Fox News Pulled Jeanine Pirro’s Show After Her Islamophobic Comments. Trump Wants It Back On.

Further proof of the host’s direct line into Trump’s brain.

Jeanine Pirro in the Trump Tower lobby in 2017.Albin Lohr-Jones/picture-alliance/dpa/AP

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

Fans of Jeanine Pirro’s Fox News show, Justice with Judge Jeanine, would have been disappointed on Saturday night after the network did not air the series during its regular time slot. Included among them was President Donald Trump: On Twitter on Sunday morning, he called for Fox News to “bring back” the host. “The Radical Left Democrats, working closely with their beloved partner, the Fake News Media, is using every trick in the book to SILENCE a majority of our Country,” the president tweeted. “Fox must stay strong and fight back with vigor. Stop working soooo hard on being politically correct, which will only bring you down, and continue to fight for our Country.”

Pirro drew controversy last week after she suggested on the show that Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) believed in Sharia law because she wore hijab, and that her beliefs put her at odds with the Constitution. Fox News condemned Pirro’s remarks, noting in a statement that her views “do not reflect those of the network.” On Saturday night, it re-ran an episode of a documentary series instead. The network has not commented on whether the show will air again next week. CNN reported Sunday morning that Pirro has been suspended, citing an anonymous source. 

“My intention was to ask a question and start a debate, but of course because one is Muslim does not mean you don’t support the Constitution,” Pirro said in a statement on Monday. 

Several companies, including NerdWallet, LetGo, and Allergan, which produces Botox, pulled their advertisements from Pirro’s show following the comments. But the controversy seems to have caused President Trump to double down on support for his favorite TV judge. As my colleague Pema Levy has reported, the host has an unusual amount of influence with the president: 

Even at a network that more or less drafts Trump’s talking points, Pirro stands out for her influence. As Fox’s loudest voice on legal matters and a personal friend of Trump, she shapes his views on the defining issues of his presidency: the investigations into his inner circle, campaign collusion with Russia, and obstruction. 

…The influence of Pirro and other Fox hosts has sometimes left White House staffers scrambling to control the damage. Trump’s aides have reportedly had to put out fires that Pirro lights; during her Oval Office meeting with the president last fall, Trump’s chief of staff, John Kelly, told Pirro that she wasn’t “helping things.” (Meanwhile, other top White House officials deliberately pushed Trump to spend more time watching Fox because he was growing so agitated by what he saw on CNN and MSNBC, New York magazine reported.) The White House press team appears to have incorporated Pirro’s show into its communications strategy, regularly dispatching spokespeople to appear on the show—partly because Trump is watching, according to the Washington Post, and partly to prevent the president from calling in himself, as he did earlier this year. Trump has also granted Pirro several exclusive interviews.”

Read the full profile of Pirro here. 

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate