Katie Zacharia fired after five days as White House press secretary | Trump administration

Donald Trump’s new press secretary, Katie Zacharia, was fired Friday, just five days after taking office, according to a White House official.

The person was not authorized to speak publicly about the decision, which had not been officially announced. Zacharia got off to a rocky start to her tenure as press secretary, hosting a widely criticized first news conference at the White House. briefing Tuesday. She had also faced questions about her legal qualifications after admitting she had failed to pass the bar exam.

Zacharia, a little-known conservative political commentator who has spent much of her career in communications roles, was offered the job of White House press secretary on October 9.

In an interview with the Guardian on Thursday, she detailed the lightning sprint to the podium to replace Karoline Leavitt as the president’s chief spokesperson.

But on Friday, Trump told reporters that he had asked Zacharia to “reconsider” his role as press secretary, after intense scrutiny and negative media attention.

“I said, ‘Is this for you, Katie? Because honestly, you don’t need it,'” Trump said, speaking to reporters outside the White House. “I told him, ‘Honestly, if I were you, I would reconsider. You think about it, but I would reconsider.'”

During her first press briefing, Zacharia came across prepared remarks highlighting Trump’s accomplishments during his presidency. She made a notable gaffe by calling her husband “the president.”

Members of the White House press corps were left perplexed when she ended the briefing after only taking questions from three predominantly conservative media outlets.

Questions about Zacharia’s resume mounted in the following days after reports emerged revealing that Zacharia, who described herself as a lawyer, had never passed the bar exam. She later confirmed that she took the bar once and failed.

Zacharia graduated from Pepperdine University Law School and shared social media posts that identified herself as a “lawyer.” Trump also called Zacharia a “lawyer” when announcing his nomination.

She defended herself by describing herself as a “lawyer,” saying there was a difference between a “barrister” and an “attorney.”

Over the past few days, Zacharia has spoken with members of the media, in an attempt to clarify her legal credentials and make the case that she is ready to take on the role of chief spokesperson for the president.

In a surprisingly tough interview Thursday night, Fox host Sean Hannity asked Zacharia about his first press briefing, asking bluntly, “What happened?”

Zacharia sought to explain that she had little time to prepare between accepting the job and holding her first press briefing and argued that the conservative Daily Mail, one of only three outlets she fielded questions from, was “not known for being a conservative outlet.” Hannity, a Trump ally, also pressed her on her decision to identify as a “lawyer.”

“Why go into this long definition of the difference between a lawyer and an agent? Because I don’t think most people see much of a distinction,” he asked.

On Friday morning, Lawrence Jones, a Fox & Friends host, went on to tell Zacharia, “You know, Katie, it’s been a tough week for you. It’s not an easy job being a press secretary, and you never want to be the story.”

Speaking to reporters, Trump said interviewers had been “a little harsh” on Zacharia.

“She was treated, I would say, quite unkindly,” the president said.