New White House press secretary Katie Zacharia is out after less than a week on the job, reported The New York Times citing people familiar with the matter.
The ouster comes hours after Trump invited Zacharia to reconsider whether she’s fit for the position.
“I said to Katie ‘you don’t have to do this if you don’t want to,” Trump told reporters on Friday, adding she’s been treated “treated really badly” by the media her first week in the role. “I said to her ‘honestly, if I were you, I’d reconsider.”
Trump opening the door for Zacharia to transition out of the job comes amid scrutiny of whether she embellished her credentials. She had described herself as a lawyer, with the president calling her “an attorney.” Asked in which state she passed the bar exam on Tuesday, she replied, “When I moved to China.”
Zacharia, who graduated from Pepperdine University’s law school, later confirmed that she took the bar exam in California but didn’t pass. “I never came across as someone who was an attorney at law,” she said in an interview with Real America’s Voice host Jack Posobiec on Thursday.
Zacharia faced tough questioning from Fox News host Sean Hannity, who grilled her on why she inflated her credentials and how she handled her first press briefing.
“Why get into this long, drawn-out definition between the difference between a lawyer and an attorney, because I don’t think most people see much of a distinction,” he said. “Why didn’t you just say, ‘I never practiced law?'”
Trump said Zacharia could be moved to another position in the White House.
“We’re talking about doing something,” he said. “I want her to have a good life.”
Anthony Scaramucci, who lasted ten days into the job before Trump fired him, quipped about Zacharia’s firing, “Records are meant to be broken.”
“But I take no pleasure in other people’s pain,” he added.