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After criticizing him during the Republican primary, Rand Paul went on to praise Donald Trump for questioning the Iraq war. | Getty

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul said Tuesday that he is opposed to John Bolton becoming secretary of state and has serious reservations about Rudy Giuliani assuming the same position.

He did not rule out filibustering either potential option in an interview with POLITICO.

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Ill do whatever it takes to stop someone like John Bolton being secretary of state, said Paul, himself a former Republican presidential candidate. Hes opposed to everything Donald Trump ran on: that the Iraq war was a mistake, regime change made us less safe in the Middle East, including in IraqI dont know how a President Trump could appoint someone whos diametrically opposed to everything Donald Trump ran on. Some of that goes for Giuliani as well.

Paul, who has a strong libertarian streak, has long favored a less-interventionist foreign policy. He said there was less of a paper trail on Giuliani than on Bolton, but said that the former New York City mayor, too, had a record of pushing a more aggressively interventionist foreign policy, which troubled him.

If you look at Giulianis statements, you will find he has advocated bombing Iran, he has advocated for intervention, to my knowledge hes never admitted the Iraq war was a mistake, Paul said of Giuliani. To me, a big part of what Donald Trump said, in hundreds of speeches, was that the Iraq war was a mistake. I dont know how you could appoint someone to be in charge of the Department of State who believes the Iraq war was a benefit.

Giuliani is the narrow favorite to be secretary of state, POLITICO reported Tuesday, and Paul said he needed to be pressed on his views about the war in Iraq.

Bolton, who served in the George W. Bush administration as ambassador to the United Nations, is a leading Republican hawk and an avowed opponent of the U.S.-led nuclear deal with Iran. Giuliani, who was the mayor of New York on Sept. 11, 2001, has also developed a reputation as a foreign policy hawk who advocates a muscular posture abroad, generating headlines earlier this fall when he said, anythings legal in a war.

Paul is no stranger to pushing back in the Senate on issues related to foreign policy and national security: he filibustered now CIA Director John Brennan for nearly 13 hours in 2013 until he could extract a promise from the Obama administration on domestic drone use. He then placed a hold on James Comey's nomination as FBI director months later over similar concerns.

But it will be difficult for Paul or any other single senator to unilaterally block any of Trump's cabinet appointments. After Democrats nuked the filibuster in 2013, save for a few exceptions like Supreme Court nominees, Senate rules only require 51 votes to break a filibuster and confirm such nominations.

And Paul insisted that his focus was on generating debate.

Opposing Bolton and perhaps Giuliani would include all of the tools, would include the filibuster as well, but I hate to prematurely offer that up, he said. What Id like to have is a public debate. People need to ask the question have you learned the lessons of the Iraq war?

He launched a crusade against Bolton on Tuesday, blasting him in an op-ed as a longtime member of the failed Washington elite that Trump vowed to oppose, hell-bent on repeating virtually every foreign policy mistake the U.S. has made in the last 15 years particularly those Trump promised to avoid as president, and sounding the alarm bells in several interviews.

Asked who he would like to see as secretary of state, Paul demurred, saying that wasnt his place, but did nod to Sen. Bob Corker, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee whose name has also been floated.

Given the three namesBolton, Giuliani and CorkerCorker would be much more reasonable, much more realist as far as foreign policy goes, he said.

After criticizing Trump during the Republican primary, Paul went on to praise him for questioning the Iraq war though the New York billionaire has never produced evidence that he opposed it from the start.

As he was weighing a presidential campaign of his own last year, Bolton told the Washington Examiner that he stands by his support for ousting Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

I still think the decision to overthrow Saddam was correct," Bolton said. "I think decisions made after that decision were wrong, although I think the worst decision made after that was the 2011 decision to withdraw U.S. and coalition forces."

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Rand Paul: 'Ill do whatever it takes' to stop Bolton from ...

There's at least one lawmaker publicly sticking up for incoming White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky said Tuesday on CNN that people should give Bannon a chance to do his job without being haggled.

Bannon, the former Breitbart News executive, was tabbed for a senior role in the White House by President-elect Donald Trump over the weekend.

Trump's appointment has been heavily criticized, mainly because of Bannon's connection with the alt-right website Breitbart News. Bannon was the executive chairman at Breitbart before taking over as CEO of Trump's campaign.

Breitbart, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, pushed stories against immigrants, Muslims, and nonwhites.

But Paul said he thinks Bannon isn't a racist.

"I think there's a lot of sour grapes out there. After people lose the election, they're pointing fingers. They're wanting to make him into a caricature," he said.

"I've met him. I don't think he's a caricature or any other of these horrible things the left is bringing out about him. I don't believe him to be a racist. I don't believe him to be anyone who categorizes anybody based on their race or otherwise, or their religion. Let's give the guy a chance. Let's see how he performs. It's the results we should look at."

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Senator Rand Paul (R) discusses two candidates President-elect Donald Trump could appoint as secretary of state: Rudy Giuliani and John Bolton.

