Katie Zacharia ‘let go’ as White House press secretary after Trump urges her to ‘reconsider the job’ amid spat with lawyers | Today’s news
White House press secretary Katie Zachary was “fired” from her role on Friday, Reuters reported, citing White House officials, after US President Donald Trump said he advised her to reconsider her job amid growing public scrutiny over her lawyer’s claims.
Trump said on Friday (Oct 16) that he had advised new White House press secretary Katie Zacharias to reassess her role as she faces mounting criticism over claims she was a lawyer and a widely criticized debut press briefing.
“I said, ‘Katie, is this for you?'” Trump told reporters as he left the White House for Georgia. “I said, ‘Katie, you don’t have to do this’… I told her, ‘Honestly, if I were you, I’d reconsider’.”
“I told her you better be happy,” he added.
Trump defended Zacharias, saying she had been treated “unfairly” by the media.
Zacharias’ future appeared uncertain barely a week after taking office, with talk in the conservative media failing to quell the controversy surrounding her credentials and her first appearance on the podium of a White House briefing room.
Katie Zacharia faces scrutiny over lawyers’ claims
The controversy revolves around Zacharia’s repeated descriptions as a lawyer during television appearances and on social media.
The 41-year-old woman, who graduated from Pepperdine University School of Law in 2011, admitted Thursday that she failed the bar exam, which is generally required to practice law in the United States.
In an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity, she confirmed that she did not retake the exam.
“I had four children in six years,” Zacharia said, explaining that practicing law was never her intention.
She said she graduated from Pepperdine, got married the same week and planned to move to China with her husband, who worked for a private equity firm there. She applied for the bar exam, but believed the result would have little bearing on her plans to live in China.
In a separate interview with the conservative Real America’s Voice, Zacharia said she consulted people in the legal field who told her she could describe herself as a lawyer based on her legal education and experience in business law in China, where she worked at a Beijing law firm.
“I was very careful how I went about it, and I never felt like someone who was an advocate,” she said.
She also claimed she could “provide legal analysis, not legal advice”.
Hannity pressed her over reports of 15 social media posts in which she described herself as a lawyer. Zacharia said she believed the posts were retweets and corrected the record, saying sharing the title did not imply endorsement of it.
According to the American Bar Association, graduating from law school does not in itself qualify anyone to practice law or act as an attorney. Admission to the state bar is generally required.
Zachary’s first White House briefing drew criticism
Along with criticism of her first White House press briefing on Tuesday, Zacharia’s professional credentials have come under scrutiny.
The briefing lasted barely 15 minutes. She spent most of the time reading prepared remarks about Trump’s accomplishments at an unusually slow pace before taking questions from just three reporters in the packed meeting room.
When asked by Hannity how she thought the briefing went, Zacharia said she had little time to prepare.
“I received the information materials on Tuesday morning,” she said. “I feel like I did my best that day, Sean, to deliver to the Americans.
Her subsequent appearances in the conservative media were intended to draw criticism, but the interviews did not end with questions about her credentials or her stage presence.
The White House defended Zacharias, although he did not directly comment on questions about her legal status when asked about the report in The Wall Street Journal.
“Katie is an amazing and wonderful addition to the team,” White House Communications Director Steven Cheung said in a statement.
“She is uniquely qualified and smart to help inform the American people about all the great things President Trump and his administration have been doing, and she will do an incredible job as press secretary,” he added.
Zacharia replaced Karoline Leavitt, an embattled Trump loyalist who stepped down in August to care for her young children.
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