Fox News abruptly—and without explanation—pulled the Saturday night broadcast of Justice with Judge Jeanine off the air. The move came after a tumultuous week, where the network distanced itself from Islamophobic remarks by Pirro and a white supremacist gunman killed 51 Muslim worshippers at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand.
Viewers looking for Pirro’s take on this past week’s events instead saw a rerun of Scandalous, a Fox News docu-series that typically revisits past scandals of members of the Democratic Party. And at least one viewer was upset the network took Pirro off the air. President Trump angrily tweeted on Sunday morning that Fox News should “bring back” Pirro’s show and said the “Fake News Media, is using every trick in the book to SILENCE a majority of our Country.”
It was in her broadcast last weekend that Pirro had sparked outrage. During her program, she had taken aim at Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Democrat and practicing Muslim Congresswoman from Michigan. The Fox News host noted Omar wears a hijab and used it as evidence to suggest the Congresswoman was not loyal to the country. “Is her adherence to this Islamic doctrine indicative of her adherence to Shariah law, which in itself is antithetical to the United States Constitution?” Pirro asked.
The response to her anti-Muslim remarks was swift and ferocious. And even her home network, which routinely bristles and doubles down in the face of any criticism of its on-air talent, put out a defensive statement, saying Pirro’s remarks “do not reflect those of the network and we have addressed the matter with her directly.” No further details of how the network “addressed the matter” with Pirro was given, however, and she refused to apologize.
While longtime Fox News primetime host Bill O’Reilly abruptly departed the network and lost his popular show with no forewarning—after a wave of sexual assault allegations against him became public—it’s not at all clear if Pirro has broadcast her last program for Fox. It’s very possible the network decided not to risk further controversy after the Christchurch terror attack against Muslims on Friday and put Pirro on the bench until tensions cooled.
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