Sometimes parody is not far from truth. To non-Fox News viewers, one of the network’s biggest stars, Judge Jeanine Pirro, is better known via Cecily Strong’s shouty wino lampoon on SNL. Thing is, she’s at least as shouty in real life as she is on late night sketch comedy TV. For proof, witness what happened when Geraldo Rivera dared suggest that her favorite former president, Donald J. Trump, may not have been as tough with Putin as he likes to claim.
The outburst happened on Tuesday’s episode of The Five, Fox News’ round-table chat session. Ever since Russia invaded Ukraine almost four weeks ago, Trump and his cronies have been claiming it would never have happened on his watch. Why? Because Trump is a self-professed tough guy who scared his good friend Russian President Vladimir Putin. (Or maybe, some have argued, Trump, who always kissed Putin’s butt, merely enabled him enough that he thought he could have gotten away with invading Ukraine.)
Rivera went further. “How do you know Putin wasn’t playing Trump?” he asked Pirro, who was sitting to his right. Pirro did not like that one bit.
Geraldo: How do you Putin wasn’t playing Trump?
Jeanine: *explodes* Trump has everyone against the wall! Putin was a wuss when Trump was President!! pic.twitter.com/k5nSmqp2ic— Acyn (@Acyn) March 15, 2022
“Oh stop it, he wasn’t playing Trump!” Pirro roared, actually jumping in her chair. The two talked over each other for a bit, with Rivera claiming he “loves Trump, too.” But Pirro wasn’t having that either. “It’s not about loving Trump! It’s about the fact that Trump had everybody against the wall! And don’t think it was anything different!”
As Rivera backed off, Pirro continued. “I don’t give a damn what Putin thinks! I only care what Putin did. And he was a wuss when Trump was president! And that’s the end of it!” Towards the end she was really hitting those “p”s hard. Co-anchor Greg Gutfeld, lounging in his chair, seemed to enjoy it.
Despite claiming on-air to “love Trump,” Rivera has not taken the party line since he lost re-election in November 2020. He was quick to call out his longtime friend’s voter fraud lies, pleading with him to stop spreading misinformation, often clashing with fellow Fox News regulars. Not only did he butt heads with Pirro on Tuesday’s The Five, he also targeted gas companies, not Biden, for the high prices that have enraged car-driving Americans.
Geraldo: “Exxon, Chevron, BP, and Shell are all enjoying the highest profits they’ve had in 7-1/2 years.”
Fox anchor Sandra Smith: “What’s your point?”
Geraldo: “My point is the oil companies are reaping record profits…”
Smith: “You want the oil companies to cut checks?!” pic.twitter.com/0L4rA8UYRM
— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) March 15, 2022
“I concede that President Biden blew it when he crushed domestic oil production,” he said. But there was a “but.” “Exxon, Chevron, BP, and Shell are all enjoying the highest profits they’ve had in 7 1/2 years.” When asked what was his “point,” he replied, “My point is the oil companies are reaping record profits. Some of this could be handed to the consumers.” As his colleagues piled on him, he asked, “Why don’t we look to them?” rather than put the blame solely on Biden. “I am suggesting that the oil companies are reaping windfall profits.”
We’d welcome Geraldo to the resistance, but he’s been hesitantly part of it, to a degree, for a good while.