Karl Rove-backed Rep. Robert Pittenger (R-NC) told North Carolina high school students that President Donald Trump’s promise to build a southern border wall was just a “euphemism” – Trump was just talking about border security.

At the high school, Pittenger said, “The wall clearly expresses the intent, we must secure the southern border. I think he was conveying that to the American people and letting them know in the simplest, clearest terms.”

Rep. Pittenger then explained that Trump’s most fundamental campaign promise simply serves as a metaphor to increased border security and that some areas of America’s southern border simply cannot have a wall.

“When you get into it, it would be impossible because of the topography,” Pittenger said.

Pittenger also revealed that rather than have a wall, America would be better secured by various technologies such as satellite tracking and drones. Pittenger added that this was always Trump’s intent to improve border security rather than build an actual, physical, wall.

Karl Rove, who backed Rep. Pittenger, took to The Wall Street Journal to attack former White House chief strategist and Breitbart News executive chairman Steve Bannon and Bannon’s war against establishment Republicans.

Karl Rove, who remains out of touch with the conservative and populist base, attacked President Donald Trump’s pardon of Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio and backed establishment Republican Luther Strange against conservative icon Roy Moore in the Alabama run-off primary election earlier this year.

In Rove’s op-ed, he called Bannon’s war against the Republican establishment, a “jihad,” and proceeded to attack conservative candidates such as Kelli Ward, Danny Tarkanian, and Roy Moore. Further, Rove claims through pollster Nate Silver that establishment Republican candidates remain in line with the president’s agenda and even voted alongside the president’s agenda “90 percent of the time.”

The Senate has yet to pass an Obamacare repeal bill, tax reform, or fund a southern border wall, which calls into question how much these establishment Republicans actually support the president’s agenda. The Senate has yet to vote on Trump’s nationalist policies such as funding a southern border wall and passing the RAISE act to restrict legal immigration.

Republican insiders said that having Rove back Pittenger serves as a political risk, in an age where many Republicans try to brand themselves as “Trump Republicans.” The GOP insider said, “He makes it hard for Pittenger to say, ‘I’m a Trump Republican’ because Rove has been so critical of President Trump.”

Andy Yates, Harris’s political consultant, told the Charlotte Business Journal that Pittinger “wants to preserve the status quo of a do-nothing Congress.”

Dr. Mark Harris, a pastor and conservative, will run against Rep. Pittenger in the 2018 mid-term election. Harris only lost to Pittenger in a special election by 134 votes. In an exclusive radio interview, Harris spoke with Breitbart News Saturday on SiriusXM Patriot Channel 125 with Matthew Boyle, Washington political editor for Breitbart News, about standing up against the Republican establishment, including Karl Rove-backed members.

Boyle asked, “Why would Pittenger want to associate himself with Rove,” as Trump told Breitbart News before he was elected that Rove was a “dishonorable guy.”

“I think it probably, as much as anything, demonstrates what we have really been trying to proclaim across this district and that is that they have just lost touch,” Harris said. “Robert Pittenger lost touch.”

“He sold out his district,” Harris told Breitbart News Daily Saturday. “He’s joined the club. He’s not standing on the truest conservative principles. He’s not been effective, and he’s not a leader in the U.S. House.” Harris said there are lines being drawn in Washington between true conservatives and the establishment wing of the GOP.

“It just really demonstrates, if you will, where the lines are being drawn,” Harris explained. “It clearly shows where everyone stands and Robert’s aligning himself with the Karl Roves and the Mitch McConnells and the other Washington elites who have created a swamp and who are all about doing whatever it takes to preserve the status quo.”

Harris described himself as a “firm supporter” of building a wall to secure the border.

“I think that we’ve got to give up the Washington speak that we’ve been hearing over and over again and, again, I’m going to be that leader that has a life record, who won’t back down, who won’t give in, who’s more concerned about doing what’s right for our nation than just getting reelected, and I have a track record of being that kind of leader right here in North Carolina,” Harris said–“standing for conservative Christian values, and I haven’t backed down yet, and I’m not going to back down in Washington, DC.”