Fox’s Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Pastor Robert Jeffress whitewashed Donald Trump’s less-than-stellar evangelical bona fides but promoted him as the guy for evangelicals to vote for anyway – because Trump has gone along with Fox’s crusade against Planned Parenthood.

In a recent article in the Washington Examiner, conservative and Fox News contributor Byron York noted Trump’s “casual and disengaged characterization of religious faith” at the Family Leadership Summit in Iowa that did not go over well with the audience there.

But Hasselbeck and Jeffress to the Trump rescue!

Hasselbeck played a clip of part what caused the grumbling York witnessed: Trump saying that he goes to church and loves God but if he does something wrong, he just tries to make it right. “I don’t bring God into that picture. I don’t.” She left out the part where Trump mocked Holy Communion: “When I drink my little wine — which is about the only wine I drink — and have my little cracker, I guess that is a form of asking for forgiveness, and I do that as often as possible because I feel cleansed.”

Hasselbeck's first question for Jeffress was, “What is it about Donald Trump that appeals to Christians and evangelicals?” In other words, Trump's appeal was a given.

Jeffress said that if any other candidate said in any other election year what Trump did, “he would be toast with evangelicals by this point.”

But this year is different, according to Jeffress, because “I believe evangelicals, like all Americans, are so concerned with the downward spiral of this country, they’re willing to overlook those comments if it means getting a leader who can reverse the status quo which Ronald Reagan said is Latin for “the mess we’re in.” …Rightly or wrongly, many evangelicals believe Donald Trump can be that leader.”

Hasselbeck prodded for more Trump praise. "What is it about him that convinces the evangelicals that he can get the job done?" she asked.

Because Planned Parenthood!

JEFFRESS: I think again it is a dissatisfaction with the status quo. And there’s absolutely no better illustration than the debacle at Planned Parenthood. …Planned Parenthood has been in the federal budget since 1970. That means under Republican presidents, under Republican congresses that Planned Parenthood has gotten billions of dollars to kill millions of babies. And I think many evangelicals look at that, they look at Republicans and Democrats and they say “a pox on both your houses. Let’s get a leader like Donald Trump who might be able to do something to change this.”

In reality, Planned Parenthood gets no money from the federal government to perform abortions. But Hasselbeck didn't think it necessary to correct Jeffress' falsehood.

“He just recently declared that he is in fact pro-life,” Hasselbeck said agreeably, without noting that Trump has previously declared himself “very pro-choice.”

Jeffress said that if Republicans nominate a candidate who’s “not really considered to be truly conservative, I think evangelicals may stay home.” But, Jeffress also suggested that would be apocalyptic. “I also think evangelicals are energized in 2016 to be sure there’s not a third term of Barack Obama in Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders. And I believe a lot of evangelicals believe 2016 may be the last time to reverse the downward spiral of this country we all love so much.”

Watch Fox News stump for Trump with evangelicals below, from the July 31 Fox & Friends.