Paul blamed hawks like Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham for the creation of ISIL, saying the group “exists and grew stronger because of the hawks in our party who gave arms indiscriminately, and most of those arms were snatched up by ISIS (ISIL).”

Talking to MSNBC on Wednesday, Paul said, “These hawks also wanted to bomb [Syrian President Bashar] Assad, which would have made ISIS’ job even easier. They’ve created these people.”