Just over a week after Republicans suffered devastating losses in the midterm elections, a GOP senator gave a blunt rebuke of Vice President JD Vance’s attempts to blame the shellacking on the Iran war.

Speaking on CNN’s “The Arena” on Thursday, Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) admitted the Democrats “did a better job” of centering Americans’ economic woes in their campaign messaging, and that President Donald Trump’s attempts to pin existing inflation on former President Joe Biden largely fell flat with the American people.

“The economy belongs to President Trump. He might not have fathered this child, but he’s gotta raise it,” Kennedy said.

Host Kasie Hunt then pressed the senator on his own presidential ambitions due to the election results dampening Vance’s chances of securing the Republican nomination.

Kennedy said he would run for reelection in the Senate two years from now but wouldn’t say if he’d seek the GOP nomination, before turning his attention to the vice president.

“I don’t think the vice president did himself any favors by sending out that email or tweet or whatever it was after the election. This loss was not because of Iran. That might have played a part, but I don’t think every statewide Republican in Texas lost their election — every single one — because they think American foreign policy is too interventionist. I mean, put down the crack pipe. It’s a lot deeper than that,” Kennedy said.

Kennedy was referring to the lengthy social media post Vance sent out the day after last week’s elections.

“The reason we lost is the war. The president himself said so last night,” Vance wrote. “Any honest conversation about where we go from here must start there.”

Watch Kennedy’s full appearance on CNN’s “The Arena” here: