What Jeanine Pirro's Fox News Colleagues Really Think About Her Brash Persona

Fox's "The Five" co-host Jeanine Pirro has frequently found herself in hot water due to what she has said on live television, like many of her similarly messy, and scandalous, Fox colleagues. From the TV personality's anti-Muslim remarks about Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar to Pirro's feud with Whoopi Goldberg, she's completely unbothered by her assertive, even combative approach to news — but some of Pirro's colleagues feel differently. The anchor finally faced the consequences of her own actions in 2021 when Fox was slapped with a $1.6 billion lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems as a result of many of their most popular programs — including Pirro's at the time — promoting lies that Dominion had rigged the 2020 presidential election in favor of Joe Biden.

A November 2020 email from a Fox producer was very telling of how their staff felt about Pirro — a well-known, and very vocal, supporter of Donald Trump — at the time. The email, obtained by NPR in 2022, revealed that higher-ups were warned about the former New York judge, detailing, "She is pulling conspiracy theories from dark corners of the Web to justify then-President Donald Trump's lies that the election had been stolen from him."

And, when Fox execs made the call to pull Pirro's November 7, 2020 show, it was reportedly because they thought she was completely unhinged. In a filing from the Dominion lawsuit against the network, it was noted that Justin Wells, executive producer of "Tucker Carlson Tonight," said, "They took her off cuz she was being crazy. Optics are bad. But she is crazy." Additionally, Jerry Andrews, who executive-produced her show, described Pirro as "nuts."

Jeanine Pirro wasn't the only one to blame for the Dominion lawsuit, of course, but her comments about her Black colleague Harold Ford Jr. on "The Five" were solely on her. In a February 6, 2024 conversation about NYC Mayor Eric Adams, Pirro asked Ford if he considered it offensive that Adams called his predominantly Black administration "chocolate." Ford immediately came to the mayor's defense, clarifying, "Well I think he was trying to say that there is a vast amount of African-American leadership." Co-host Greg Gutfield interjected: "I think it's a compliment," jokingly adding that Ford was "like my Cadbury Egg." Weighing in, Dana Perino called Ford her "Snickers." 

Pirro seemingly thought neither of those descriptions fit Ford properly, decidedly calling him an "Oreo" instead (via the Daily Beast). This rightfully shocked her colleagues, who awkwardly laughed at the comment. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, "Oreo" is an offensive term used to describe "a Black person who is perceived as adopting the characteristic mentality and behavior of white middle-class people." A clearly shocked Ford then demanded to know whether the former New York judge had seriously just called him that, and when a nonplussed Pirro confirmed that she did, Ford suddenly went quiet and remained that way for the remainder of their uncomfortable conversation.