Jake Tapper Highly Skeptical of Fox Host Rumored To Be Trump Nominee: ‘Jeanine Pirro, With All Due Respect…’

CNN anchor Jake Tapper voiced skepticism Thursday over reports that President Donald Trump is considering Fox News host Jeanine Pirro for a high-level Justice Department role.

Tapper discussed the development with New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman during an interview on The Lead.

Both CNN and the Times reported that Trump is seriously considering appointing Pirro as interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia.

“Sources are telling CNN and also telling you that President Trump is actually very seriously strongly considering making Jeanine Pirro, the Fox host, who we should point out was a county district attorney, I think Westchester County, years ago,” Tapper noted. “So she does have experience.”

Tapper then raised questions about Pirro’s qualifications for the role.

“And Jeanine Pirro, with all due respect to her, she hasn’t been a lawyer for quite some time, unless I’m mistaken,” the host said. “I mean, she was a prosecutor, an elected official, Westchester County, et cetera.”

Haberman responded by noting Pirro’s long relationship with Trump, which dates back decades.

“She is, however, a more than thirty-year friend of President Trump,” Haberman said. “Her ex-husband was one of Trump’s corporate lobbyists, and her ex-husband was also Trump’s final pardon issued at the very last hours of his last term.”

Haberman added, “I’m not surprised he would turn to her. She is, as you said, someone who at least does have some experience, but this will be interesting to see how it goes.”

She also suggested Trump may be encountering obstacles in filling roles in his administration.

Pirro served as the elected district attorney of Westchester County, New York, in the 1990s and early 2000s. She later ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate in 2006 before becoming a host at Fox News, where she currently co-hosts The Five.

She was absent from Thursday’s edition of the show.

Watch above via CNN.