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The Kentucky senator and GOP presidential candidate lumped Clinton, the Democratic 2016 front-runner, and Rubio, a surging Republican candidate, together on foreign policy -- criticizing them for being too willing to intervene in Middle Eastern conflicts in an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper Sunday on "State of the Union."

"I see her and Rubio as being the same person," he said. "They both wanted a no-fly zone. They both have supported activity in Libya -- the war in Libya that toppled Gadhafi, an intervention that made us less safe.

"They both have supported pouring arms into the Syrian civil war, a mistake that I think allowed ISIS to grow stronger. And they both have supported the Iraq War. So I mean, what's the difference?"

He was particularly critical of both Clinton and Rubio over Libya, saying the two had advocated an intervention that led to instability and turned the country into fertile territory for ISIS.

"I fault Hillary Clinton. I fault President Obama. But I also fault the neoconservatives within my party like Rubio who have been eager for war in Libya, in Syria, in Iraq, and they want a no-fly zone in an airspace where Russia is already flying," Paul said.

"It's a foolhardy notion, and people really -- this is the kind of stepping it up to a debate over who would best be commander in chief that we really need in our country," he added.

Paul also took a shot at Rubio over an immigration bill he once sponsored with New York Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer, which included a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.

"He was a coauthor of the bill -- I mean it was the Rubio bill, the Rubio-Schumer bill," Paul said. "So he does have to explain it. I think it will be a big part of things."

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Rand Paul: Clinton, Rubio both 'neoconservatives ...

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At a campaign event at George Washington University, the Kentucky senator told the crowd that the National Security Agency's bulk collection of phone record data hasn't been stopped, despite a judge's order, due to a six-month window to end the program.

"So when they stand up on television and say the tragedy in Paris means you have to give up your liberty, we need more phone surveillance -- bulls--t!" Paul said.

Paul's libertarian leanings have been at the center of his bid for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. He has opposed U.S. intervention in the Middle East as well as government surveillance programs.

He also has called for a stoppage to the visa waiver program allowing European citizens to travel to the U.S. freely, saying we should only allow Global Entry travelers, who get a background check, to enter freely.

He reiterated that position Thursday to CNN's Wolf Blitzer.

"When a whole section of the world is saying they want to come here and attack us ... we have to be careful," Paul said. "It's hard to tell friend from foe."

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Rand Paul: It's 'bulls--t' to collect phone records after ...

Watch the CNN Republican debate Tuesday, December 15 at 6:00 p.m. ET and 8:30 p.m. ET.

Called "Learn from Mistakes," the minute-and-a-half long ad cites two Iraqi refugees who settled in Kentucky in 2009 who later pleaded guilty to supporting terrorism.

The ad will begin airing Monday in early states Iowa and New Hampshire, ahead of the CNN-hosted GOP debate on Tuesday, according to Paul's campaign. The networks that will air the ads and size of the buy were not disclosed.

The narrator then says "some refused to learn from mistakes" as clips play of the Texas and Florida senators expressing openness to welcoming refugees. The clips imply both supported accepting Syrian refugees without condition, though both Cruz and Rubio have called for halting any program accepting refugees from Syria in the wake of the Paris terrorist attacks.

The ad goes on to paint Paul as tougher on national security.

"Rand Paul sounded the alarm," the voice over says, as a clip plays of Paul on Fox News saying he opposed the Gang of Eight immigration bill Rubio helped author.

"Rand Paul wrote the amendment to suspend visas to nations with high risks of terrorism, but Marco Rubio voted no," the narrator says.

Paul has called for not just scrutinizing refugees, but disallowing easy access to any visitors to the U.S. with ties to at-risk regions.

The Kentucky Republican has struggled to gain traction in the polls and has hovered in the low single digits for months. Cruz and Paul, meanwhile, have been cementing spots among the top four candidates in recent weeks.

Foreign policy has been an area setting Paul apart from the field since the beginning of his campaign. A libertarian-leaning Repubilcan, Paul favors a more isolationist policy than his colleagues, and in the last presidential debate got into a heated argument with Rubio over military spending. Paul advocated for cutting military spending with overall government spending, hitting Rubio for wanting to increase defense dollars.

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Trump, the Republican front-runner, said he "would certainly be open to closing [the Internet] in areas where we are at war with somebody" at the CNN Republican debate Tuesday. The billionaire businessman was referencing shutting off parts of the Internet that helped incite or facilitate terrorism.

But Paul said following Trump's strategy was fundamentally against the Constitution.

"If you're going to close the Internet -- that's like something they do in North Korea, something like they do in China -- but it also goes against the Constitution. It goes against the First Amendment," he said on "America's Newsroom" on Fox News.

"Closing the Internet would require a change to our Constitution where we get rid of the First Amendment. That's a big step," he said.

Paul dismissed Trump's current standing in the 2016 horse race, saying that the polls could change in a matter of weeks.

"The polls are very fluid. Ben Carson, who I like a lot, has dropped 20 points," the Kentucky Senator said. "Same thing could happen to Trump."

Paul painted to one of Trump's positions on terrorists as being potential popularity shifters.

"He's talking about killing women and children -- the families of terrorists," he said. "I don't think many Americans want to kill two-year-old children or four-year-old children."

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