VIDEO: White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany gets emotional while discussing Ravi Zacharias' influence on her faith

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany recently got emotional while discussing the passing of renowned Christian apologist Ravi Zacharias, who died Tuesday morning from a rare form of cancer.

During an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network, McEnany explained how Zacharias' lifetime of reasoned defense of Christianity helped equip her during her time at Oxford University, an institution prevalent with distinguished atheist scholars.

"It's a huge loss. You know, my dad said to me that Billy Graham was the great evangelist, and I think Ravi Zacharias is the great apologist," McEnany said as tears welled up in her eyes.

"To have someone from an academic place, as an apologist could equip you with those arguments where you didn't have to check your brain at the door when you became a Christian where there is the intellectual foundation for everything we believe," McEnany explained. "There's prophecy. There's the human cell. There's the amazing creation of the human body and all of its complexity and the planet, the universe."

EXCLUSIVE: Kayleigh McEnany's Emotional Tribute To Ravi Zachariasyoutu.be

"And he put a philosophical and academic rationale for the heart that I had for Christ, but gave me the ability to go to Oxford, where there are renowned atheist scholars who try to say there's no intellectual undergirding for Christianity," she continued. "Ravi Zacharias, who happened to have an office at Oxford was the person who provided the counter to that, the intelligence behind why we believe what we believe."

McEnany spent a year studying politics and international relations abroad at Oxford while she was pursuing an undergraduate degree from Georgetown University. Ravi Zacharias International Ministries has operated a study center at Oxford since 2005.

Zacharias, an immensely popular Christian author, speaker, and apologist, spent the better portion of his life defending the faith by answering questions of origins, morality, and ultimate destiny and training others to do the same.

His organization, with its stated mission of "helping the thinker believe and the believer think" now employs almost 100 Christian apologists in 15 countries around the world.

"He is someone I'll meet in heaven and rest assured his legacy will always be here and he will continue to change lives," McEnany said.