The first tea-party president?

Erickson: Can we trust the Iranians?

Paul: No. I mean I think there are very few of our adversaries that we can trust. But some people use that as an argument for having no negotiations. We had years of negotiations with the Russians and no one would have argued that Reagan believed we should trust them. “Trust but verify” was his mantra. But Reagan, because he had such a position of strength and because he had made our country such a strongly defended country, he was the one who then actually had the ability to negotiate with the Russians. But he did negotiate.

And so I think that just by saying they’re clever, devious, and probably dishonest, which they’ve proven to be time over time, isn’t still an argument against no negotiations. If you have no negotiations your only other option is military. Once the military option begins there will be no inspections and no monitoring of them, and really you have to at least acknowledge the possibility that a certain portion of their population that is inclined to be pro-Western shifts the opposite way once there is bombing happening from us or Israel.

So I do want a negotiated settlement. I’ve also said that if they are not in compliance, if they begin enriching again above 5 percent, and actually I think they are limited to keeping it at 5 percent, if they are found to be not in compliance with that agreement I would be for more sanctions.

And so I don’t think that is as simple as saying, “You are for President Obama’s position.”