Daniel Wolfram
Katie Zacharia was involved in another brutal media appearance where she once again tried to explain why she has falsely called herself a lawyer.
We have all had a bad start at a new job, or known someone who has gotten off on the wrong foot.
But none of that can be compared to how Katie Zacharia, the new White House press secretary, is handling her first week on the new job.
On Tuesday, she held her first press conference, in which she stumbled through prepared remarks and only took three questions. Then, reports came out about her not being truthful about her background as a lawyer.
In an attempt to salvage her disastrous start working for Donald Trump, she went on the Trump-friendly Fox News. That only made matters worse.
Zacharia blames her staff
Katie Zacharia went on Fox News’ Hannity, the political talk show hosted by Trump’s personal friend Sean Hannity.
It was supposed to be a soft landing spot for the new and battered press secretary, but Hannity tore into her after a rocky beginning to the interview. Here, Zacharia tried to explain why she was so unprepared. She blamed a federal holiday and her staff.
“So, what I feel is I really stepped up to the plate to do the press conference, Sean, with very little prep time. I received briefing materials in the morning of Tuesday,” Zacharia argued.
A befuddled Hannity then asked, “Am I hearing that you think the staff should have prepped you better?”
The press secretary then gave a mangled answer that is simply hard to quote and give context to. This was not a good omen for someone in a highly coveted communications position.
Hannity needles Zacharia on her “lawyer” status
Hannity was not done tearing into Zacharia. He quickly brought up the dispute that she is not a lawyer even though she has claimed to be one in most of her media appearances.
Hannity asked her if it was correct that she did not pass the bar exam to become a practicing lawyer, to which she agreed.
He then asked her why she claimed to be one, to which she answered: “I think they were retweets, “and I corrected the record and said that that’s not endorsing the title. They were retweets of a title that had been given,” Zacharia said.
To dispute that, here is the social media account “Hoodlum,” which has compiled 22 instances where Zacharia referred to herself as a lawyer while giving legal takes on TV.
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Hannity kept going at Zacharia
Hannity tried to give her one last chance to get out of her web of lies by asking why she did not just say she did not practice law.
Here, Zacharia responded, “It was never my intent to go into the practice of law.” Hannity sighed and finished the interview shortly after.
Experts and commentators are now speculating that Katie Zacharia is going to be another Scaramucci, referring to Anthony Scaramucci, who lasted only 10 days as Trump’s communications director, and will get fired before the end of the month.
Here is the full interview, courtesy of independent journalist Aaron Rupar.
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