Paul: Foreign policy critics ‘worried’ by run

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said Tuesday that an ad campaign targeting him on the day he launched his presidential campaign is evidence that his candidacy has the establishment on edge.

“I’ll tell you what it does show you,” he said during an appearance on Fox News’s “Hannity” that will air on Tuesday night. “Somebody is worried about me.  On my day, when I’m announcing, someone is spending a million dollars.”

{mosads}Paul was responding to an ad campaign funded by outside group The Foundation for a Secure and Prosperous America that seeks to paint him as soft on foreign policy.

“The Senate is considering tough new sanctions on Iran,” the first ad says. “President Obama says he’ll veto them, and Rand Paul is standing with him. Rand Paul supports Obama’s negotiations with Iran, and he doesn’t understand the threat.”

Paul said he did not know who was behind the ad campaign.

“But I think that they’re — I would say they’re part of the neocon community,” he said. “The neoconservatives sort of believe — these are the same people who wanted to give arms to [former Libyan leader Moammar] Gadhafi and then the next year is wanting to topple Gadhafi. They’ve been on both sides of every war. The only thing consistent about their message is we should always be at war.”

The $1 million ad campaign will run in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada — all states with early nominating contests — and on Fox News Channel.

Paul views have come under scrutiny from many in the GOP who are wary of his noninterventionist stance on foreign policy. Paul did not avoid the topic in his first speech since announcing his candidacy online, held at a Louisville, Ky., hotel on Tuesday morning.

“I see an America strong enough to deter foreign aggression, yet wise enough to avoid unnecessary intervention,” he said.