The start of Jeanine Pirro’s Fox News show was delayed on Saturday night due to “technical difficulties.”
When Justice with Judge Jeanine returned, critics said the host had even more difficulties of her own.
Pirro was accused of looking “tipsy” and “disheveled” when she appeared close to 15 minutes after the scheduled start of the show. As The Wrap reported, via Yahoo! Entertainment , Pirro’s speech was noticeably loose during the program, and at times she struggled with her words as she defended President Donald Trump’s handling of the coronavirus crisis.
“Just the other … day the president talked, or was hoping, about the possibility of reopening everything on Easter Sunday, uh, in a way where we could kind of come out of this quarantine, as loose as it may be, that we’re involved in,” Pirro said.
The appearance caused a stir on social media, with many sharing video and mocking what they believed to be an altered condition.
“Tonight could be the end of Judge Jeanine Pirro,” noted the political blog Palmer Report on Twitter . “Fox News doesn’t exactly have a lot of standards for its hosts. But showing up an entire segment late for your own show, and appearing to be severely drunk on-air, might be a bridge too far even for Fox.”
. @LisaMarieBoothe reacts to President Trump considering a target date for easing Coronavirus restrictions by Easter Sunday in order to restart the economy. Check it out. pic.twitter.com/NUqHt4yUKp
— Jeanine Pirro (@JudgeJeanine) March 29, 2020
Others said it appeared as if Pirro was starting to nod off while listening to a guest speaking. Clips of her loose speech garnered some viral attention on Twitter, especially among those already critical of Fox News.
Pirro had been facing criticism for her early statements downplaying the severity of the coronavirus crisis, echoing the message from Trump predicting that the outbreak would quickly be over. The Fox News host has since addressed the virus outbreak in more serious tones, but continues to show support for Trump’s handling of the crisis and defends him against critics who say he has not done enough to prepare for the pandemic.
Others who joined Trump in downplaying the coronavirus outbreak have faced larger consequences. Fox Business host Trish Regan had her primetime show pulled not long after she called the attention around the outbreak an “impeachment scam” meant to hurt Trump. The network said the move was part of a larger shuffle to devote more time to news on the pandemic. Regan announced this week that she was leaving the network .
As the Washington Examiner reported, Pirro coupled her new seriousness regarding COVID-19 with more positive statements about the U.S. economy, saying that she was confident Americans would be able to pull through the crisis together.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Fox News said in a statement to The Inquisitr , “Jeanine Pirro was broadcasting from her home for the first time when she encountered several technical difficulties which impacted the quality of her show, including the loss of a teleprompter. As we have previously said, we are operating with a reduced staff working remotely to ensure the health and safety of our employees in these unprecedented times.”