Last fall, I saw my firstRepublican presidential debate.

And you know what they say?

You never forget your first.

And a certain someonecaught my eye.

(laughter)

Kentucky senator Rand Paul.

You know, it's...This is really true.

I know it seems like a joke,

but he seemed differentfrom the others.

His voice was calm.

And some of his ideasseemed... good.

(laughter)

And his hair was...indescribable.

Seeing him that night made mewant to get with him

in a debate of my own,but smaller-- one on one.

And tonight, it's happening

on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah:

GOP Debate Singles Night.

-(laughter) -So, ladiesand gentlemen, please welcome

Senator Rand Paul.

(applause and cheering)

Hey, uh...(throat clearing)

Thank you. Thank you.

-Man.-Welcome, Senator.

So, let's get this debate...This is weird...

Hold on. Hold on.I want to thank you first.

I mean, the thing is,is I was worried

I wasn't gonna make the debate,and I did. I made the debate.

NOAH: I did this for you.I did this for you.

But this is so awkward.This is...

I was so closeto being excluded,

and you're gonna beam meright in. This is gonna be...

-I would never... -You're gonnabeam me right in, right?

-All right. -This is gonna bethe greatest debate.

-So far, I'd rather sitlike this with... -(Paul sighs)

It's weird, because if I ask youquestions, are you...?

Why do you standfor the whole debate?

Why don't they let you guys sit?Why...?

Can we get a chair...?And I think you...

I mean, it's still a debate,but you can sit.

This is gonna be serious.This isn't gonna be a joke-off.

'Cause I wouldn't want to beata comedian in a joke-off.

-No, no, no, I mean...-All right.

-This is... this is serious.-All right.

This is serious, and I wouldn'twant to out-joke a Republican.

-Ah. -Let's, uh...-(laughter)

Let's-let's sit.Let's sit over there.

-All right. All right.-And, uh, yeah, this...

-All right. -We can still...I mean, still debate.

-All right. -I mean,this is a little bit aw...

You know what? I mean, we mightjust loosen this up a little bit

if we just... Oh!Just, oh!

-(laughter) -Oh, what do you...?-Ah. It's really...

-Oh, that's the finest Kentuckybourbon, sir. -Oh, very nice.

-Very nice. -NOAH: Yeah,I'm sure you're familiar

with that, and, you know, uh,

every man has a secret stash.

I have some of my ownover here.

I like to call it, um,"Issues Bourbon."

That's a little blend they call"War in the Middle East."

And, uh, what I wanted to dowith you is have a conversation,

or play a little game.

It is a drinking game?

-It is a drinking game.-(laughter)

I mean, this is normalin Kentucky, I'm assuming.

I will... I will take a shot...

every time...

I feel like you're not answeringmy question.

(laughter)

Because in this instance,

I'm gonna representthe American public.

You will represent Rand Paul.

And I will show youhow painful it is

when politicians do notanswer the question

by taking a shotevery single time.

I think it's gonna be bettermaybe if I...

-Oh, yeah, if you... yeah,there we go. -(whooping)

There we... This is it.Yeah, this is it.

-(applause and cheering)-This is it!

-Yeah.-Okay.

This is a real debate.

Let's shoot straight into it.

Senator Rand Paul,every time I watch the debates,

one thing is apparent whenit comes to the Republicans.

Everyone has to bombthe Middle East.

Everyone has to destroy ISISat all costs.

Do you agree with this?

Well, I think the problem is,you know, you've heard

some of them say they're gonnamake the sand blow.

They're gonnacarpet-bomb things.

But the question is,is if you bomb civilian centers,

and you kill civilians,

will there be more terroristsor less terrorists?

And I'm not saying we don'tdefend ourselves, but I'm saying

that we have to think aboutwhat we do before we do it,

and we have to think aboutthe ramifications of doing it.

For example, we have peoplein my party--

we won't mention any names,but the senator from Arizona...

NOAH: We'll subtweet.We'll subtweet.

They know how to subtweet.No, we get it.

The senator from Arizona wantsto bomb both sides of that war.

-NOAH: Yeah.-He wants to bomb ISIS,

but while he's at it,he might as well bomb Assad.

But here's the problem,

and I think we're finallygetting to the debate.

If you get rid of Assad, who'sgonna take over the place? ISIS.

So they need to think throughwhat they're doing,

but really, they've just been infavor of just blowing up crap.

How do you... how do you appearto be strong

if you're not justblowing up crap?

-(laughter)-I think therein lies the rub.

And that's problem.

So, for example, we haveHillary Clinton, also.

Let's don't let her escape.

-She says she wants a no-flyzone over there. -NOAH: Yeah.

So does Chris Christie.

And so, Chris Christieand Hillary Clinton--

there were trying to decidewho's the strongest.

And, so, I mentionedthat there might be a problem

'cause the Russians alreadyfly in that air space.

And if you're gonna havea no-fly zone,

you would have to shoot...

-NOAH: You got a problem withthe Russians. -Well, you'd have

to shoot the Russian planesdown, and I thought that would

chasten them, and they wouldthink again, and think,

"Oh, my goodness,I've made an error,

and I'm no longergonna say that,"

but instead,Chris Christie says,

"Well, hell, yeah,I'll shoot 'em down.

