McCain and Graham have taken issue with the actions of the Kentucky senator. | AP Photos McCain, Graham blast Paul filibuster

While Republican senators flocked to the floor Wednesday night to support Sen. Rand Paul’s nearly 13-hour filibuster, Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) did exactly the opposite on Thursday.

McCain quoted heavily from a Wall Street Journal editorial that slammed Paul’s filibuster on the Obama administration’s drone use, including a line that said “If Mr. Paul wants to be taken seriously, he needs to do more than pull political stunts that fire up impressionable libertarian kids in college dorms.”


McCain called Paul’s concern that the government could kill any American with a drone “totally unfounded.” He referenced Jane Fonda, as Paul did on Wednesday, calling her “not his favorite American” for her support of the Viet Cong, but said the American government would not have killed her.

(WATCH: Rand Paul filibusters CIA nomination)

“To somehow say that someone who disagrees with American policy and even may demonstrate against it, is somehow a member of an organization which makes that individual an enemy combatant is simply false,” McCain said.

Graham also chided his fellow Republicans on the floor for joining Paul in his filibuster.

“To my Republican colleagues, I don’t remember any of you coming down here suggesting that President Bush was going to kill anybody with a drone, do you?” Graham said. “They had a drone program back then, all of a sudden this drone program has gotten every Republican so spun up. What are we up to here?”

Graham, who has railed against the president for the administration’s handling of the terrorist attack in Benghazi, praised Obama’s use of the drone program.

“People are astonished that President Obama is doing many of the things that President Bush did. I’m not astonished. I congratulate him for having the good judgment to understand we’re at war,” he said. “And to my party, I’m a bit disappointed that you no longer apparently think we’re at war.”

Many senators, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) supported Paul’s efforts on the floor Wednesday.

(PHOTOS: Filibuster highlights)

Additionally, McCain said the filibuster would give fire to critics of the Senate rules and warned his colleagues that it set a bad precedent.

“What we say yesterday is going to give ammunition to those critics who say that the rules of the Senate are being abused. I hope that my colleagues on this side of the aisle will take in that information,” he said.

Later on Thursday, Paul told reporters that the debate was “healthy,” and argued he was asking a legitimate question of the administration. He was not trying to be an obstructionist, he said, he just wanted a clarification of what the Obama administration’s policy is.

“I think there is a healthy debate in the Republican Party. It used to be monolithic that whoever is in the country that we think are bad, we call them enemy combatants and we lock them up and throw away the key,” he said. “That’s the caucus arguing against what I’m saying. But there’s a healthy debate and people are starting to understand that just by calling someone an enemy combatant doesn’t make them an enemy combatant.”

Graham told reporters in the Capitol that Paul’s filibuster has persuaded him to support the nomination of John Brennan for CIA director.

“I was going to vote against Brennan until the filibuster. So he picked up one vote!” Graham said. “It’s become a referendum on the drone program.”

( WATCH: Rand Paul responds to McCain, Graham criticism)

Later Thursday, the outside group FreedomWorks — a major outside group — blasted McCain for his criticism of Paul.

“While Senator Rand Paul was filibustering John Brennan’s nomination for CIA Director over the Obama Administration’s implicit assertion that it can kill American citizens on American soil without charge or trial, Senator John McCain was schmoozing with President Obama over dinner,” the group wrote.

FreedomWorks asked their members to demand McCain apologize to Paul.

“These comments are rude and out of line. Senator McCain should apologize for insulting tens of millions of Americans who rightly assert that they cannot be killed by the President,” FreedomWorks said.

Tim Mak and Byron Tau contributed to this report.