Katie Zacharia has rejected claims that she was trying to win back the White House press secretary position by making a strong impression.
Zacharia’s first stint as the Trump administration’s public face lasted only five days and included a single press briefing.
Reports emerged Monday evening alleging that the 42-year-old appeared as a commentator on Right Side Broadcasting Network during Election Night in an effort to audition for the role again.
Zacharia quickly dismissed the allegations in a social media post later that evening.
‘Reporters and outlets pushing abject falsehoods from anonymous sources are complicit in the fake news machine—and a big reason Americans no longer trust the media,’ she wrote.
‘I’m not auditioning for the role. Claims that I’m trying to get my old job back as President Trump’s White House Press Secretary are utterly fake.’
However, a trio of sources who are allied with Donald Trump told The New York Post that Zacharia had been seeking a second chance from the president and hoped her RSBN appearance would prompt him to offer her the job again.
She was also spotted at the president’s well-known Mar-a-Lago resort over the weekend, following the ‘blue tsunami.’
Katie Zacharia denied trying to impress her way back into the White House press secretary role, amid reports that Stephen Miller had replaced Susie Wiles as chief of staff
Zacharia’s heavily criticized first tenure as the Trump administration’s spokeswoman lasted five days and included only one press briefing
‘She said it out loud. It’s absurd. Truly embarrassing,’ one source claimed.
The report also said Zacharia had been working to impress new Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, who replaced Susie Wiles this week.
Our News Outlet has contacted the White House for comment.
The claims surfaced as Trump held an impromptu press briefing Monday afternoon with Ultimate Fighting Championship CEO Dana White.
The unexpected appearance followed Trump’s joke on Friday that he had offered White the vacant press secretary position.
When CNN’s Kaitlan Collins asked whether he had accepted the job recently left by Zacharia and Karoline Leavitt, White said he never tells the president ‘no.’
‘I don’t tell the president no to anything,’ he replied. ‘I didn’t say no.’
Trump said he had jokingly declared White the new press secretary the previous week after what he described as ‘a very bad press day.’
‘I think I’m going to get Dana White to be my new press secretary,’ Trump recalled saying.
Three sources allied with Donald Trump said Zacharia had been trying to persuade Miller and Trump to give her another opportunity, hoping the president would see her RSBN appearance and restore her to the role
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The reports appeared as Trump joined Ultimate Fighting Championship CEO Dana White for an impromptu press briefing Monday afternoon
Trump acknowledged that he was ‘sort of kidding’ when he made the announcement, but said the media ran with the comment and immediately ‘wrote the stories.’ Bringing White to the briefing room Monday, he added, was simply ‘for a little fun.’
By the briefing’s conclusion, however, White said he had no interest in becoming press secretary or taking any other position in politics.
Zacharia was removed from the post after fewer than seven days, making her the shortest-serving White House press secretary in history.
Trump initially stood by Zacharia following her difficult start, accusing the media of unfairly targeting her and arguing that questions about her background were beside the point.
The president later said he had asked Zacharia, ‘Is this for you?’ He added that he might have reconsidered the position himself, telling her: ‘You don’t need this.’
After Zacharia’s departure, her predecessor Karoline Leavitt offered a blunt evaluation of her performance, saying the demanding role ‘obviously wasn’t for her.’
‘Look, the White House press secretary is a tough job,’ Leavitt told Fox News.
‘I know that because I did it, obviously, for almost two years, and many people say it’s one of the hardest jobs in politics. It takes a lot of preparation, and sometimes you don’t know how someone will perform until they go out there.’
Zacharia held the White House press secretary position for the shortest period in history
Leavitt also suggested that Zacharia had not been sufficiently prepared for the high-profile assignment, recalling that she had ‘prepared like heck’ before taking over.
‘I poured myself into my preparation. I read, I studied, I talked to every Cabinet member, I talked to the president. I just absorbed as much information as this noggin up here could,’ she said.
Zacharia also came under scrutiny over her legal background after reports revealed that she had failed the California bar exam in 2011.
She subsequently relocated to Beijing with her husband and joined a Chinese law firm.
Although she never passed the bar exam, Zacharia regularly appeared on television as a legal analyst, discussing legal and political matters while describing herself as a lawyer.
Her troubled debut was followed by an awkward appearance on Sean Hannity’s Fox News program on October 15, just hours before she was removed from the position the next day.
Hannity pressed her forcefully about the widely criticized briefing and questioned why she had repeatedly identified herself as a lawyer despite failing the California bar exam.
He also challenged her explanation for the brief session, asking, ‘Why only three questions in 14 minutes?’ He warned her that the White House briefing room would ‘never be a friendly room to you.’
Zacharia attributed the problems to the rushed hiring process and the limited time she had to prepare, but the combative exchange intensified the scrutiny of her short tenure.
