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Rand Paul, Opinion contributor Published 9:01 a.m. ET Aug. 20, 2020 | Updated 9:37 a.m. ET Aug. 20, 2020

Those with liberal or libertarian views on war and justice should prefer Trump over this ticket. He signed the First Step Act and hasn't started a war.

As a libertarian Republican, there are often times I agree with those on the other side of the aisle. Among those issues are war and criminal justice reform. Many if not all of my efforts in these areas have been rooted in my commitment to lead as many of my fellow Republicans as possible to what I believe is the position of principle and constitutional government.

Unfortunately, and too often in the past, these are the exact areas where the new Democratic ticket has fallen very short. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, much like Hillary Clinton, have poor records on foreign policy and criminal justice.

In 2002, Joe Biden was the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. As such, he could and should have been the check and balance against a misguided attempt by the Bush administration to go to war with Iraq.

Instead, as usual, Joe Biden chose the wrong, more hawkish path. Twenty-one of his Democratic colleagues, including my friends Ron Wyden and Pat Leahy, took the principled stand to oppose this war.

Do you know who else opposed this war? Donald Trump.By 2004 he was a full-blown opponent, and he ran for president loudly proclaiming that it was a geopolitical mistake that led to 15 years of increasingly bad policy in the Middle East.

When a candidate for office comes to me to ask for my endorsement in their campaign, this is the first question I ask: Do you believe the Iraq War was a mistake?

Joe Biden, who defended his vote to authorize the war for years, fails that test.

Biden is a reliable interventionist.He supported war in Libya, Syriaand Serbia. He pushed for NATO expansion and for more foreign aid to countries who hate America, like Pakistan.

Donald Trumps policy is to stop the endless wars Joe Biden spent his career starting.

The choice is very stark and very clear.

Joe Biden signs documents for receiving the Democratic presidential nomination in Wilmington, Delaware, on Aug. 14, 2020.(Photo: Carolyn Kaster/AP)

On the issue of criminal justice, we have a two-for-one deal. Both Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have a troubling history of putting minorities in prison for drug crimes.

Of course, once again, Joe Biden tops the list by far.

In 1994, President Bill Clinton signed into law a bill that brought great harm to a generation of Blackand Hispanic Americans.

Who stoodbehind him, applauding,when he signed the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act into law?

Joe Biden.

It was part of a long history of Biden playing the law and order card, which meant putting people away for harsh sentences, with clearly racial implications.

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Biden said it himself in a Senate floor speech earlier that same year: The truth is, every major crime bill since 1976 thats come out of this Congress, every minor crime bill, has had the name of the Democratic senator from the state of Delaware: Joe Biden.

Or, to put it more colloquially as Biden did: Lock the SOBs up.

Kamala Harris' record as a prosecutor was closely examined in the Democratic primary, and she was famously taken to task on it by my friend Tulsi Gabbard. Harris was on the wrong side of reform, or consciously silent. She refused to fight to overturn wrongful convictions, worked to continue draconian marijuana laws, and aggressively went after parents oftruant school children.

To put it mildly, this is not a ticket that those with liberal or libertarian views on war and justice should embrace.

Donald Trump signed historic, first-in-a-generation criminal justice reform legislation with the First Step Act, the first step to undo the damage of both Biden and Harris.

He has changed our foreign policy away from the hawks of both parties, and he became the first president in memory to not start a war in his term in office and is working to end the ones he inherited.

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As America watches the Democratic ticket this week at their convention, I urge them to look closely. Look at the issues, the recordand the facts, rather than the rhetoric and promises of the speeches.

Perhaps youll find, as I did, that Donald Trump beats Joe Biden and Kamala Harris on these issues, and it's not even that close.

Rand Paul is a Republican senator from Kentucky. Follow him on Twitter:@RandPaul

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On war and criminal justice reform, Trump is better than Biden and Harris: Sen. Rand Paul - USA TODAY