 1993. Paul said he was still practicing medicine at the time and said, "I'd like to see that money."

There was a cut, then Borger asked, "So, you read them but you didn't do anything about it at the time?"

Paul, getting agitated, responded, "I never read that stuff...I was probably aware of it 10 years after it was written and it's been going on 20 years that people have pestered me about this and CNN does every single time."

Borger tried again, asking Paul whether he thought the questions were legitimate.

“When you get the answer, it’s legitimate that you take the answers I give," Paul said. "I didn't write them, I didn't read them at the time and I disavow them. That is the answer."

Borger continued to ask him about it and there was another cut, at which point Paul unbuttoned his jacket and reached for the microphone, ending the interview.

But in the uncut version released on CNN's website, talk of the newsletters comes at the end of the eight-minute interview, and Paul's departure appears much less abrupt. In between the cuts in the originally broadcast interview, Borger continues to ask the same questions about whether Paul made money off the newsletters, and when he moves to take his microphone off, it seems the interview had been coming to a close anyway.

Watch the original broadcast version, via Mediaite. Paul's remarks begin at the 1:20 mark.

Now watch the full interview below, via CNN. Questions about the newsletters begin at the 5:30 mark.

Paul supporters have seized on the new footage, calling CNN's original broadcast "a creative editing hit job."

Does this uncut video change your opinion of the original interview? Take our poll below:

(h/t Mediaite)