Pastor Robert Jeffress of Dallas First Baptist Church said during an appearance on Breitbart News Saturday that particularly during the coronavirus pandemic left-wing groups are trying to drive a wedge between President Trump and his evangelical base and using the crisis to push their radical pro-abortion agenda.

Jeffress, who heads one of the largest evangelical churches in the country, slammed left-wing groups for pushing their political agendas during the coronavirus pandemic — specifically, abortion.

“The left has not given up their agenda. Right here in Texas, Planned Parenthood has sued our state and Gov. Abbott because he declared that abortion is not an essential service during the coronavirus pandemic,” Jeffress said. “In other words, they are suing for the right to have abortions take priority over other surgical procedures and tie up our healthcare workers and our medical facilities during this crisis. That is absurd.”

“You know, Cory Booker described abortion as a sacrosanct belief, and I mean that’s really true,” he continued. “It is almost a religion to Democrats and to the left, their so-called right to murder babies, and we are seeing this carried out right now. They believe in unrestricted abortion,” he said.

The left’s radical position on abortion will only encourage evangelicals to support Trump in even greater numbers in the general election, Jeffress predicted.

“And that’s because Democrats have moved so far to the left on this issue in just three years,” he said, noting the Democrat candidates who had signaled their support for unrestricted abortion. “And to most Americans, that’s not only wrong. It is barbaric.”

Nonetheless, Democrats are attempting to drive a wedge between Trump and his evangelical base, even during the coronavirus pandemic. Jeffress slammed the recent New York Times article that essentially blamed the pandemic on evangelical Christians.

“God doesn’t want us to be paralyzed with panic during this pandemic. He wants us to exercise faith, but He also wants us to exercise common sense,” he explained.

“But what’s really going on here, Matt, is the New York Times and other left-wing groups know that there’s an election coming up in a few months. They know President Trump’s on the glide path to reelection, and they’re trying to do anything they can to separate the president from his evangelical base, thinking maybe he will distance himself from the so-called kooky evangelicals, and they will distance themself from him. Neither is going to happen,” he said.

“President Trump won the evangelical vote in 2016 by 81 percent — largest margin in history. Every time I see the president, I tell him I believe he’s on the path to win an even greater margin than the 81 percent,” he said, praising Trump’s accomplishments, many of which resonate with Americans of faith.

“Without a doubt, it is the irony of all time that it was a secular real estate tycoon from New York City named Donald Trump who has become the most pro-life, pro-religious liberty, pro-Israel president in the history of America,” he said.

That, along with the left’s pursual of its radical left-wing agendas like abortion, especially during the pandemic, will only further rally Trump’s evangelical base, Jeffress suggested, adding that Trump’s likely opponent, Joe Biden (D), must be grilled on the issue.

“I hope that President Trump will wrap unrestricted abortion around Joe Biden’s neck. Make him choke on it because he needs to answer to the American people whether or not he believes that abortion is an essential surgery that needs to take priority in this coronavirus crisis,” he added.