Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s pastor called for Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico to be put to death.

Brooks Potteiger, Hegseth’s closest spiritual adviser, made the remarks during an appearance on the “Reformation Red Pill” podcast. The show is hosted by Joshua Haymes, a former intern at Potteiger’s church, according to Huffpost. Haymes also previously claimed that the Bible supports ICE raids.

During the podcast, Potteiger and Haymes described Talarico, a Presbyterian seminarian, as a “demon,” “wolf,” and “enemy of God.”

“First and foremost, we pray that a man like this would be cut to the heart,” Haymes said, adding: “This is where you have imprecatory psalms. This is where you pray strongly … The psalmist is not shy. God, destroy them. Make them as dung on the ground.”

“I pray that God kills him,” he continued. “Ultimately, that means killing his heart and raising him up to new life in Christ.”

Potteiger agreed, saying: “Right, right … We want him crucified with Christ.”

Hegseth’s pastor tried to walk back his comments about Talarico being put to death in a statement after his appearance on the podcast.

“As a Christian, when I pray imprecatory psalms about those who celebrate baby murder, I am not, from my heart, praying for their death. I’m praying for their conversion,” Potteiger said. “That the ‘old man’ would die. That he would be ‘crucified with Christ’ (Pauline language for conversion) and raised to new life, and given a new heart with new desires.”

Talarico responded to Potteiger’s comments in a post on Twitter, writing: “Jesus loves. Christian Nationalism kills. You may pray for my death, Pastor, but I still love you. I love you more than you could ever hate me.”

Talarico is locked in a competitive race for the United States Senate in Texas with scandal-plagued Republican state Attorney General Ken Paxton. Paxton faces a string of legal troubles and scandals, including being impeached by the Texas House, facing 20 charges of misconduct in office, indictments on three felony securities fraud charges, and his wife is divorcing him on ‘biblical grounds’ amid reports of an extramarital affair.

Hegseth’s pastor noticeably had harsher words for Talarico than a man like Paxton.

A recent Fox News poll shows Talarico with a slight advantage over Paxton, 51% – 48%, in the contentious Senate race.

A high-profile election analyst said Talarico may give Democrats a real shot at finally winning a statewide race in Texas given how “awful” Paxton is as a candidate.

“Since 1994, I’ve gotten call after call virtually every day from Texans in politics on the Democratic side, saying, ‘This is the year. We’re finally gonna do it,’” University of Virginia Center for Politics Director Larry Sabato said Thursday in an interview with CNN’s Erin Burnett. “But you know what? I’m starting to believe it’s actually possible this year.”