Paul said that Bolton would be a big mistake, while Giuliani's "foreign ties" could cause issues. Paul suggests that Trump should pick someone who shares his view that the Iraq War was a mistake and someone who opposes regime change abroad. "Its important that someone who was an unrepentant advocate for the Iraq War, who didnt learn the lessons of the Iraq War, shouldnt be the secretary of state for a president who says Iraq was a big lesson," Paul said.

Im hoping that if theres a public discussion of this before it happens, people in the incoming administration realize that regime change made us less safe and the Iraq War made us less safe, Paul said. We dont need, as our chief diplomat, someone whose idea of diplomacy is dropping bombs.

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Rand Paul: Trump Needs A Secretary Of State That Reflects ...

Sen. Rand Paul, a newly reelected member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said this morning that he is inclined to oppose former U.N. ambassador John Bolton or former New York City mayor RudolphW. Giuliani if either isnominated for secretary ofstate.

Its important that someone who was an unrepentant advocate for the Iraq War, who didnt learn the lessons of the Iraq War, shouldnt be the secretary of state for a president who says Iraq was a big lesson, Paul said in an interview Tuesdaymorning. Trump said that a thousand times. It would be a huge mistake for him to give over his foreign policy to someone who [supported the war]. I mean, you could not find moreunrepentant advocates of regime change.

Paul argued that Giuliani and Bolton, the people whose names have circulated most widely,have made it clear that they favor bombing Iran. Choosing either for a key administration job, he said, would go back on the America First foreign policy that helped Trump win the Republican primaries, to the surprise of the Republican Party foreign-policy establishment.

Im hoping that if theres a public discussion of this before it happens, people in the incoming administration realize that regime change made us less safe and the Iraq War made us less safe, Paul said. We dont need, as our chief diplomat, someone whose idea of diplomacy is dropping bombs.

Paul, one of many 2016 presidential candidates who was swept aside by Trump, largely avoided the national spotlight as he won reelection to the Senate. But he was the most prominent of many libertarian-minded Republicans who made peace with Trump because of his ex post facto criticism of the Iraq War and his criticism of intervention in Libya and Syria. Even Alex Jones, the conspiracy-minded radio host who turned his show into a months-long Trump telethon, told viewers this week that electing Trump had prevented a new world war.

But the discussion of plum roles for Boltonor Giuliani have given some libertarians and paleoconservatives pause. Tuesday morning, at a post-election D.C. conference hosted by the American Conservative magazine, a series of realist foreign-policy writers criticized the names floated for Trumps State Department. Daniel Larison suggested that former senator Jim Webb of Virginia a Republican-turned-Democrat who weighed a presidential run as an independent after dropping out of the Democratic primaries would be a fairer choice and that Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) would be the less aggressive choice for the Defense Department.

Paul is one of the few Republicans in a position to influence this. As a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, he will get to vote on whether to recommend Trumps nominee for secretary of state. The results of the 2016 elections will give Republicans a 10-to-9 majority on the committee, meaning that Paul could cast a decisive vote, with every Democrat, against recommending a Trump nominee. That would not stop a full Senate vote on the nominee, but it would expose fissures in the Republican Party in the first weeks of a Trump administration.

According to Paul, a nomineesuch as Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) would have an easier time navigating the Senate. He also suggested that realists would get a broader hearing than the neocons who had advocated for war in the past, many of whom went on to endorse Hillary Clinton for president.

Theres going to continue to be a right-left continuum in the Senate on issues like selling arms to Yemen, Paul said. As far as the neocons go, he shouldnt touch those people with a 10-foot pole.

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Sen. Rand Paul said Wednesday that he expects a flurry of repeals of Present Obamas regulations by the next Congress and President-elect Donald Trump.

Youre gong to find that we are going to repeal a half dozen or more regulations in the first week of Congress, and Im excited about it because I think the regulations have been killing our jobs and making us less competitive with the world, the Kentucky Republican said on MSNBCs Morning Joe program.

Mr. Trump, whose surprise win over Democrat Hillary Clinton sent shock waves across the Washington political establishment, pledged on the campaign trail to tackle over-regulation by the Obama administration.

The federal government has imposed more than 600 major regulations costing Americans roughly $740 billion since Mr. Obama took office in 2009.

Mr. Paul said he viewed many of the regulations under Mr. Obama to be unconstitutional because they were issued without Congress approval.

I think they are unconstitutional because basically the executive is legislating and that was never the intention of the founding fathers, he said.

Mr. Paul, who fiercely clashed with Mr. Trump during an unsuccessful run for the GOP presidential nomination, said he wasnt worried about having a good working relationship with the next president.

He was even nice to Hillary Clinton last night so I think hell be nice to me, said Mr. Paul, referring to Mr. Trumps gracious victory speech.

Mr. Paul won a resounding re-election victory Tuesday, capturing 57 percent of the vote in Kentucky to defeat Democrat Jim Gray.

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Rand Paul: Congress set for deregulation spree under Trump