Rand Paul's defense of his Iran flip-flop doesn't hold water

Jones interjected to say that “The CIA’s own national assessment says they’re not going to have one for eight years.”

Paul mockingly responded, “Yeah, if we could just get Mike Huckabee to understand what that is. I’m not sure he understands what the National Intelligence estimate is. But you’re right, even our own intelligence community consensus opinion now is that they’re not a threat. My dad says they don’t have an air force, they don’t have a navy, you know? It’s ridiculous to think that they’re a threat to our national security. It’s not even that viable to say they’re a nation threat to Israel. Most people think Israel has 100 nuclear weapons, you know?”

The broader context makes it quite clear that Paul was saying not that Iran wasn’t a threat because they’d never be able to develop nuclear weapons, but that a nuclear Iran wasn’t a threat. So it simply isn’t accurate for him to contend, “I’ve always thought Iran getting a nuclear weapon was a bad idea and dangerous to our country.”