- Jon Stewart doesn't care about the truth.
It's all about, "Me, me, me, Jon Stewart.
"Look at me, I'm on TV."
- [Narrator] That's Rand Paul making fun of Jon Stewart,
who selflessly walked away from a career helming
one of the most critically acclaimed TV shows in history
to go help out 9/11 first responders.
Randal Howard Paul was born in 1963
in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
His dad is the three-time failed presidential candidate
Ron Paul.
His mom is Carol, who hasn't run for anything, yet.
In 1981, Rand attended Baylor University in Waco, Texas,
the largest Baptist university in the country.
He was part of a secret society on campus
known as the NoZe Brotherhood,
a satirical newsletter, like The Onion,
if The Onion was unfunny and racist.
In one newsletter, there's a joke about a chimpanzee
giving birth to a person of color.
In another piece, the newsletter claimed Latino culture
is taking over Anglo-Saxon values.
"First Mexican Food, then Mexican dresses,
"and now Latin lifestyle is overrunning the established
"Anglo-Saxon ideals."
Another NoZe Brotherhood joke seemingly got out of hand
when Rand was alleged to have kidnapped a woman
who he blindfolded,
tried to force her into taking bong hits,
and then took her to a creek
to worship it as the Aqua Buddha.
- [Interviewer] How did aqua get attached to Buddha
in these college pranks?
Because I find it hilarious.
It's like stuff we did at the Dartmouth Review.
I mean, it's just insane; I love it.
- [Rand] You know, I wish I had a great story about it,
but I don't really remember anything about this story.
- [Narrator] A member of the NoZe Brotherhood,
William John Green, recalls,
"Randy smoked pot, he made fun of Baptists,
"none of us ever heard him pontificating about religion."
Rand left Baylor before graduating.
He went on to Duke Medical School,
where he got an MD in 1988.
After finishing his residency in 1993,
he started his own practice, specializing in eye surgery.
- As an eye surgeon,
what's your take on Donald Trump.
(audience laughing)
- You know, Larry... (sighing)
Have you ever had a speck of dirt fly into your eye?
- [Narrator] All the while, Rand was dipping in and out of
his father's libertarian-centric
and anti-establishment campaigns.
In 1996, Rand helped steer his father to winning an election
in Texas's 14th Congressional District
after what should've been career-ending news broke.
Four years earlier, the elder Paul wrote and sold
an explicitly racist newsletter,
which was dug up in the campaign.
One entry said, "We are constantly told
"that it is evil to be afraid of black men.
"It is hardly irrational.
"Black men commit murders, rapes, robberies, muggings,
"and burglaries all out of proportion to their numbers."
Despite the open bigotry
and with the help of Rand's electioneering efforts, Ron won.
Later, Rand helped his dad
when he decided to run for president in 2008.
Ron didn't win, but Rand gained enough notoriety
to slither into the spotlight.
And in 2009, Rand Paul decided to run for US Senate.
But if he wanted to win,
he'd need help from some of the best
and most trustworthy news sources,
like famed radio screamer--
(screaming)
Alex Jones.
- What can they do today
to make sure you make that right decision
and run for Senate outta Kentucky?
- [Rand] Well, I told you earlier, Alex,
the last time I was on your show,
your listeners shut down my website 'cause they overdid it.
We had to buy bigger servers.
- [Narrator] Rand seemingly gained enough support
from the InfoWars crowd
to win the vacant Kentucky Senate seat.
Even after winning, he popped up on InfoWars.
- So, Senator, are you there?
- [Rand] I am, Alex, thanks for having me.
- [Narrator] While Alex Jones would go on to claim
the Sandy Hook Massacre was a total hoax,
Rand went on to question whether or not
he would've voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Paul took an issue with Title II of the act,
which prohibits discrimination based on race, color,
or religion in public places like restaurants.
Paul seemingly would've tweaked that section
to continue allowing private businesses
to post 'Blacks not served here' signs.
- What about freedom of speech?
Should we limit speech from people we find abhorrent?
Should we limit racists from speaking?
- [Narrator] Paul, a self-described libertarian,
holds some views the left would possibly support.
He's fairly lax on marijuana issues
and believes you shouldn't be locked up for possessing it.
It's unclear if the alleged kidnapping
he may have committed in college,
where he later attempted to make the victim take bong hits,
influenced this policy decision.
What is clear is that he has a good record
on criminal justice issues,
like pushing to restore voting rights to felons
and working to expunge nonviolent felonies
from criminal records.
But that's about where his aisle-reaching ends.
He also spews a ton of positions the left abhors.
In the Senate, Rand has consistently voted against
gun control measures.
Perhaps most notably, he voted no
on banning high-capacity magazines of over 10 bullets.
- I don't mind making other people uncomfortable
if it's in the defense of liberty.
- [Narrator] He's voted to defund Planned Parenthood
and believes the science behind the climate crisis
is not conclusive.
- Somebody tell me what 100 years' data is
in an Earth that's 4.6 billion years old.
My guess is that the conclusions that you make from that
are not conclusive.
- [Narrator] Bizarrely, in 2013, Rand spoke in support
of Virginia gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli.
Rachel Maddow pointed out
that Rand had plagiarized part of his speech from Wikipedia.
"What'd he plagiarize," you ask?
Wikipedia's page on the 1997 sci-fi movie Gattaca,
starring Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke.
- In the movie Gattaca, in the not-too-distant future--"
- [Narrator] But copy-and-pasting a sci-fi movie Wiki entry
to argue what could've happened
if you supported pro-choice policies
didn't seem to slow Rand down,
because in 2016, he ran for president,
where he was slowed down by a former steak salesman.
- His visceral response to attack people
on their appearance, short, tall, fat, ugly,
my goodness, that happened in junior high.
- I never attacked him on his look.
And believe me,
there's plenty of subject matter right there.
- [Narrator] Rand, of course, didn't win.
He went back to the Senate,
where he somehow went from a never-Trumper--
- Donald Trump is a delusional narcissist
and an orange-faced windbag--
- [Narrator] To a Trump lapdog.
- I consider President Trump a friend.
I support him often and continue to defend him
against the ongoing witch hunts
that the Democrats have launched.
- [Narrator] Surprisingly, what Rand is most famous for
isn't his newfound love for Trump
nor the very classy Beats by Dre headphone skins
he sold on his campaign website.
Rand is known for blocking
the 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund,
which was a bill that guaranteed 9/11 first responders
who faced health problems after the attacks
compensation for their economic losses and medical costs.
- But until then, I will object.
- [Narrator] The bill eventually passed 97-2.
Mike Lee and Rand Paul were the only two
some may describe as spineless senators
who voted in opposition.
Rand pointed to the national debt as his reasoning.
"It has long been my feeling
"that we need to address our massive debt in this country."
Rand's sudden and extremely abrupt shift
to what Jon Stewart calls
fiscal responsibility virtue signaling is interesting
considering that just two years prior,
Rand voted for the Senate tax bill,
a massive tax cut for the richest families
and the biggest corporations.
His vote for this tax cut
will add over $1 trillion to the deficit.
Vanity Fair points out,
"Apparently, when it comes to making exceptions
"to his faux principles,
"9/11 victims dying of cancer don't make the cut."
Paul isn't up for reelection until 2023,
and it's unclear what decisions he'll make from here,
but there's one he'll have to live with forever.
- Politics is sometimes the art of removing your soul,
and they remove people's ability to do the right thing
for causes that have nothing to do with
what the needs are of the people,
and they do it really well.
(light upbeat violin music)