Katie Zacharia is out as White House press secretary after just five days on the job, ending one of the shortest tenures in the role’s history. President Donald Trump told reporters on Friday that he had advised her to “reconsider” staying, following days of scrutiny over her legal credentials and a shaky debut at the briefing-room podium.
- Trump said he told Zacharia “honestly, if I were you, I’d reconsider,” speaking to reporters as he left the White House for a campaign rally in Georgia on Friday.
- Fox News reported she is “transitioning out” of the role, citing a White House official.
- The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that Zacharia did not pass the California bar exam in 2011 and is not licensed to practice law in the US, despite repeatedly describing herself as a lawyer.
- Her debut briefing on Tuesday lasted about 14 minutes, during which she took only three questions while reading from notes.
- At four and a half days, her tenure is shorter than Anthony Scaramucci’s 10-day stint as White House communications director in 2017.
Trump announced Zacharia’s appointment just a week ago, describing the conservative commentator as an attorney and naming her to succeed Karoline Leavitt. Questions about her background surfaced almost immediately. The Journal reported that although Zacharia, a 2011 graduate of Pepperdine University’s law school, repeatedly referred to herself as a lawyer, she did not pass the bar exam when she took it in California and holds no US law license.
Zacharia addressed the controversy in two Fox News appearances. On Thursday night she admitted she had not passed the exam, and on Friday morning she said she had not been asked whether she passed the bar before accepting the role — adding that she was hired as press secretary, not White House counsel. A watchdog group, Campaign for Accountability, has filed a complaint with the State Bar of California over her use of the lawyer title.
Her first briefing on Tuesday drew criticism for its brevity and her heavy reliance on notes. She took just three questions, mostly from conservative-leaning outlets. White House communications director Steven Cheung had defended the appointment, calling Zacharia “uniquely qualified and whip smart,” according to the BBC.
Speaking on the South Lawn on Friday, Trump said he had spoken with Zacharia earlier in the day and suggested the intense media scrutiny made the job untenable. He said she had been treated “very unfairly” by the press. Her exit comes roughly two weeks before the midterm elections, and caps a bruising week for the administration that also saw Trump reverse course on livestreaming a military execution.
Sources: The Wall Street Journal, Al Jazeera, Fox News, The Times, BBC.
