During Greta Van Susteren’s toothless interview with Donald Trump about his plan to bar Muslims from entering the U.S., Trump announced, “I have Muslim friends, Greta, and they’re wonderful people.” Van Susteren did not call out that obvious baloney.

Van Susteren seemed to genuinely have a problem with Trump’s latest bigotry but she also seemed uninterested in making any serious challenge to it.

“Is that your view?” Van Susteren asked about Trump’s statement made earlier in the day, calling “for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on.”

“Absolutely,” Trump said, not surprisingly. Then he used that facile question to launch a self-promoting diatribe: “We have problems going on, nobody wants to talk about the problem. …He [President Obama] doesn’t want to address the real problem. …When you have a president like that, you’re never gonna solve problems.”

Van Susteren put up a mild challenge: “What about the members of our U.S. military who are Muslims, who are serving overseas tonight? What do you to say to them? They want to come home.”

“They’ll come home and we have to be vigilant. We have to take care of the Muslims that are living here but we have to be vigilant,” Trump replied.

That’s quite an FU to our Muslim soldiers – who are doing what Trump avoided when he had the chance, i.e. actually serving our country. But Van Susteren didn’t challenge Trump any further on the subject.

“I have Muslim friends, Greta, and they’re wonderful people,” Trump said.

Van Susteren obviously didn’t buy it. She asked if the “complete shutdown” applied “to your Muslim friends?”

“This does not apply to people living in the country except that we have to be vigilant,” Trump replied.

Van Susteren, an attorney, did not point out that Trump’s plan would probably require an unlikely act of Congress and would likely be struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court.  The rest of her “challenge” consisted of reading criticism from other candidates who called Trump’s rhetoric “unhinged,” “ridiculous” and “outrageous.”

But as if to make sure not to come off too harshly, Van Susteren ended by pointing out that Trump is up by 8 points in Iowa, according to a new CNN poll. “What do you attribute your numbers up 8%?” she asked. Yeah, that’s a real probing question, alright, 

“I think people want protection. I think they want strength,” Trump answered.

And then as she ended the interview, Van Susteren said, “I do know there’s a packed room of people waiting for you.”

Fox News: where even the most heinous rhetoric is accepted if you’re part of the Republican family.

Watch it below, from the December 7 On The Record