Sarwark made the comments after, twenty-five minutes into the interview, the conversation turned to discussing Paul who has run for president three times, including once as the Libertarian Party nominee. Sarwark says that Paul "had policy prescriptions that were straight-up wrong and anti-libertarian." Continuing, Sarwark calls Paul's support for states' rights "not a libertarian position."

Of course, many people who consider themselves libertarians support states' rights, as do many people who have run for office under the Libertarian Party banner. Indeed, 2016 Libertarian Party presidential nominee Gary Johnson, whose campaign Sarwark spent much of the interview praising, has spoken positively of states' rights.

Paul succinctly explained the connection between states' rights and the protection of liberty in his December of 2002 editorial "What Really Divides Us?" in which Paul wrote:

States' rights simply means the individual states should retain authority over all matters not expressly delegated to the federal government in Article I of the Constitution. Most of the worst excesses of big government can be traced to a disregard for states' rights, which means a disregard for the Ninth and Tenth amendments.