Fox News host says investigating Russian election hacking is unpatriotic

Jeanine Pirro is a former judge who ran against Hillary Clinton for US Senate in 2006

Fox News host Jeanine Pirro unleashed a rant directed at Democrats who have called for further inquiry into Russia’s alleged role in interfering with the US election, suggesting that such scrutiny is unpatriotic.

The conservative pundit criticised the Obama administration for calling for a “full review” of election-related hacking that intelligence officials have linked to state-sponsored actors in Russia. A report last week suggested that the Kremlin ordered the hacks with the intent of swaying the election in Donald Trump’s favour.

“Look it’s time to take sides … the election is over – you’re either with us or against us,” Ms Pirro said on her programme Justice with Judge Jeanine. “That is … with the United States or against the United States.”

“Why are you [Barack Obama] so obsessed with Russia?” she added,

“I despise all dictators, but between the dictator that thinks I’m an infidel and [wants to] have our heads cut off and the dictator from whom I simply want to keep my distance … the choice is a no-brainer,” she said, accusing Mr Obama of sympathising with Islamist extremists.

She continued: “This isn’t about the election, is it, Mr President? This is about domestic politics. It’s not about November 2016, it’s about January 2017 and your attempt to prevent Donald Trump from the smooth transition of power and your inability to face the overwhelming electoral college win that the people gave him.”

Mr Trump defeated Hillary Clinton 306 to 232 – ranked 46th of the 58 US presidential elections.

On Friday, the Washington Post reported that CIA officials conducted a secret assessment that determined Russia ordered the hacks against the Democratic National Committee, as well as Clinton campaign chair John Podesta, in order to influence the outcome of the election.

“It is the assessment of the intelligence community that Russia’s goal here was to favour one candidate over the other, to help Trump get elected,” a senior US intelligence official told the Post. “That’s the consensus view.”

Earlier that day, President Obama called for a full investigation into the hacks, and expects a report before he leaves office on 20 January.

Donald Trump has repeatedly dismissed the claims of Russia’s involvement in the hacks.

“Can you imagine if the election results were the opposite and WE tried to play the Russia/CIA card,” he tweeted. “It would be called conspiracy theory!”

“Unless you catch ‘hackers’ in the act, it is very hard to determine who was doing the hacking. Why wasn’t this brought up before the election?” he added.

The intelligence community formally accused Russia of hacking the DNC precisely one month before the election.