Jeanine Pirro went on C-SPAN. It didn't go well.

Written by Madeline Peltz

Published

Jeanine Pirro sipping out of a mug

A September 8 appearance Fox News host Jeanine Pirro made on C-SPAN’s Washington Week to promote her new book backfired after callers confronted her over various controversies she’s generated.

The session began with host Steve Scully asking Pirro about her March 2019 suspension from Fox and the future of her position at the network. Things got worse for Pirro during the cringeworthy question-and-answer session. One caller asked about Democrats “attacking only white people’s guns,” to which Pirro responded by raising concerns about “Black-on-Black crime.” Two other callers confronted Pirro about racist remarks by her and others at Fox News. One man from Texas said he’s “tired of this anti-immigrant, anti-people-with-brown-skin rhetoric that’s coming out of Fox News, coming out of people like you” and linked xenophobia from the president, Pirro, and others at Fox to the orphaned baby President Donald and first lady Melania Trump posed with after the El Paso, Texas, massacre. Pirro responded by getting extremely defensive.

The interview began with Scully asking her whether she’s going to lose her show on Fox and why she was disallowed from appearing on Bill O’Reilly’s Newsmax show.

From the September 8 edition of C-SPAN's Washington Journal

STEVE SCULLY (HOST): Is your job safe at Fox News? What’s going on?

JEANINE PIRRO: All right, let me make one thing clear and put that one to rest. Look, I’ve been at Fox for about, I think it's 8 ½ years now, and I have a show where I'm allowed to do and say what I want. I'm given perfect freedom to say what I want. I have an opinion show. I love my show. I love working at Fox. And, you know, a lot of people talk about, you know, what can be done and what can't be done. The truth is that I'm in a position where I can talk to millions of people, and I can give them the straight talk that they’ve become accustomed to from Justice on Saturday nights and I continue to do that. I'm here with you, I've been on a book tour since my book came out, and I expect to be at Fox for many more years. I have a long-term contract, so all is well. Thank you, though.

A caller named Kevin from Denver, Colorado, mocked Pirro for getting herself suspended from Fox News after she said Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) couldn’t faithfully serve the Constitution because she wears a hijab; the caller also blasted Pirro for championing the white nationalist “great replacement” conspiracy theory that she’s been pushing while promoting her book.

From the September 8 edition of C-SPAN's Washington Journal

KEVIN: Congratulations on your suspension from Fox. You were suspended -- you should share that with the audience -- and before you attack the left about us and what we do to you conservatives, he gets negative coverage because he lies and distorts. Every single morning, every single day we have to tune in to a level of idiocy and instability that this nation has never seen on the left or on the right. Now, you, ma’am, and your network, you keep this alive. Recently, just last week, you said they are, the Democrats are trying to replace you. Now you're saying this to a predominantly older, white audience -- 1% of your audience is Black, probably less than that for your show.

Later, caller Teresa from Tennessee spoke to Pirro about Teresa’s belief that “our white community” is being attacked by Democrats trying to take “only white people’s guns” while “gang members in Chicago, Baltimore, Philadelphia” go unpunished. Pirro responded by expressing concern about “Black-on-Black crime.”

From the September 8 edition of C-SPAN's Washington Journal

TERESA: I feel that the Democrats are attacking only white people’s guns and I’m not being racist but what I'm saying is we legally obtained our guns. We go to buy our firearms, we fill out background checks, and the thing that upsets me the most and I do hope that Donald Trump listens to you, because I know you are a very smart woman and we need people like you talking to Donald Trump. But I fear that he doesn't see what's going on. 

No one is saying one word about taking the guns out of the hands of the gang members in Chicago, Baltimore, Philadelphia. I mean, to us it feels like an attack just on our white community because we do the right thing and just because the Blacks in these communities vote Democrat it’s never mentioned. They get 50 people being shot on weekends by Blacks and innocent Blacks being shot and Democrats say nothing about that. You know, I just feel this attack and I'd like to get your opinion on it. Thank you. I love you.

…

JEANINE PIRRO: I think one of the biggest criminal justice issues in this country, and I’ve talked about it as a DA and as a judge, is Black on Black crime, which unfortunately doesn’t get the attention that it should. And Chicago is a classic example of that. So, other than that, I don’t want to talk about race as it relates to guns.

Perhaps the most sobering of all the calls was from Carol of Elgin, Texas. He connected Fox News and Pirro’s rhetoric to the hate-motivated mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, and told Pirro that “the president’s rhetoric, Fox News’ rhetoric, your rhetoric had helped to orphan” the baby who lost his parents in El Paso. He also demanded that Pirro's “anti-immigrant, anti-people-with-brown-skin” commentary stop. Pirro responded by getting mad and denying that she is racist.

From the September 8 edition of C-SPAN's Washington Journal

CAROL: Our president and our beautiful first lady, they went down to El Paso, Texas, and they posed with a baby that the president's rhetoric, Fox News’ rhetoric, your rhetoric had helped to orphan. And I think this -- this thing about Trump is making America great again, Trump has made America hate again, and it's this hatred of races. I hear it all the time when I see, talk to Republicans and they say, “I went down to Texas and there are all these Mexicans down there and they're all speaking Spanish.” Well, I got news for you. Those weren't Mexicans; those were the Americans. That guy that went down to El Paso to shoot a bunch of Mexicans, he shot a bunch of Americans. And I'm really tired of this anti-immigrant, anti-people-with-brown-skin rhetoric that's coming out of Fox News, coming out of people like you, and coming out of our president. It's demeaning, it's beneath the office, it's beneath you. You used to be a judge -- you know better. It's time that that stopped.

STEVE SCULLY: Thank you, Carol. We’ll get a response.

JEANINE PIRRO: Look, you know what, I refuse to accept your recitation of the facts. You are dead wrong. The problem in this country is not the color of anyone, and don’t you dare accuse me of any kind of issue related to color.

Pirro opened her last book by calling herself an idiot. She carried this title forward with pride in her C-SPAN appearance, in which she refused to listen to a “recitation of the facts.” It's not like her bosses in the Fox News c-suite have any standards to hold her to anyway.