Paul said he hadn't heard about his father's comments until Thursday. | John Shinkle/POLITICO Rand Paul on dad's 9/11 jab

When asked Thursday about his father Ron Paul’s comments that the 9/11 attacks “blowback” for U.S. intervention in the Middle East, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul focused not on the reasons for the attacks, but rather on the American response to them.

The elder Paul said Wednesday, the 12th anniversary of the terrorist attacks, that they were “blowback for decades of U.S. intervention in the Middle East.” In a radio interview Thursday, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee asked the younger Paul about his father’s comments, which Paul said he had not heard until then.


“What I would say is that, you know there are a variety of reasons and when someone attacks you it’s not so much important what they say their reasons are,” Paul said. “The most important thing is that we defend ourselves from attack. And whether or not some are motivated by our presence overseas, I think some are also motivated whether we’re there or not. So I think there’s a combination of reasons why we’re attacked.”

The Kentucky senator has been a vocal opponent of military strikes in Syria, and has said he does not think there are U.S. national security interests at stake. If America is ever attacked, however, he said the response would be “overwhelming.”

“The bottom line is, I think people around the world and our enemies around the world need to know that if we’re ever attacked on something like 9/11, if anyone were ever to use chemical weapons on our soldiers anywhere in the world, the response would be an overwhelming one from America and I think that’s the credibility we always need to maintain,” he said.