On his first morning as an "official" candidate in the 2016 White House race, Rand Paul clashed with NBC's Savannah Guthrie on the "Today" show when the host aggressively questioned the Kentucky senator on his foreign policy, USA Today noted.

Guthrie "may have pushed his buttons" when she argued that Paul had changed his position on a number of international issues, Fox News detailed.

"You once said Iran was not a threat; now you say it is. You once proposed ending foreign aid to Israel; you now support it -- at least for the time being," the NBC host said.

"And you once offered to drastically cut ... you wanted to cut defense spending, and now you want to increase it 16 percent. So I just wondered if you'd mellowed out," she added, as Paul started to interrupt, according to the news channel.

The senator went on to take issue with Guthrie's style.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Listen, you've editorialized," he stopped the journalist. "Let me answer a question. You ask a question and you say, 'Have your views changed?' instead of editorializing and saying my views have changed."

Guthrie promptly rephrased her inquiry to Paul's liking, but the incident had immediate repercussions in the political and media landscapes, Fox News noted: The Hill noted that the senator got "testy," Business Insider claimed he had "lectured" the host and New York Magazine dubbed the interview "cringeworthy."

One-time presidential candidate and former Fox News host Mike Huckabee counseled his GOP colleague to toughen up, Politico said.

"I think the questions are fair," he insisted on "Fox and Friends." "When you're running for president, all is fair in love and war. This is war. This is the big leagues."

Paul, meanwhile, conceded that he needs to "get better at holding my temper" and that he "should have more patience," according to CNN Money.

But he still had some advice for his interviewers.

"I do think interviews should be questions and not editorializing," the senator insisted. "You feel somewhat at a loss at the other end."