Jeanine Pirro’s absence from “The Five” on Thursday was a tell. Minutes after the Fox News show wrapped, President Trump confirmed that Pirro will become the interim US attorney in Washington, DC, one of the top prosecutor jobs in the country.
Don’t tune into “The Five” expecting a Pirro send-off show; her exit was effective immediately, according to a Fox spokesperson.
This means that one of the most coveted seats in right-wing media is suddenly up for grabs.
“The Five” often ranks as the top-rated show across all of cable news and is a proven launchpad for MAGA media superstardom. It is also an important plank of Fox’s profits since the high ratings for the 5pm talk show help propel viewership for the rest of the evening.
Fox News says it will rely on a rotation of Fox personalities to fill the seat until a new co-host is named.
Numerous Fox hosts and contributors have filled in for Pirro in the past, including Katie Pavlich, Kayleigh McEnany and Kellyanne Conway. Fox contributor Joey Jones sat in Pirro’s usual seat on Thursday.
Of all the Fox figures Trump has tapped to fill out his administration this year — by one count, he’s approaching two dozen — Pirro is one of the most bellicose.
Trump and Pirro have had a friendly relationship for decades. (She was hanging out at Mar-a-Lago long before Trump even ran for president.) One of her books, titled “Don’t Lie to Me,” was even dedicated to Trump.
Pirro’s staunch defense of Trump and derision of his critics made her a favorite of the network’s Trump-aligned fan base.
And Trump was a regular (and fawning) guest when Pirro hosted a weekend evening show called “Justice with Judge Jeanine.”
In 2020, however, her Trump loyalty wound up angering her bosses and wounding Fox’s parent company when she promoted his voter fraud lies.
Pirro’s name came up repeatedly in Dominion Voting Systems’ blockbuster lawsuit against Fox News.
Documents obtained by Dominion during the legal battle showed that her own executive producer, Jerry Andrews, wrote to a colleague in 2020 that one of Pirro’s proposed monologues was “rife with conspiracy theories and BS and is yet another example why this woman should never be on live television.”
During one internal argument over Pirro’s conspiratorial pro-Trump commentary, Andrews called her a “reckless maniac.”
In 2022, she was moved onto “The Five.”
Pirro’s Fox persona has been ripe for “SNL” impersonation over the years. Her Fox colleagues truly respect her, though, specifically for her legal background, including her time as DA of Westchester County, New York.
While her law-enforcement work ended 20 years ago, she is recognized as a trailblazer and still brings a lawyerly mindset to TV segments, Fox staffers said.
In a statement on Thursday, the network said, “Jeanine Pirro has been a wonderful addition to The Five over the last three years and a longtime beloved host across FOX News Media who contributed greatly to our success throughout her 14-year tenure. We wish her all the best in her new role in Washington.”
Pirro is replacing archconservative activist Ed Martin, whose conduct in the US attorney job was so aberrant that even some Republican lawmakers spoke out against him.
Fox News has barely covered any of the many Martin controversies, so Pirro’s viewers may be unfamiliar with the reasons why she is, as The New York Times put it, ditching “a lucrative TV career, on short notice,” to bail Trump out of “an embarrassing jam.”
But her willingness to do so is certainly not surprising.
“We should respect her experience” as a former elected official and prosecutor, CNN legal analyst and former federal prosecutor Elliot Williams said on “The Source with Kaitlan Collins” Thursday night.
However, he continued, “if you look at the 20 years since then, she has demonstrated a willingness to step out for the President of the United States in a role” — U.S. attorney for the nation’s capital — “that really ought to be independent of the White House.”
“We have to remember, these are very important management roles,” Williams said. “This is the biggest U.S. Attorney’s Office in the country.” He said Trump picking Pirro is “quite frankly, an affront to the office.”
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