U.S. President Donald Trump defended Fox host Jeanine Pirro on Sunday after her show didn’t air following remarks about a Muslim congresswoman.
“Bring back @JudgeJeanine Pirro,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “The Radical Left Democrats, working closely with their beloved partner, the Fake News Media, is using every trick in the book to SILENCE a majority of our Country.
“Fox must stay strong and fight back with vigor. Stop working soooo hard on being politically correct, which will only bring you down, and continue to fight for our Country … Be strong & prosper, be weak & die! Stay true to the people that got you there,” the president continued.
Pirro’s show, Justice with Judge Jeanine, did not air on Saturday and was instead replaced by a rerun of the documentary series Scandalous.
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The omission comes after Pirro made comments about Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), one of the first Muslim women elected to Congress, on the March 9 airing of her show.
Omar has recently come under fire by both Democrats and Republicans for suggesting members of Congress are paid by an Israeli lobby to support Israel.
In the show, Pirro said that the religious hijab Omar wears may be “antithetical to the Constitution.”
“Think about it: Omar wears a hijab, which, according to the Qur’an 33:59, tells women to cover so they won’t get molested,” Pirro said. “Is her adherence to this Islamic doctrine indicative of her adherence to sharia law, which in itself is antithetical to the United States Constitution?”
Pirro did not mention that the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees the free expression of religion.
Several advertisers dropped her show after the remarks.
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Fox did not say publicly whether Pirro has been suspended or let go, but said in a statement last Sunday that it “strongly condemned” the comments and that they “do not reflect those of the network, and we have addressed the matter with her directly.”
The organization did not offer further comment on Sunday.
Pirro said in a statement that she intended to “ask a question and start a debate.”
“Of course because one is Muslim does not mean you don’t support the Constitution,” she said. “I invite Rep. Omar to come on my show any time to discuss all of the important issues facing America today.”
Pirro has not tweeted for a week.
Omar thanked Fox News in a tweet and said: “No one’s commitment to our constitution should be questioned because of their faith or country of birth.”
Trump’s comment on Pirro’s Muslim remarks come after a mass shooting at two mosques in New Zealand that left 50 people dead.
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The suspected shooter has said that he views Trump as a “symbol of renewed white identity” in a manifesto.
Trump’s acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, said Sunday on Fox News that the president is “not a white supremacist” after Trump said he does not think there is a rise in white nationalism following the shooting.
-With a file from the Associated Press
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