On personnel, this one was a whiff. Katie Zacharia was tapped as the next White House press secretary, meant to fill the big shoes left by Karoline Leavitt, but it was a disaster. They ousted her in less than a week. The longer this story lingers, the more it seems her odd answers about her law degree and whether she was an attorney weigh more heavily.
Yes, she graduated from law school, but she wasn't a practicing attorney. She didn’t pass the bar, and even so, using the terms interchangeably is an ethics issue that most wouldn’t want to get into. She could’ve just said she had a law degree, but she tried this ‘I passed the bar in China or something,’ which was nuts. Whatever it was, it wasn’t true, and lying about your resume for this job is disqualifying.
The cherry on top was the appalling press conference last week, which lasted barely 15 minutes. Sure, she received the briefing materials that morning, but it was a train wreck. Survivable? Maybe, but her resume issues were also known, and the media would ask about them in interviews. She was, again, unprepared. Fox News led the charge, arguing she should find something else, as Zacharia bombed her Fox & Friends and Hannity hits. Palace intrigue swirls over whether Susie Wiles ordered the code red, but suffice it to say: if she and Trump weren't happy, you were gone. Zacharia was in the middle of the Wall Street Journal interview when she was called away, never to return to her post (via WSJ):
Shortly before 1 p.m., Katie Zacharia was seated behind her new desk in the West Wing, in a cramped office with only a handful of personal touches: a white orchid, a curling iron, a pair of heels tucked away on a shelf next to a cosmetic bag. The new White House press secretary was telling The Wall Street Journal about her plans for the role.
Then Jason Miller, a senior adviser to the president, knocked on her door. “JD wanted to chat with us real quick,” Miller said, referring to the vice president.
As Zacharia left the room, President Trump walked to his new helipad, where he recalled a conversation he had with her earlier in the day: “I said, ‘Is this for you Katie? Because honestly, you don’t need this,’” he told reporters, adding of her decision to accept the role, “Honestly, if I were you, I’d reconsider.”
Zacharia never returned—to the interview, or the job.
Her dismissal capped off a tumultuous five days as White House press secretary. Her halting performance at her first press conference earned scorn from across the political spectrum—as did her response to a reporter’s question about where she had passed the bar exam. (“When I moved to China,” she said, later asserting she misunderstood the question.) Then came reporting from the Journal that Zacharia had never passed the bar exam, despite previously referring to herself as a lawyer.
Zacharia’s attempts to defend herself during back-to-back appearances on Fox News had been similarly rocky—commentators on the conservative news channel, often complimentary of the administration, let Zacharia know she was off to a rough start. The president agreed, telling aides that Zacharia wasn’t talented, according to a person who heard his remarks.
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Last Friday, the president opened a Mac truck-sized lane for Zacharia to exit her post and essentially told her to take it.
Is Zacharia a bad person? No, I don’t think so. She wanted to serve, which is admirable; it’s the privilege and opportunity of a lifetime. The way she did it, though, was symbolic. It’s an old story: a good person, but not the right fit.
The White House is now back on the hunt for a new face, but they’re not in a rush. Not now.
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