Speaking to CNN this Saturday, former advisor to President Ronald Reagan and “lifelong evangelical” Peter Wehner slammed evangelical supporters of President Trump, saying that they see him as a champion of their cause despite his moral failings — many of which are in direct contrast to the principles evangelicals claim to uphold.

“The bottom line is that [Trump] will fight for them,” Wehner said. “Not that he himself is of Christian faith. Not even he himself is a manifestation of Christian virtues, but they feel like they’re involved in an existential struggle against a malicious enemy that they consider to be the American Left. And Trump will try and vanquish that enemy.”

According to Wehner, evangelicals think Trump is bringing “a gun to a cultural knife fight,” and that he “hates the same people that they hate. And that he’ll employ means that’ll get it done.”

Although Wehner has been a fixture in past GOP administrations, he’s been a vocal Trump critic.

“I think it’s been tremendously discrediting to the Christian faith,” Wehner continued. “I think it’s shown to a watching world a tremendous amount of hypocrisy.”

“After all, this ‘character counts’ and ‘personal integrity’ and political leadership was central to what a lot of evangelicals argued when Bill Clinton was president,” he added. “And now that it’s Donald Trump, they’ve decided to push it aside, which means for them, that reality is a means to an end, not an end. It was something to be used as a political weapon.”

“I think a lot of these white evangelical leaders are doing more to hurt Christianity than the so-called New Atheists ever could,” he concluded.

Watch the full interview below, via CNN:

Featured image via screen grab/YouTube