U.S. Sen. Rand Paul did not hold back punches when speaking about Iran on Monday evening, as he attacked several Washington, D.C., officials — including a fellow Republican senator.

Paul, a Kentucky Republican, has decried President Donald Trump's authorization of a U.S. airstrike in Baghdad that led to the death of Iranian military leader Qassem Soleimani.

However, Paul's sentiment differs from several of his colleagues in the nation's capital. Among the legislators celebrating Soleimani's death was Ben Sasse, a Republican from Nebraska.

"This is very simple: General Soleimani is dead because he was an evil bastard who murdered Americans,” Sasse said in a statement shortly after the assassination.

Related:Kentucky leaders have mixed reactions to Iraq airstrike killing Soleimani

Speaking to CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Monday evening, Paul criticized Sasse's statement without naming the Nebraskan, saying it is how "grade-school children think."

"You have to think a little bit beyond that, and you have to think: What happens next?" Paul said. "And I think what happens next is now an inevitability that there will be not just one, but multiple escalations of this on the part of Iran."

James Wegmann, Sasse's spokesman, said that in his interview, Paul "conveniently omits the fact that Soleimani was a designated terrorist responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Americans."

"Either way, it's an odd choice for Senator Paul to go on CNN and criticize his Senate colleagues," Wegmann wrote in an email. "If Senator Paul really believes this, perhaps he should have the courage to criticize the commander-in-chief who ordered the strike — otherwise, this is just weak."

Paul also attacked his longtime nemesis, former national security adviser John Bolton, saying that he gave Trump bad advice on Iran.

"The administration, mainly at John Bolton’s behest, tore up the Iran agreement, placed a significant and severe embargo on Iran and then killed one of their major generals," Paul said. "Nobody in their right mind would actually think that that would lead to negotiations."

Background:Rand Paul cheers Trump's firing of national security adviser John Bolton

And the libertarian-leaning senator from Kentucky took aim at Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for his "maximum pressure" strategy, which included imposing severe economic sanctions against Iran in hopes of drawing the Middle East nation to the negotiating table.

"You would have to be brain dead to believe" that strategy would work, Paul said.

Within Kentucky's D.C. delegation, Paul is not alone in opposing America's handling of the Iran conflict. Rep. John Yarmuth, a Democrat from Louisville, told a Courier Journal reporter Monday morning that it would be a war crime for the U.S. to target Iranian cultural sites, as Trump has threatened to do.

However, a majority of Kentucky's legislators in the nation's capital approve of the president's decision to assassinate Soleimani.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said from the Senate floor Friday that "Iran's master terrorist is dead." And Rep. Andy Barr, a Republican from Lexington, told a Courier Journal reporter Monday afternoon that Trump achieved several "important national security accomplishments."

Yarmuth:Trump would be committing 'war crime' if Iranian cultural sites attacked

Contact Ben Tobin at bjtobin@gannett.com and 502-582-4181 or follow on Twitter @TobinBen. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: subscribe.courier-journal.com.