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By Leigh Ann Caldwell, CNN

updated 11:50 AM EDT, Wed September 17, 2014

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

(CNN) -- Sen. Rand Paul is trying to shed the perception that he's an isolationist and that he thinks the United States should retreat from intervention in other countries' affairs. But members of his own party are making it hard for the Kentucky Republican to escape that image.

Sen. John McCain, one of the most hawkish members of the Senate, told Fox News host Neil Cavuto on Tuesday night that Paul has "a fundamental lack of understanding of the situation and the threats we face" from ISIS.

Referring to Paul's evolving position on ISIS, McCain said the libertarian-leaning senator "has obviously been doing somersaults" since the Sunni militant group gruesomely killed two American journalists and a British aid worker.

Paul, who is seriously considering a presidential run in 2016, responded to his critics in an interview released Wednesday in The Federalist, telling the conservative Web magazine how "frustrating" these labels are for him.

"I spent the past five years in public life telling everyone that 'hey, I'm not an isolationist' ... and when they find out I'm not, they say I've switched positions, because I'm not the position they were saying I was. You know what I mean? So for five years they've been accusing me of being something that I say I'm not."

But McCain apparently doesn't buy this explanation. He said Paul has "dramatically shifted his positions on national security. He said we shouldn't intervene, no matter what, anywhere. And now obviously he wants to take out ISIS."

"I think it's kind of a desperation kind of trying to find some footing here as he slides down a very steep slope of credibility."

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Why Rand Paul can't shake isolationist image