Former House Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick McHenry delivered a scathing on-air rebuke of Texas Senate candidate Ken Paxton on CNN Wednesday, after being presented with the Texas attorney general's private dismissal of President Donald Trump's midterm convention.

The New York Times and other outlets reported Wednesday that Paxton believes Trump's midterm convention, which was meant to energize lagging GOP enthusiasm ahead of November, did not help at all. In leaked audio obtained by the Times, Paxton said: “To be honest with you, the numbers, when we did that convention, we dropped our numbers. Everybody's going to be dropped, and right now, yeah, not, not, not good.”

The leak put one of the party's own Senate nominees on record privately doubting a Trump-aligned push to fire up the base ahead November — and set the stage for fellow Republicans to turn on him in public.

McHenry harangued Paxton for the remarks on Wednesday's episode of CNN's “The Arena with Kasie Hunt.”

“Paxton was made and invented by Donald Trump. He was his savior. He got him through being impeached as attorney general. He got him the nomination to be senator of Texas. Without Trump, he's nothing. He's nothing. And this guy is so stupid. He's biting the hand that made him,” McHenry said. “Ken Paxton is so stupid that he's biting the hand that made him and invented him. He should say, with enormous gratitude, that he's grateful for the president making fun of the way he looks the way he dresses, as he should, because he wouldn't be even considered for that at this stage of the election cycle.”

McHenry, who described himself as “the most pro Paxton person in this building,” continued to blister Paxton over the gaffe.

“And that's what I got for you at this late stage of the game — absolutely astronomically stupid, of the first order. We'll be talking about this as one of the dumbest moments in a really bad election cycle,” he said.

McHenry was not the only Republican attacking Paxton over the comments. Veteran Republican strategist Karl Rove, whom McHenry described as largely responsible for turning the state of Texas red in the first place, also turned on Paxton and his record.

“If John Cornyn were the nominee, this race would be over,” Rove told the Texas Tribune in a recent interview. “When you've got a guy who's got multiple girlfriends and $200,000 worth of improvements in his house from a corrupt business guy for whom he does favors — I mean, can you make this (CENSORED) up?”

“Really, in the last 48 hours, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has reached out to me and says, ‘We're losing.’ Ken Paxton has sent me several emails saying, ‘I'm losing. I need your help.’ Even the Republicans are admitting that they're behind,” Rove added.

Taken together, the backlash underscores Paxton's position heading into the fall: a nominee whose own party's most prominent voices are publicly airing doubts about his record and his electability, with Rove's account of outreach from Cruz and Paxton himself indicating the concern extends into the campaign. The November election now stands as the test of a race that, by Rove's telling, Republicans privately concede they are losing.