Fox & Friends' Elisabeth Hasselbeck stretched to credit Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump with granting Sen. John McCain “a theoretical apology” for his attack on McCain's military record. 

Trump took to The O'Reilly Factor on July 20  to defend his now-infamous accusation that McCain -- a POW during the Vietnam war -- is “not a war hero,” an attack Trump followed by sarcastically saying, “He is a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren't captured.” Trump has repeatedly refused to apologize to McCain for the attack, and he insisted to Bill O'Reilly that his remarks meant he believes McCain is a war hero. Trump told O'Reilly, “I have respect for Sen. McCain. I used to like him a lot. I supported him. I raised a lot of money for his campaign against President Obama, and certainly if there was a misunderstanding, I would totally take that back. But hopefully I said it correctly, and certainly shortly thereafter I said it correctly.”

Fox & Friends' Elisabeth Hasselbeck credited Trump with giving McCain a “theoretical apology” the next morning. Co-host Steve Doocy added, “And he's still steamed that John McCain referred to his supporters as crazy. You know, when you look at it in total, and given the fact that he did not back down, you gotta figure that when he was talking about the capture part, he was just kind of joking around -- a little trash talk there.”

Fox News has been running a full-throated defense for Trump over his attack on McCain, despite the fact that even the Wall Street Journal, also owned by Fox News Channel's Rupert Murdoch, is now calling out right-wing media pundits entertaining Trump's candidacy.