‘This Guy is So Stupid!’ Republican CNN Panelist Goes Scorched Earth on Ken Paxton Over Leaked Audio Trashing Trump

Former Republican lawmaker Patrick McHenry branded Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton a stone cold bozo for griping about President Donald Trump’s Republican midterm convention.

McHenry went off on Paxton during a Wednesday afternoon appearance on CNN, hours after The New York Times reported leaked audio of Paxton criticizing the inaugural event.

Paxton should only be praising Trump, whether he’s in public or not, McHenry said, after the president backed him and not incumbent Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) in the state’s Senate race. Now he just sounds like an ingrate who is sailing towards defeat at the hands of Democrat James Talarico, he said.

“Without Donald Trump, he’s nothing. He’s nothing!” McHenry vented. “This guy is so stupid, he’s biting the hand that made him.”

The CNN panel started to crack up as McHenry got worked up.

‘Ken Paxton is so stupid that h’s biting the hand that made him and invented him,” McHenry went on. “He should say with enormous gratitude, that he’s grateful for the president making fun of the way he looks and the way he dresses — as he should, because he wouldn’t even be considered [without Trump’s endorsement].”

His co-panelists continued to eat up his rant. McHenry — who represented North Carolina in the House from 2005 to 2025 — kept it rolling as he got the positive feedback, reiterating he felt Paxton’s complaints were “absolutely astronomically stupid.”

“We will be talking about one of the dumbest moments in a really bad election cycle,” he added.

“I’m just going to give you the floor,” The Arena host Kasie Hunt marveled. “The show is yours.”

Their segment followed the leaked audio report where Paxton was heard whining about how the GOP convention didn’t give Republicans a polling boost.

“To be honest with you, the numbers — when we did that convention — it dropped our numbers,” Paxton said. “Everybody’s numbers dropped. Right now, yeah, not good.”

Trump was later asked for his response to the report when he took questions inside the Oval Office on Wednesday afternoon.

“Well I haven’t heard that, but the convention was amazing,” he said.

Watch above.

Jason Cohen contributed to this story.

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