Wednesday on FNC’s “The Ingraham Angle,” U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro, a former Fox News host, reacted to the beating of former Department of Government Efficiency employee Edward Coristine, also known as “Big Balls,” in Washington, D.C. on Sunday.
Pirro told host Laura Ingraham that one of the biggest obstacles she is confronted with is her ability to charge suspects, given their young age.
She called for lowering the age of responsibility to 14 so she could prosecute some underage suspects.
Fresh off her confirmation in the U.S. Senate. We’re delighted to be joined by my dear friend, the new U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, Judge Jeanine Pirro. Can I still call you, judge?
JEANINE PIRRO, U.S. ATTORNEY, D.C.: You can call me whatever you want.
INGRAHAM: That’s great.
PIRRO: OK, Laura, you’re my friend.
INGRAHAM: It’s so great to see you here —
PIRRO: It’s so great to be here. This is the first time I’m back on Fox —
INGRAHAM: I know.
PIRRO: — and I chose your show.
INGRAHAM: It’s so exciting. Tell us, tell us —
PIRRO: OK.
INGRAHAM: — what we can expect from your time —
PIRRO: OK.
INGRAHAM: — as U.S. attorney.
PIRRO: First of all, there was another homicide. So, we’re now at 99 homicides so far this year. There’s no question that Washington, D.C. has an incredible amount, a credible number of homicides, you know. And you can say that violence and crime is down, but the truth is, violent is more lethal than it’s ever been, and when we say it’s down, down from what —
INGRAHAM: Right, real high.
PIRRO: OK. We’ve got carjackings that are up 111%. The problem in D.C. and President Trump, in his effort, to make D.C. safe and beautiful, said to me, I want you to enforce the law to make sure that there’s accountability. And I spoke to the president yesterday at length about what was going on here. I said, if you’re 14, 15, 16 or 17 years old, you get coddled, as you do in most American Democrat cities.
So, I can’t charge these people. This young kid who worked at the White House was beaten to a pulp. He’s got a broken nose. He’s got a severe concussion. He’s battered all over his head, OK, by a gang of thug — punks. 10 of them, I believe. Two have been arrested, two 15 year olds. None of them come to my office, Laura, because they’re not considered criminals. They go to family court, where the effort is rehabilitation. The D.C. Council and the president is right; they’ve got to stop their coddling.
Number one, we’ve got to lower the age of responsibility to 14. I’m tired of having these kids commit crimes in their crews, not gangs in D.C. We’ve got an intern. You said it in your open, he’s an intern from college. He gets shot going out for McDonald’s at 10:30 at night. This kid is trying to help his girlfriend or his friend to a car, he gets assaulted and but for a cop going by, they would have had they gotten him on the ground, they would have stopped him and finished him. He was able to stay standing. This has to end. The council has this Youth Incarceration Act where we had a guy who shot a kid on a bus, not justified, with an illegal gun. You know what the sentence was, probation. The judge said, go to college. OK. He took an illegal gun. He should be jailed for the illegal gun. Forget about the shooting. You put that on top of the gun. Then what we’ve got are kids who are out there, who are making fun of all of this, doing carjackings, and I can’t touch them because they want to protect that.
INGRAHAM: They know that, and that’s why they travel —
PIRRO: They do know that.
INGRAHAM: — in gangs. And the older kids send out the younger kids to do the real dirty work, because they know —
PIRRO: Accountability.
INGRAHAM: — they’re fine.
PIRRO: They absolutely understand. And youth violence is on the rise, not just in D.C., but across the country. And if you think that these kids need to be coddled and they need to be hugged, they need to have consequences. They need to understand that enough is enough, that we’re going to put them in jail or some kind of youth rehabilitation detention facility and not allow the D.C. Council, one of whom I just recently indicted, to take cover for these kids. It’s time to end it. That’s what the president wants. That’s what we’re going to do.
INGRAHAM: Look at what worked in New York City when Giuliani was mayor. He went after the small crimes —
PIRRO: Yes.
INGRAHAM: — which led to reducing —
PIRRO: Quality of life.
INGRAHAM: — the big crimes, so the quality of life, so people —
PIRRO: Yes.
INGRAHAM: — defecating in the streets, blocks from the Capitol, which I saw the other day. That was lovely.
PIRRO: Yes.
INGRAHAM: The tents on K Street, the tents under the tunnels over here.
PIRRO: It’s terrible.
INGRAHAM: And they cleared up some of those out in front of Union Station, but it’s horrific. This is the nation’s Capitol.
PIRRO: Exactly.
INGRAHAM: And all over the United States, we have a similar story told. St. Louis, we’ve still seen —
PIRRO: Baltimore, everywhere.
INGRAHAM: — blight — this — they want D.C. now to be Baltimore.
PIRRO: Well, here’s the thing, D.C. is the nation’s Capitol. People come here for pride and patriotism, not to get assaulted, carjacked or shot, get caught in a crossfire like a young kid did a couple last month.
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