Adobe Stock / Africa Studio
From glass-ceiling-shattering Westchester County judge and district attorney to conservative TV pundit and elite Trump-era spokesperson, part-time Rye resident Jeanine Pirro has worn many hats over her 40-plus-year career.
The Elmira, NY-born Jeanine Pirro cut her teeth in the legal world, first as a Westchester County assistant district attorney championing the victims of domestic violence and prosecuting the perpetrators. A string of high-profile successes and media appearances propelled the sometimes-divisive Westchesterite to greater heights — including being named the first woman judge in the county and later the first woman to be elected Westchester district attorney, a position she held for more than a decade.
Following two unsuccessful U.S. and State Senate campaigns, Pirro turned to the world of television, launching the successful Judge Jeanine Pirro on The CW and Justice With Judge Jeanine, which aired Saturday nights on FOX News from 2008 to 2022. Recently, we caught up with Judge Pirro as she started her brand-new gig as permanent cohost of one of cable TV’s most watched news programs, The Five.
View this post on Instagram
Now that you’re going to be sharing the studio with cohosts, will you have to adapt your on-air personality?
I’ve thought about that. This is the end of the first full week on The Five, which is the number-one show on all cable news, and I haven’t changed who I am. I think that the long run I had with Justice With Judge Jeanine was because I was always clear about who I was; it was never a scenario where I had this face for this or this look for that. I think that’s why I kept getting elected in Westchester County: What you see is what you get. The only difference with The Five is that it’s a lot more fun.
The Trump family tweeted support in 2018 for the idea of floating you as a Supreme Court nominee. Would you ever consider running for local or state office again?
You know what? I did it five times. And I am not interested. I mean, there are times when I say I would do things differently as I look at the state of politics across the city, the county, and the country, but that ship has sailed. I feel that right now my best contribution is talking about the way I think things should be done. But make no mistake, as I look back at all the careers that I’ve had and a four-year syndicated television show with Warner Brothers, the most satisfying job that I have ever had in my life was as district attorney in Westchester County. It was the ability to settle scores, to prioritize the interests of the silent victims of crime.
View this post on Instagram
What are your thoughts on expanding the Supreme Court with additional justices?
I think it would be a mistake to expand the court to more than nine judges. Even Ruth Bader Ginsburg indicated that she thought that it was a bad idea. The fundamental premise behind expanding the court is that you can then get more of your people on the court, to make it more political a court as opposed to a court that is based on the law.
“As I look back at all the careers that I’ve had and a four-year syndicated television show with Warner Brothers, the most satisfying job that I have ever had in my life was as district attorney in Westchester County.”
Do you have any predictions for the November 2022 midterm elections?
Unless things change drastically, I can’t imagine that the Democrats are not going to suffer. And I think the thing that caught the attention of most Americans was leaving Afghanistan. When you leave Afghanistan, and you mouthed, “We’re not going to leave anyone behind,” and then you leave people behind, you don’t even know what the number is, and it’s left to generous charitable individuals, former veterans of Christian organizations, to fly people out to avoid the medieval barbarism that is meeting those people who supported the United States. It’s a sad state of affairs, because we as Americans always believe that the cavalry will come for us. That was a long answer to your question. I think that they will suffer in November.
