Barnaby Joyce says it is an “absurdity’ to call Liberal frontbencher Andrew Hastie a “traitor” — even as One Nation promotes a cartoon making that reference eight times.

Joyce extended an olive branch to Hastie on Thursday night amid growing furore over the cartoon.

“Mr Hastie feels great umbrage about it. And for that, I apologise,” One Nation’s Treasury spokesman said on News24.

“Nothing to do with me, but I apologise, and I respect his service, like I respect my family’s service, and anybody else who served this nation.”

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has repeatedly denied calling Hastie a traitor, insisting: “It is a satirical cartoon, for Christ’s sake”.

Joyce was asked why he was the one apologising.

“I don’t believe Mr Hastie is a traitor. That’s an absurdity. He’s not,” said Joyce.

“If you feel hurt by that, because, you think it’s too close to the bone, even though it’s a cartoon — And I’m not making excuses because it’s a cartoon, but it wasn’t actually said by anybody in One Nation to him — then nonetheless, it should be apologised for, so I apologise.”

Politicians of all stripes have closed ranks around Hastie, a former special forces soldier.

He has lashed out at “glass-jawed” Hanson, branding her and Joyce “lying cowards” after she refused to take down the offending sketch and said he was a “wanker”.

Tension between the two politicians stems from the Liberal MP testifying during the defamation trial of now-accused war criminal Ben Roberts-Smith, who Hastie served with in the SAS.

An unlikely coalition of politicians, including staunch adversaries, has also stood up to defend the conservative Liberal frontbencher.

“I think how Pauline Hanson has treated Andrew Hastie is appalling,” Labor minister Madeleine King told News24 on Thursday, echoing calls for the senator to take down the video.

The attack on a decorated member of the Australian Defence Force was “despicable”, she said.

King condemned the One Nation leader for backing away from the traitor label on Wednesday, when she said the cartoon was satire and accused Hastie of “making a mountain out of a molehill”.

“She’s just got this habit of gaslighting … what she is doing is accusing someone of one of the most serious things you possibly can,” she said.

Fellow army veteran and Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie also took issue with Hanson’s comments.

“That woman is nothing less than a bloody coward,” she told ABC Radio.

“She always has been, and she always will be. She wouldn’t last one day in that goddamn uniform.

“Those cartoons (are) absolutely disgusting. They are full of bloody violence.”

-with AAP