Anthony Scaramucci lasted more than a week as White House press secretary- 11 days, to be exact- a record no one thought would be beaten. Katie Zacharia was ousted in five days. With her departure, everyone is spilling their guts about what happened during this brief, tumultuous tenure. I still don’t like that Trump officials were texting CNN hosts about her first less-than-stellar press briefing, though some may have been acting on orders.
Reports say White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles put the proverbial hit on Zacharia. Wiles set up the Hannity interview, which was brutal to watch as the Fox News host grilled the now-former press secretary. It did not go well (via Politico):
White House chief of staff Susie Wiles helped set up Katie Zacharia’s appearance on Fox News Thursday night, when the embattled new press secretary struggled to answer questions about her rocky first days on the job, according to two people familiar with the internal dynamics.
She was ousted hours later on Friday.
The interview with host Sean Hannity, which aired during prime time, turned into a pointed examination of Zacharia’s first press briefing and her legal credentials.
One of the people, granted anonymity to discuss internal dynamics, described the appearance as a “sanctioned hit” on Zacharia, who was not Wiles’ preferred choice for the role.
“[White House spokesperson] Danielle [Alvarez] and Susie fed her to Hannity,” a second person familiar with the matter said, noting that Wiles and Hannity are friendly and speak often.
A senior White House official, also granted anonymity to discuss personnel issues, said “Susie and Sean do talk, but Susie did not need to feed her to Sean or anybody else. It’s not her style.”
“And Hannity wasn’t the nail in her coffin; her hit [on Fox & Friends] this morning was, as well as her weird answer on being a lawyer,” the senior White House official said.
The official White House line is that Wiles’ involvement is speculation.
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Either way, there was enough to toss Zacharia without the palace intrigue. Her first presser lasted about 15 minutes; she received the materials the morning of, and the results reflected that. It was poor, but not disqualifying. We did endure years of Karine Jean-Pierre.
But her resume discrepancies, such as passing the bar in China, or whatever that line was, proved too much. One could argue that her waffling on whether she was an attorney was grounds for firing. She essentially wasn’t forthcoming while applying for one of the toughest jobs in politics.
Unlike at her first press briefing, she had to expect questions about her background, and she failed. President Trump pretty much told her the door was open for her to exit and that she should probably take it, a kiss-of-death move.
Mediaite: Katie Zacharia Was Sitting Down With The Wall Street Journal When She Was Fired https://t.co/D7sctV2WMb
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