On Fox News, Jeanine Pirro reacts to Trump's 34 guilty verdicts: “We have gone over a cliff in America”
“This is a new era in America, and I think it goes against the ilk of who we are as Americans and our faith in the criminal justice system”
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From May 30, 2024, Fox News coverage of Trump's criminal trial
SHANNON BREAM (ANCHOR): Obviously, an appeal takes time. It could be months. It could be years. Like Andy said, it may be a long time before that is resolved, however it is resolved. But what that leaves is this White House, the Biden-Harris campaign, free now to call President Trump a convicted felon. I gotta say, though, over a year ago when President Trump asked, will you drop out of this race if convicted — or not convicted if indicted, he said, no, because I actually think it will help me in my poll numbers. They've done well in fundraising. He's done well in polling. Does this help or hurt now in the public opinion where he's got to get independent voters, where he's gotta get people who are not necessarily part of his base now that he's got this conviction, which may or may not one day be overturned?
JEANINE PIRRO (FOX CO-HOST): You know, Shannon, I don't have the answer to that question. I want to believe that Americans believe in justice, and I think that in their gut, they realize that there is something that is very wrong here. We have gone over a cliff in America. This verdict is a verdict of someone who was forced to fight a one thousand pound gorilla with both hands tied behind his back. This was a defendant for whom crimes were created, against whom a judge who was picked out of the ordinary, not from the drum, but a judge who was handpicked to — for this defendant, who denied him the ability to fight the way he needed to fight, who brought in crimes that we've never heard of in New York before, where they had dead misdemeanors that they resurrected into felonies based upon nonunanimous verdicts of crimes that are federal over which no state court or no state judge or prosecutor has jurisdiction.
And in the end, with all the smoke and mirrors and 34 counts and a hooker and a guy, according to a federal judge, is a serial perjurer, we have convicted a former president of the United States of America. We've gone over a cliff. The question is to whether or not America will react to this, whether his numbers will go up or down, I don't know. But I do know what I know. And what I know is that this case is riddled with errors. It is reversible. It will not get through to the Appellate Division in the First Department in New York or certainly the Court of Appeals before the next year. And people say, should it go to the Supreme Court? No. It can't go to the Supreme Court unless they exhaust all of the state court appeals.
I am — I've spent 32 years in this system, and I am totally disillusioned. You had a judge and you had a D.A. who literally campaigned on making sure that this president would be indicted. We've got an attorney general who did the same thing. This is a new era in America, and I think it goes against the ilk of who we are as Americans and our faith in the criminal justice system.