US President Donald Trump’s new press secretary, Katie Zacharia, was fired on Friday, just five days after taking up the role, a White House official said.
Zacharia confirmed her departure from the White House on Friday evening, expressing support for Trump in a social media post, reports The Guardian.
“President Trump is a kind, wonderful, gracious, thoughtful, enthusiastic, and hardworking man. I wish more Americans appreciated him. No one will ever make America great the way he has and continues to,” she wrote. “It was an honor to work for him.”
Zacharia, a conservative political commentator who was little known before Trump selected her as his chief spokesperson, faced immediate scrutiny following a widely criticised inaugural press briefing on Tuesday.
The 14-minute session was followed by questions about her legal qualifications after she acknowledged that she had failed the bar exam.
In an interview on Thursday, Zacharia described how quickly she had moved to the podium to replace Karoline Leavitt as White House press secretary. She took over as Trump faced several political challenges, with the midterm elections scheduled for next month.
Trump signalled on Friday that Zacharia’s tenure might be brief, telling reporters that he had asked her to “reconsider” the position.
“I said: ‘Is this for you, Katie? Because honestly, you don’t need it,’” Trump said outside the White House. “I said to her: ‘Honestly, if I were you, I’d reconsider. You think about it, but I would reconsider.’”
During her first and apparently only press briefing, Zacharia struggled through prepared remarks about Trump’s achievements during his presidency. She also made a notable mistake when she referred to her husband as “the president”.
White House reporters were left puzzled when she walked away from the podium after taking questions from only three predominantly conservative media outlets.
In the hours and days that followed, Zacharia attempted to address questions about her professional background after reports revealed that she had never passed the bar exam, despite Trump referring to her as an “attorney”. She later confirmed that she had taken the exam once and failed.
Zacharia graduated from Pepperdine University’s law school in California and had repeatedly described herself as a lawyer.
She defended her use of the term professionally, arguing that a distinction existed between a “lawyer” and an “attorney”, with the latter title reserved for people licensed to practise law.
She had previously posted on social media identifying herself as an “attorney”. The White House also described her as an “attorney” in its official announcement of her appointment.
Over the past few days, Zacharia spoke to several media outlets in an effort to move beyond the criticism and demonstrate that she was prepared to serve as the president’s chief spokesperson.
During a notably tough interview on Thursday evening, Fox host Sean Hannity questioned her about her first press briefing, asking bluntly: “What happened?”
Zacharia said she had little time to prepare between accepting the job and delivering her first briefing. She also argued that the conservative Daily Mail, one of the three outlets she had taken questions from, was “not known to be a conservative outlet”.
Hannity, a Trump ally, also challenged her decision to describe herself as a “lawyer”.
“Why get into this long, drawn-out definition of the difference between a lawyer and an attorney? Because I don’t think most people see much of a distinction,” he asked.
During an appearance on Fox & Friends on Friday, host Lawrence Jones also highlighted the difficulties she had faced during the week.
“You know, Katie, it’s been a tough week for you. It’s not an easy job to be the press secretary, and you never want to be the story,” Jones told her.
He then asked: “Do you think you still have the confidence of the president?”
“I’m standing here,” Zacharia replied, referring to her presence on the White House north lawn.
She said she hoped to “build the trust and confidence of everyone around me” but could not say when she would deliver her next press briefing.
