Fox's Judge Pirro calls Christine Blasey Ford a "fraud": A "victim of sexual assault remembers more"

"I know. I did this for 30 years," Pirro said Wednesday while co-hosting "The Five." "I've prosecuted rape cases"

By Joseph Neese

Deputy Editor in Chief

Published October 4, 2018 10:05AM (EDT)

Jeanine Pirro; Christine Blasey Ford (Getty/AP)
Jeanine Pirro; Christine Blasey Ford (Getty/AP)

Jeanine Pirro, the Fox News judge whose admiration for Donald Trump knows no bounds, defended the president's attacks of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford by asserting that "every woman in America who has been a victim of sexual assault remembers more" than the accuser of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

"I know. I did this for 30 years," Pirro said while co-hosting "The Five" on Wednesday. "I've prosecuted rape cases."

In his takedown of Ford at a Mississippi campaign rally the night before, Trump seemed to suggest that the psychologist had not been forthcoming about how much she had to drink on the night she alleges Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her in an attempted rape.
"I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know," the president said in a mocking tone to a rowdy uproar from the crowd. "What neighborhood was it in? I don't know. Where's the house? I don't know. Upstairs? Downstairs? Where was it? I don't know, but I had one beer. That's the only thing I remember."

Following Pirro's unsubstantiated claim, "The Five" co-host Juan Williams, the lone liberal on the panel who was dismissed as a "snowflake" as he defended Ford, interrupted Pirro to ask if she was, in fact, speaking on behalf of every woman in America.

"No, what I'm telling you is – for you to say, because Donald Trump is pointing out inconsistencies in her own testimony that he is suggesting to other women who have been victimized that – 'Hey, look. We're not going to believe you' – is absolutely not the case," Pirro responded.

However, Pirro did not stop there.

As if in a courtroom, she continued to gnaw away at Ford's testimony as she mounted her defense of Trump. According to Pirro, Ford's inability to remember some of the details about an attempted rape that allegedly occurred in the 1980s deemed her not credible.

"The women who have been victimized are asking the same question. Why do I remember when I was raped? Why do I remember who was there? Why do I remember who the first person was I spoke with?" she continued.

But Williams refused to let the president off that easily.

"Here's what I know," he said, "most women who are victimized don't even report it, because they fear this kind of behavior that tells them to shut up."

"What they fear is not the president of the United States and the politics," Pirro replied. "What they fear is the abuser."

"How about a sham investigation," Williams asked, referencing the FBI probe of Kavanaugh ordered by the White House, "in which we don't interview the abuser?" (Neither Ford or Kavanaugh were interviewed by the FBI in its probe to verify her claims.)

On "Fox & Friends the next morning, Pirro called "everything" about Dr. Ford's testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee last week.

"This fear of flying, that was a fraud. This whole idea of needing two doors, that was a fraud. Everything!"

Unlike Pirro, many of Trump's biggest fans in conservative media conceded Wednesday that he "chose to blow it" by breaking his apparent tactic of "laying low" to make fun of alleged sexual misconduct victim Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, as he challenged his supporters to "think of your son, think of your husband."

“The tactic of the president laying low has been lauded by all sides,” said "Fox & Friends" co-host Brian Kilmeade. His comments marked an unusual break from the unfettered praise Trump is used to receiving from the hosts of his self-proclaimed "favorite" morning show.

Kilmeade's former Fox News colleague Bill O'Reilly, himself the subject of multiple sexual misconduct claims, echoed those sentiments. "Although many people do not believe Christine Ford’s allegations against Brett Kavanaugh, it would be wise for the president and other elected officials to avoid comment on her testimony," he wrote on his website.


By Joseph Neese

Joseph Neese is Salon's Deputy Editor in Chief. You can follow him on Twitter: @josephneese.

MORE FROM Joseph Neese