New White House press secretary Katie Zacharia made her debut on Tuesday. It lasted 14 minutes. Which reminds me, it took the Titanic less than three hours to end its debut by sinking out of sight. But it was more qualified to do its job.
Lord, this was terrible. Zacharia read some awful boilerplate about the greatness of her boss, took some questions from the flying-monkey press now infesting the briefing room, and then she was out the door. From The New Republic:
“I want to thank President Trump. For his trust that he has placed in me. I have wanted to work for him for a very. Long. Time. I’m looking forward to working with each of you as well,” she said with lots of awkward pauses in between. “Especially as we are in the middle of the midterm blitz. With energy and excitement never seen before in the history of midterms—thanks to President Trump.”
She also referred to Trump as “the most family-friendly president we’ve ever had” and casually announced that the administration had asked U.S. Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle—recently exposed for an alleged pay-to-play scandal—to resign.
Oops, she collided with actual news. Guilfoyle indeed did resign, but has committed to clearing her name and fighting the allegations.
One unnamed White House source told MS NOW after the press conference that if Zacharia doesn’t improve quickly, she’ll break Anthony Scaramucci’s record. “Getting behind the podium is tough, but she got off on the wrong foot. She needs to get much better, fast, otherwise she’ll break Scaramucci’s record.” Scaramucci served as head of comms and de facto press secretary for the White House for just 10 days in Trump’s first term before he was fired.
That sounds bleak. Of course, Zacharia's CV was not exactly promising. From CNN:
In posts on Truth Social in 2022, Zacharia repeatedly accused prominent political figures and Hollywood elites of pedophilia, at times invoking conspiracy theories about powerful people sexually abusing children. “Pedo Podesta. #pedoPodesta,” Zacharia wrote in a September 2022 post about John Podesta, a longtime Democratic political operative and former White House chief of staff who had been a central target of the debunked Pizzagate conspiracy theory.
In another post, Zacharia wrote, “The radical left Hollywood elitists are sick pedo cannibals. Change my mind,” responding to a September 2022 Variety article about actor Timothée Chalamet receiving a standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival for his role in “Bones and All,” a film about two young cannibals in love.
Don't be messing with Paul Atreides, Katie. Fear is the mind-killer.