text: Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul, on the defensive after a set of acrimonious exchanges with female journalists including, is denying that he has a problem with women. 'I think I have been universally short-tempered and testy with both male and female reporters. I'll own up to that,' the Kentucky senator told CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer yesterday, responding to accusations of sexism that bubbled up following his Wednesday morning dust up with TODAY host Savannah Guthrie. Paul, who announced his bid for the Oval Office on Tuesday, admitted  that he needs to 'have more patience' with reporters, even if he's 'annoyed' with them while maintaining that 'interviews should be questions and not editorializing.' The confession summed up the freshman lawmaker's second day as an official 2016 contestant - a bumpy ride that has so far included a confrontation with the chairwoman of the Democratic Party over late-term abortion and Paul's declaration that she seems to be 'OK with killing a 7-pound baby.' Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul is on the defensive after an acrimonious exchange with TODAY host Savannah Guthrie on Wednesday morning. 'No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!' Listen, you've editorialized,' he blasted at Guthrie . Paul, a libertarian-leaning Kentucky senator, launched his presidential bid on Tuesday in Louisville.  Responding yesterday to accusations of sexism that bubbled up following his  dust up with Guthrie, Paul said, 'I think I have been universally short-tempered and testy with both male and female reporters. I'll own up to that' Paul's woes on Wednesday began with an early morning sparring match on TODAY with Guthrie over perceived flip flops on foreign policy issues. A disgruntled Paul cut her off and said, 'Why don't we let me explain instead of talking over me, OK?' 'Before we go through a litany of things you say I've changed on, why don't you ask me a question: "Have I changed my opinion?" That would be sort of a better way to approach an interview.' Guthrie proceeding as requested, asking him if he had shifted his views on any foreign policies, but he still wasn't satisfied, telling her, 'No, no, you've editorialized.' 'No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!' Listen, you've editorialized. 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,' he continued. Paul responded with a similarly peevish attitude to a line of questioning he considered 'slanted' in a February back and forth with CNBC anchor Kelly Evans, whom he shushed and told to 'calm down a bit' before giving her advice on how to do her job. American Bridge 21st Century, a liberal opposition-research group, tore into Paul on Wednesday morning, telling Daily Mail Online, 'Rand Paul can't seem to step in front of a camera without proving that shooting from the hip is a good way to shoot yourself in the foot.' 'He's got miles to go before his ability catches up to his ambition,' the group's spokesman, Ben Ray, said. ''And judging by his temper, he knows it, too.' A spokeswoman for the Democratic National Committee accused Paul of running away from his record. 'Every time he gets asked about something he’s said, his response is to deny ever having said it,' DNC National Press Secretary Holly Shulman said, adding that it will be difficult for Paul to run as the ' "trust" candidate when he keeps blatantly lying to voters about his own record.' 'And Senator… don’t bother shushing us. We have the video to prove it,' she said. By Wednesday afternoon Paul was being labeled as a sexist, leading the conservative to declare  on CNN that he's an 'equal opportunity' offender. 'I was annoyed with a male reporter this morning,' he said. 'I will have to get better at holding my tongue and holding my temper.' The male reporter in question may have been the Associated Press' Philip Elliot, whom Paul had derided earlier that day at a New Hampshire campaign stop for aggressively pressing him to nail down his views on abortion. 'I gave you about a five-minute answer. Put in my five-minute answer,' he reportedly told Elliot, growing tired of the discussion. According to Elliot, Paul had previously contended that, 'The thing is about abortion — and about a lot of things — is that I think people get tied up in all these details of, sort of, you're this or this or that, or you're hard and fast (on) one thing or the other.' 'I think the most important thing is the general concept of: Do you support the sanctity of life? Do you think there's something special about life? So you think when we're born that a human baby is different than an animal, that there's something special that is imbued into human life? And I think there is.' Paul acknowledged that he'd supported bills that granted exceptions in cases of rape and incest and bills that did not. 'In general, I am pro-life. So I will support legislation that advances and shows that life is special and deserves protection,' he explained. The freshman senator also had confrontation with Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz on Wednesday. 