Jeanine Pirro confirmed as U.S. attorney for D.C. as Trump and Democrats trade barbs
WASHINGTON – Former Fox News host Jeanine Pirro won Senate approval to become U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia on August 2 as Republicans raced during a weekend session to confirm a long list of President Donald Trump's nominees.
Pirro was confirmed in a party-line vote, 50-45. Republican Sens. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Roger Wicker of Mississippi, Tim Scott of South Carolina and Democratic Sens. Ruben Gallego and Peter Welch did not cast votes.
Pirro posted on X: "I am blessed to have received a Senate confirmation vote this evening of 50 to 45 to be the United States attorney for the District of Columbia the largest United States Attorney’s Office in the country. Thank you to those senators who supported my confirmation and DC- get ready for a real crime fighter."
The conservative television star has been serving in the role on an interim basis since May, when Trump withdrew his previous nominee, Ed Martin, amid Republican criticism of Martin's support for Jan. 6 rioters. Trump granted clemency to the rioters on his first day in office.
Pirro was the elected district attorney in Westchester County, New York, and a county judge before she joined Fox. She hosted "Justice with Judge Jeanine" on the network for 11 years and was named in a defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems that ended in a $787.5 million settlement.
Days before Pirro's confirmation, Trump directed lawmakers to postpone their summer recess and clear a backlog of nominees whose confirmations had been delayed by Democrats over objections to his agenda, including judicial nominees.
The president reversed course amid the marathon vote session on Aug. 2 . In a post on Trump Social, Trump accused Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of "demanding over One Billion Dollars in order to approve a small number of our highly qualified nominees."
"This demand is egregious and unprecedented, and would be embarrassing to the Republican Party if it were accepted," Trump wrote. "It is political extortion, by any other name. Tell Schumer, who is under tremendous political pressure from within his own party, the Radical Left Lunatics, to GO TO HELL! Do not accept the offer, go home and explain to your constituents what bad people the Democrats are, and what a great job the Republicans are doing, and have done, for our Country."
Schumer blasted Trump at a late-night news conference, where he accused the GOP president of throwing in the towel "in a fit of rage" and refusing to negotiate.
Contributing: Erin Mansfield and Aysha Bagchi