Fox News personality Jeanine Pirro was harshly criticized after she claimed that it "could be debated" whether the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic will be remembered as a "devastating" event.
Pirro—who was elected as Republican and served as a judge in affluent Westchester County, New York from January 1, 1991 – May 1993—still prefers to use her former title of judge despite only serving in a local county court for two yearsin the early 1990s.
In downplaying the severity of the pandemic, which has claimed nearly 850,000 lives across the United States, Pirro implicitly pushed a prominent conspiracy theory in conservative circles the death toll due to the virus is grossly exaggerated and its impact worldwide has been overestimated.
You can hear what Pirro said in the video below.
It all began when Fox News panelist Geraldo Rivera, appearing on The Five, which Pirro co-hosts, stressed that the pandemic is an event that will provoke historical inquiry for years to come.
Pointing out that even half the number of COVID deaths nationwide would constitute an enormous loss, Rivera said:
"That's still an enormous number of dead people, historic really, not seen anything like this in a hundred years. So I think we have to be careful now about minimizing this profoundly unsettling, devastating experience that the nation has gone through."
Rivera criticized media outlets for being "in the doom and gloom business," but added that the pandemic "is something that historians will look back on and say, my God, this was awful."
It was then that Pirro responded that Rivera's point "could be debated," a claim that garnered significant criticism online.
Pirro has been known to push unfounded conspiracy theories about COVID-19, often criticizing Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's leading expert on infectious diseases, during the Trump administration and since Fauci became the Biden administration's chief medical adviser.
She has also backed former President Donald Trump's lies about the integrity of the 2020 general election and last year was named as a defendant in a lawsuit by the company Smartmatic, in relation to false claims about election fraud.
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