Katie Zacharia fired after five days as White House press secretary
The Guardian · L · trust 54/100
Katie Zacharia speaks with reporters in the press briefing room at the White House on 13 October. Photograph: Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP View image in fullscreen Katie Zacharia speaks with reporters in the press briefing room at the White House on 13 October. Photograph: Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP Trump administration Katie Zacharia fired after five days as White House press secretary Zacharia hosted widely panned first briefing on Tuesday and faced scrutiny after admitting she didn’t pass bar exam
Prefer the Guardian on Google Donald Trump’s new press secretary, Katie Zacharia, was fired on Friday, just five days after she assumed the role, according to a White House official.
The person was not authorized to speak publicly about the personnel decision that had not yet been formally announced. Zacharia, a little-known conservative political commentator prior to her selection as the president’s chief spokesperson, came under immediate scrutiny after a widely panned inaugural briefing on Tuesday . The 14-minute exchange was soon followed by a barrage of questions over her legal credentials after she admitted she did not pass the bar exam.
In an interview on Thursday, Zacharia detailed her whirlwind sprint to the podium to replace Karoline Leavitt as the White House press secretary, stepping into the role as the president faces multiple headwinds just weeks before the midterm elections next month.
Read more On Friday, Trump signaled that Zacharia’s tenure would be short-lived, telling reporters that he had asked his embattled press secretary to “reconsider” the job.
“I said: ‘Is this for you, Katie? Because honestly, you don’t need it,’” Trump said, speaking outside the White House. “I said to her: ‘Honestly, if I were you, I’d reconsider. You think about it, but I would reconsider.’”
During her first – and apparently only – press briefing, Zacharia stumbled through prepared remarks highlighting Trump’s accomplishments in his presidency. She made a notable gaffe when she called her husband “the president”.
Members of the White House press corps were left puzzled when she departed the podium after only taking questions from three predominantly conservative media outlets.
She spent the next hours and days trying to clarify swirling questions about her résumé, after reports emerged revealing that Zacharia, whom Trump has referred to as an “attorney”, had never passed the bar exam . She later confirmed that she took the bar once and failed.
Zacharia graduated from Pepperdine University’s law school in California, and repeatedly called herself a lawyer.
She defended using the term to describe herself professionally, claiming there was a difference between a “lawyer” and an “attorney”, a title reserved for those licensed to practice law.
She had previously shared social media posts identifying herself as an “attorney”. And when the White House officially announced her appointment, the statement described her as an “attorney”.
Over the last few days, Zacharia has spoken with members of the media in an effort to try to move past the criticism and make the case that she was ready to take on the role as the president’s chief spokesperson.
In an unexpectedly tough interview on Thursday evening, Fox host Sean Hannity grilled Zacharia about her first press briefing, asking bluntly: “What happened?”
Zacharia sought to explain that she had had little time to prep in the days between accepting the job and holding her first press briefing and argued that the conservative Daily Mail, one of only three outlets she took questions from, was “not known to be a conservative outlet”. Hannity, a Trump ally, also pressed her on her decision to identify herself as a “lawyer”.
“Why get into this long, drawn-out definition of the difference between a lawyer and an attorney? Because I don’t think most people see much of a distinction,” he asked.
In a Friday appearance on Fox & Friends , host Lawrence Jones continued, telling Zacharia: “You know, Katie, it’s been a tough week for you. It’s not an easy job to be the press secretary, and you never want to be the story.”
Jones then asked: “Do you think you still have the confidence of the president?”
“I’m standing here,” Zacharia replied, referring to the fact that she was speaking from the White House north lawn.
She said she hoped to “build the trust and confidence of everyone around me” but could not say when her next press briefing would be.
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