Fox News' Jeanine Pirro Calls for Paul Ryan to Step Down

Jeanine Pirro

A Fox News personality — whom President Trump had urged his supporters to watch Saturday night — called on House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) to step down, saying he had done a disservice to Trump by failing to pass a high-profile health-care bill last week, according to The Washington Post.

At the top of her show, Jeanine Pirro, host of “Justice With Judge Jeanine,” delivered a scathing commentary on Ryan’s performance in the days leading up to the decision to pull the House Republican bill to overhaul the Affordable Care Act.

“It failed within the first 70 days of President Donald Trump’s administration, a president who made the replacement of Obamacare the hallmark of his campaign and then used valuable political capital to accomplish it,” said Pirro, placing the blame squarely on Ryan.

Earlier Saturday, Trump took to Twitter to urge his followers to tune into Pirro’s show, saying:

Watch @JudgeJeanine on @FoxNews tonight at 9:00 P.M.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 25, 2017

In public statements since the bill’s collapse, both Trump and Vice President Pence have continued to support Ryan as speaker.


On Sunday, during an appearance on “Fox News Sunday,” White House chief of staff Reince Priebus called Trump's tweet and Pirro's call for Ryan to step down “coincidental.”

“There is no preplanning here,” Priebus said, adding that Trump promoted Pirro's show on Twitter “because he loves Judge Jeanine” and wanted to do her a favor.