"I'll shoot 'em down beforeanybody'll shoot 'em down.

I'll shoot 'em downthree times!"

That's a great Chris Christie,by the way. I like that.

-That was was, uh... That wasnice, so... -I don't get paid

-for my impersonations. Allright, yeah. -Oh, this is...

You should.You should. This is...

I thought I'd be... I thoughtI'd be drinking already.

This is... this is going well.I'll take one anyway.

-All right.-(laughter, applause & cheering)

Okay. Oh. Okay.

Ah, this is a nice one.

This is kind of likeyour bachelor party, though,

where they tell you,"Keep drinking, keep drinking,"

and they're not reallydrinking shots, and you are.

Ah. Let's go with a little blendcalled, um, "Economy."

-(laughter)-Ah.

This is interesting.

One thing I picked up about youfrom the very beginning

was that you said you wantedto deregulate.

In the shortest way possible,what does that mean?

It means that we have to competewith the rest of the world.

So, we have taxesthat are a burden,

-or a cost of doing business.-NOAH: Yeah.

We also have regulations thatare a cost of doing business.

We live in a global economy, andso often people are lamenting,

"Oh, we're losing jobsoverseas,"

or companies are relocating

or reincorporatingin Europe or in Canada.

Well, one reasonthey relocate is,

money goes where it's welcomed.

And, so, if we makethe regulatory burden too high,

or the tax burden too high,

I think the consequence is,jobs are gone.

And really, the people who feelthe pain of the jobs

are the peoplewho are the workers.

The owners really don'tfeel the pain,

because the owners can gowherever they want.

But now, when you say,regulations are too high,

are you proposing...?

'Cause it always sounds like,or you always paint it

as sayingyou want no regulations.

-I think... -Are you saying,no regulations,

or are you sayinglow regulations?

-What does that mean?-Well, what I would say is...

For example,here's a regulation.

The Clean Water Act says youcannot discharge pollutants...

-NOAH: Yes.-into a navigable stream.

Had I been therein the early '70s,

I would have voted for that.

You shouldn't be allowed.

You should go to jail if youdump benzene in the river.

-NOAH: Okay. -You're not allowedto dump chemicals in the river.

You cannot pollutesomeone else's property

or someone else's water.

However, over time,we've now decided

that dirt is a pollutant,and my back yard is a river.

I do object to that.

I think we've gone too farin interpreting things.

We put a guy in Mississippiin jail for ten years

for putting dirton his own land.

We have 48 federal agenciesthat have SWAT teams.

I mean, wear helmets,body armor, the works.

The Department of Educationhas a SWAT team.

I think that might be anindication we've gone too far.

Or it might be an indicationthat the kids are (bleep) crazy.

-Uh-huh. -But I mean, we canlook at it from different ways.

We've got to get... we get thestudent loans out,

and what will they do?What are we gonna do?

So, okay, let's talk about itfrom a tax point of view.

I've heard you say you wouldlike to implement a flat tax.

-Right. -So everyone pays thesame amount as in a percentage?

Right.

-Across the board?-Right.

How does that work out?Because, I mean,

some people would arguethat that's not fair,

because if you take away...

If you say the tax is 25%,

Warren Buffett losing 25%of his money is not as, uh...

not as impactful on him

as a person who earns minimumwage losing 25% of his money.

Can we change the rules,

and every time we say"Warren Buffett,"

you have to drink?

-We can do that. I won't say itagain. I just... -All right.

(laughter)

Um, no, I think that, um,

everybody payingthe same percentage means

that people would still paya lot more.

-If I make $100,000, and youmake $10,000... -NOAH: Yes.

...and it's ten percent, tenpercent of $100,000 is more,

so you would still pay more.

Right now, there are manywealthy people in our country

who pay no taxes.

There are many wealthycorporations who pay no taxes.

If you had a 14 1/2% rate,

some people would pay more,and more people...

And I think people would end uppaying their fair share.

Do you honestly thinkit would balance out, though?

Well, what would happen, and theTax Foundation looked at mine.

It would reduce revenueat first,

and then, over abouta ten-year period,

they say it comes backto where it is.

But I want a government smaller.

See, I equate,the bigger the government is,

-the more freedom you haveto give up. -NOAH: Uh-huh.

So I want a smaller freedom,

so people are left aloneand more free.

But people left aloneto do what?

Whatever the hellthey want to do.

I mean, I want peopleto be left alone.

I don't wantthe government telling you

what you can smoke, what you candrink, or what you can read.

But there are peoplewho don't know

what do drink, what to smoke,what to...

Yeah, but I guess my bel...

I mean, at some point,the government should step in.

-Don't you think? -I guessmy belief is in the individual.

And individualswill make mistakes.

And, uh, but I think

the individual oughtto be left alone,

as long as you're not hurtingsomeone else.

Libertarians have something

we call"the non-aggression principle."

NOAH:Yeah.

So, I can do whatever I want aslong as I'm not harming you.

NOAH:Sounds like tai chi.

-A little bit. -You guys dotai...? That's tai chi.

I think you have to drink

every time you say "tai chi,"as well.

-This is it...-(laughter)