'Why don't we ask the DNC: Is it OK to kill a 7-pound baby in the uterus?' had said. Schultz responded  by attacking his position on personal liberty - and by asking him not to shush her . Paul was joined by his wife Kelley Ashby on stage Tuesday as he declared that he would campaign to 'take our country back' After the DNC blasted the Associated Press' write-up of the conversation, other reporters following Paul around in New Hampshire began asking him about abortion, at which point the freshman senator turned the argument on the campaign arm of the Democratic Party. 'Why don't we ask the DNC: Is it OK to kill a 7-pound baby in the uterus?' he shot back. 'You go back and go ask Debbie Wasserman Schultz if she's OK with killing a 7-pound baby that's just not born yet,' Paul said, referencing the DNC's chairwoman. 'Ask her when life begins, and ask Debbie when she's willing to protect life. When you get an answer from Debbie, come back to me.' Reporters didn't have to wait very long for a response. Shortly after Paul laid down the gauntlet, the DNC issued a statement on behalf of Wasserman Schultz that said: 'Here’s an answer. I support letting women and their doctors make this decision without government getting involved. Period. End of story.' 'Now your turn, Senator Paul,' she said. 'We know you want to allow government officials like yourself to make this decision for women — but do you stand by your opposition to any exceptions, even when it comes to rape, incest, or life of the mother? 'Or do we just have different definitions of "personal liberty"?' Getting in one last dig, Wasserman Shultz ended her statement with the remark, 'And I’d appreciate it if you could respond without ’shushing’ me.' Appearing on CNN, Paul said, 'It sounds like her answer is yes, that she’s OK with killing a 7-pound baby.' 'Debbie’s position, which I guess is the Democratic Party’s position, that an abortion all the way up until the day of birth would be fine, I really think most pro-choice people would be uncomfortable with that,' he asserted. Thursday morning brought better news for Paul, as a Quinnipiac University Poll was released that showed him beating possible Democratic competitor Hillary Clinton in a general election match up in two swing states that President Barack Obama won by several points in 2012. Paul has consistently performed well against Clinton in surveys, but he now leads her in Iowa and Colorado by one and three points, respectively. Hurting Clinton is the perception among voters that she is 'not honest and trustworthy,' Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll, explained in a statement accompanying the release of the survey. Reviewing survey data, Brown said, 'it is difficult to see Secretary Clinton's slippage as anything other than a further toll on her image from the furor over her e-mail.' That Paul and other probable GOP contenders have gained so much ground on her since it became public knowledge that she exclusively used her private email address during her tenure at the State Department, Brown said is 'ominous.' 'I'm going to keep an open mind and look at the agreement,' Paul said, while allowing that 'I do believe that negotiation is better than war.' He mirrored other Republicans in questioning the 'sincerity of the Iranians' in reaching an agreement with the U.S. and five European nations. 'If they're immediately saying that the agreement doesn't mean what President Obama says, that is a big problem,' Paul said. 'The Iranians put out 500 words, the Americans put out 1,300 words, the Europeans put out 200 words. And they don't all seem to agree, but it's very, very little information so far.' He defended his position on foreign aid, saying that even Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has agreed that his country should one day shake off its dependence on America to fund its defense program. 'I still agree with my original precept, which is – lemme answer the question! – I still agree with my original statement from years ago that ultimately all nations should be free of foreign aid,' he said, 'because we shouldn't borrow money to do it.' 'But my opinion's not any different than Netanyahu's opinion.' The Paul campaign did not respond to a request for comment no whether or not Guthrie gave him a fair interview.
target: 'Why don't we let me explain instead of talking over me, OK?' he asked TODAY's Savannah Guthrie as she tried to corner him Wednesday morning .
  Paul unleashed on on a female CNBC anchor during a line of questioning he considered 'slanted'; he shushed her and told to 'calm down a bit'
  'I think I have been universally short-tempered and testy with both male and female reporters. I'll own up to that,' he now concedes .
  Admission summed up the freshman lawmaker's second day as an official 2016 contestant - a day that also included a confrontation with the chairwoman of the Democratic Party over late-term abortion .
  Paul declared that she seems to be 'OK with killing a 7-pound baby'