The Absurd Attack on Rand Paul via Association with Judge Napolitano

The leftist website Media Matters has published a hit piece on Kentucky GOP Senator Rand Paul. In the article they attempt to smear Senator Paul by exposing his relationship with Fox News Contributor and former New Jersey Superior Court Judge Andrew Napolitano.

Senator Paul wrote the foreword for Judge Napolitano’s new book, Suicide Pact: The Radical Expansion of Presidential Powers and the Assault on Civil Liberties. Media Matters claims that Napolitano is dangerous because he is a “9/11 Truther” and Confederate apologist. By smearing Napolitano, they’re trying to tarnish Paul.

But there is one problem: the claims against Napolitano are mostly nonsense.    

Here at Lions of Liberty we haven’t held back from criticizing Senator Paul when he has strayed from libertarian principles, which he does with increasing frequency. There’s nothing wrong with criticizing a politician, but it should be done based on their policy and character, not by manufacturing controversies.

Let’s review the claims against Napolitano and by association Paul, which links them both to the 9-11 Truther movement because of their individual appearances on the radio show of “conspiracy theorist” Alex Jones.

From the Media Maters article:

Before his election in 2010, Sen. Paul was a frequent guest on The Alex Jones Show, which also helped him raise money for his campaign. Jones is one of the leaders of the “9-11 truth” movement, which contends that the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon were an “inside job” orchestrated by the U.S. government.

Jones was also a big supporter of Ron Paul’s (Rand’s father) political career. Following an interview with Ron Paul in 2013, Jones told viewers that had known Rand Paul for more than fifteen years and predicted that “he’ll probably end up being president if we turn this country around.”

Napolitano has made numerous appearances on Jones’ show. During a 2010 interview, Napolitano told Jones, “It’s hard for me to believe that [World Trade Center building 7] came down by itself,” adding, “I think twenty years from now, people will look at 9-11 the way we look at the assassination of JFK today. It couldn’t possibly have been done the way the government told us.” After his appearance, families of 9-11 victims criticized Napolitano for being “willfully ignorant of the facts surrounding the collapse of WTC 7.”

In the eyes of the leftist media, appearing on the Alex Jones Show is tantamount to endorsing everything the guys says. It is interesting that they only apply this guilt by association metric to appearances on the Alex Jones Show and don’t mention the hundreds of other shows both Paul and Napolitano appeared.

According to the author of the smear, Rand Paul should be held accountable for all of the people who contribute to his campaign, especially Alex Jones. But the rest of Congress doesn’t need to abide by this rule. This discussion and link to Jones is a distraction and waste of time.

Let’s move on to Napolitano’s comments regarding 9-11. He’s being called a “truther” for his skepticism surrounding the official story put forth by the government on the fall of WTC building 7 and his view that the government is hiding facts surrounding 9-11.

If you aren’t skeptical about WTC building 7, then you probably haven’t watched the video of the collapse. It looks exactly like a controlled demolition. I’m not claiming it was a controlled demolition, but it is pretty easy to understand why people are skeptical.

If not believing the official 9-11 government story makes someone a “truther”, then a good portion of American citizens are probably “truthers.” Especially when taking into consideration Rep. Thomas Massie’s statement in July of this year where he called for the declassification of 9/11 documents. Massie said,

“…I went into the soundproof, you know, secret room here in Congress and read those 28 pages. And it was a really disturbing event for me to read those. I had to stop every two or three pages and rearrange my perception of history. And it’s that fundamental — those 28 pages…”

Either Thomas Massie is a liar, or the government is hiding details about 9-11 that would drastically change our perception of history. I’m going with the latter, which would place me in the same camp as Napolitano and probably the majority of the American public.

The article continued the smear campaign by implying that Judge Andrew Napolitano is a racist because he does not kneel at the temple of Lincoln. More from Media Matters:

In a 2014 appearance on Fox Business’ The Independents, Napolitano said he is a “contrarian” on Lincoln’s legacy and “bemoan[ed] the fact” that the president has been “mythologized.” He attacked “the public school establishment” who “would have you believe he is the fourth member of the blessed trinity.”

Napolitano accused Lincoln of having “set about on the most murderous war in American history” over slavery rather than “allowing it to die” because it “was dying a natural death.” He also argued that Lincoln possibly could have purchased slaves and then freed them, “which would have cost a lot less money than the Civil War cost.”

Almost everything Napolitano says here I agree with, except the part where he claims Lincoln should have bought the slaves and that slavery was going to “die” on its own. But I can agree with Napolitano that the method Lincoln used to “free” the slaves, a murderous war, was completely unnecessary. The slaves could have been freed, without completely decimating the south and killing thousands of innocent people. If you’re interesting in hearing why Lincoln is a tyrant and an enemy of individual liberty check out one of my most read articles, Exposing Lincoln As A Tyrant Is Not Tantamount To Supporting The Confederacy.

This Media Matters article is nothing more than a baseless smear, and a poor one at that. It will be interesting to watch to see how Senator Rand Paul and Judge Andrew Napolitano respond. Check back and read The Morning Roar every week day.

This article was originally published at Lions of Liberty.