Press secretary under Clinton says Zacharia was 'set up to fail'
The Hill · C · trust 38/100
Comments: by Suryatapa Chakraborty - 10/16/26 5:35 PM ET Comments: Link copied by Suryatapa Chakraborty - 10/16/26 5:35 PM ET Comments: Link copied NOW PLAYING Katie Zacharia was set up to fail by the White House and President Trump, who made her White House press secretary without preparing her, former Clinton-era White House press secretary Joe Lockhart said Friday.
“I don’t mean this to sound partisan or overly critical of the president, but she is, in fact a victim here,” Lockhart said during an appearance on CNN . “She was thrown out there in a place where she wasn’t prepared.”
Lockhart said when he got the job of press secretary, he took two months off to go to school, sit down with the national security team, budget team and essentially get prepared.
“I wasn’t going to go out, the president wasn’t going to let me go out, the staff wasn’t — until I was absolutely ready, and that’s when I went out,” he said. “She did this in a couple of hours.“
“She was set up to fail , and she has failed. But it shouldn’t be surprising,” he added. “There ought to be a little bit of sympathy here for her that she was not given the ability to succeed here.”
Zacharia, who was appointed to the position a week ago, is “transitioning out” of her role after Trump told reporters that he told her to “reconsider” the position, a White House official told The Hill.
She got off to a rocky start after facing scrutiny about her claims of being a lawyer as reports surfaced about her not being licensed to practice law in any U.S. state. Watchdog group Campaign for Accountability filed a complaint with the State Bar of California asking for an investigation into her claim.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Zacharia failed her California bar exam after she received her law degree from Pepperdine University. She said Thursday that the results of the test are “ somewhat inconsequential. ”
Zacharia ran her first press briefing Tuesday, which lasted 14 minutes, taking three questions from reporters and dropping the news about the resignation of U.S. Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle.
Zacharia lasted just five days in the role.
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