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Journalists and comedians want an entertaining 2016 presidential race, and Im sympathetic. I know people are going to prop up some folks I cant get behind, but its all fair. Libertarian-minded liberals will say nice things about Sen. Rand Paul, and so might independent-minded folks like MSNBCs Chris Matthews.

And most days, I think thats great. Rand Paul would be an interesting major candidate in the 2016 Republican primaries. I like some of what he says about criminal justice reform. Im glad he wants to reach out to, rather than disenfranchise, African-Americans. Hes not the worst potential GOP candidate.

But Pauls response to Chris Matthews Wednesday about the Eric Garner tragedy shows that, for all his lovely words about African-Americans and criminal justice excess, hes a standard-issue libertarian whose top issue will always be taxes. Hell always be an anti-tax libertarian first and foremost, before hes a civil rights libertarian.

Appearing on MSNBCs Hardball shortly after a Staten Island grand jury declined to indict the cop who choked Eric Garner to death, on suspicion that Garner was selling loose cigarettes, Paul shamed himself, badly:

Well you know I think its hard not to watch that video of him saying I cant breathe, I cant breathe and not be horrified by it. But I think theres something bigger than the individual circumstances. Obviously, the individual circumstances are important. But I think it is also important to know that some politician put a tax of $5.85 on a pack of cigarettes so that driven cigarettes underground by making them so expensive. But then some politician also had to direct the police to say, hey we want you arresting people for selling a loose cigarette. And for someone to die over breaking that law, there really is no excuse for it. But I do blame the politicians. We put our police in a difficult situation with bad laws.

Watch it here:

There is so so much wrong with Pauls answer on Garner. Its a huge part of why he will never be president. What kind of callousness is required to say the bigger issue in Garners death isnt excessive police use of force, or police practice toward African-Americans generally, but taxes? What kind of heart do you have to have to use the Eric Garner tragedy to rail against cigarette taxes?

Beyond that, we dont even know for sure that Garner was selling loose cigarettes at the time he was taken into custody and killed. Also, a lot of folks who sell loose cigarettes buy them cheap, and sell them for more than they paid but also pay taxes on them. Its not always a tax dodge. So its not even clear if Paul is right about the tax issue.

But also, even when its a tax dodge: Its really ludicrous to blame cigarette taxes for Eric Garners killing. Try harder, righties. Pauls lame dodge was everywhere within minutes of the grand jurys sad decision.

Im not sure I can think of a case of a cop shooting anyone over selling something without charging/paying taxes, ever, in my lifetime. On the other hand, there is a very real issue of police using excessive force against African-Americans cops are 21 times more likely to shoot a black suspect than a white one, and we have the real-life examples of Eric Garner, John Crawford, Tamir Rice, Ezell Ford and Michael Brown, just counting back to August.

Read the rest here:
Rand Paul just wrecked his 16 campaign: Watch his awful Eric Garner answer