Katie Zacharia is out as White House press secretary after less than a week in the job.
A White House official confirmed her exit rom the position.
Her departure follows middling reviews for her debut press briefing on Tuesday, which lasted just 14 minutes, but also a stream of coverage on her reference to herself as a lawyer even though she did not pass the California bar exam. She was pressed on those details in an appearance on Hannity on Thursday night and Fox & Friends on Friday morning.
After her blitz of media appearances, President Donald Trump indicated that a shakeup was in the works.
“Katie has been treated very badly by the media,” he told reporters as he departed for a midterm campaign swing. “Very very badly, very unfairly. And I just spoke to her about it. I said, ‘Katie, is this for you?’ Because she’s been treated very rough.”
The president noted that Hannity and Fox & Friends were “a little bit tough.”
“She has been treated, I would say, pretty nastily, and I said to Katie…’You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to.’ She said, ‘This is a lot tougher.’ I said, ‘Welcome to the world of Trump.'”
Trump said that he told her, “Honestly, if I were you, I would reconsider. You think about it.”
Zacharia, a conservative commentator who made appearances on outlets like Fox News and Newsmax, was the surprise choice to succeed Karoline Leavitt, who left in August. Although she had gained visibility as a staunch defender of the president, she was not as well known as other figures said to be interested in the job, including Scott Jennings at CNN.
On Thursday, Zacharia seemed to acknowledge that she was not as prepared as she could have been for Tuesday’s briefing. She noted that she had only started in the job on Monday and that the briefing materials were only finalized at 8 a.m. on Tuesday.
She also defended her media appearances in which she referred to herself as a lawyer, saying that she consulted with a number of people over whether she could use that term but not attorney at law.
Zacharia’s short tenure calls to mind that of Anthony Scaramucci, who lasted for 10 days in the job of White House communications director.
He wrote on X, “Records are made to be broken. But I take no pleasure in other people’s pain.”