Katie, we barely had time to get acquainted.
In less than half the time Anthony Scaramucci lasted in the job, Donald Trump’s new press secretary was forced to surrender her designer wardrobe and leave the White House.
A cast member at Saturday Night Live who had hoped for a long and successful run would surely be devastated. Inside the White House, however, I suspect Katie Zacharia’s departure after fewer than seven days prompted a very different reaction: an audible sigh of relief.
Anthony Scaramucci, who still holds the record for the shortest stint behind the White House podium at 11 days, offered Zacharia words of support on social media. “Turn off the news and go enjoy your family. In time you’ll realize that the Universe did you a major favor,” he wrote.
He may well be right.
Zacharia appears to be leaving 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue with the proverbial knives of her former colleagues lodged firmly in the back of her stylish blazer.
So what brought Katie “I’m a lawyer!” Zacharia’s brief tenure to an end?
The prevailing view is that she committed one of the cardinal offenses in Trumpworld: making the president look bad.
Here is how her final 72 hours unfolded:
Katie Zacharia during her White House press briefing on Tuesday
The trouble began almost immediately on Tuesday morning, when Zacharia stepped into the bear pit of the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room. She stumbled over her words, stuttered and repeatedly looked down at her script as she tried to deliver the briefing.
It was almost possible to feel the White House press corps, that famously ferocious pack, sensing an opportunity.
Zacharia attempted to limit the damage by taking just three questions, only one of which dealt directly with policy.
Fox News senior White House correspondent Peter Doocy asked whether the United States had stopped sharing intelligence with Ukraine.
Zacharia said she was unable to answer.
Then, turning to Our News Outlet’s Elina Shirazi, she disclosed that the president had requested the resignation of Kimberly Guilfoyle, the US ambassador to Greece.
That revelation was news.
But was it also a warning of what was to come?
Zacharia is “transitioning” out of the role of White House press secretary after five days
After only 14 minutes, Zacharia brought the briefing to a close and directed reporters to the White House South Lawn, where the president was leaving for a campaign rally in Alaska.
There, it got worse.
Already, journalists had caught the whiff of scandal after digging into Zacharia’s background.
In multiple TV appearances and on LinkedIn, Zacharia had described herself as a lawyer and even a ‘general counsel.’ President Trump had identified her as an ‘attorney’.
But was she really?
‘Where did she pass the bar exam?’ a reporter asked the President. He turned to Zacharia and relayed the query.
From behind dark sunglasses she gave a bizarre, head-scratching answer: ‘When I moved to China.’
What on Earth did that mean?
Trump himself appeared to do a double take.
Zacharia said she had misheard a question about where she had passed the bar exam
Zacharia later told the New York Times she had ‘misheard’ the question over the sound of Marine One, thinking the journalist had asked: ‘Where were you after law school?’
An army of journalists later confirmed with the Committee of Bar Examiners in all 50 states that she had not passed the bar exam anywhere.
Worse still, she had failed the test in California in 2011 and then never took it again.
Hours after the briefing, Zacharia was seen boarding Air Force One, with the presidential ‘A’ team. Strolling across the runway at Joint Base Andrews with Trump aide Natalie Harp, Zacharia beamed like a cat that had got the cream. Perhaps Harp, dubbed the ‘human printer,’ had not printed out the coruscating reviews of her performance that were publishing online.
By this time, anonymous White House insiders had begun undermining her performance.
‘She looked as if she was handed a sheet of paper at the last minute and wasn’t prepared properly,’ a Trump world source said. ‘So who in the building wanted to see her fail?’
‘Her hiring and the briefing shows this White House is collapsing now that they’re facing real pressure,’ a senior Trump administration official told Our News Outlet.
The White House later denied that anyone had sabotaged her debut. However, by the time Air Force One returned from the trip to Alaska, it was clear Zacharia had serious damage control to do.
Katie Zacharia arrived on Air Force One with the President at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska on Tuesday
The negative press continued through Wednesday.
On Thursday, she launched a media tour to save her job, heading first for friendly territory, the studio of the network Real America’s Voice for a sit-down with host Jack Posobiec.
Her ascent to White House press secretary had all been a bit of a rush, she explained to Posobiec. Last week, she was in a pumpkin patch in California with her son when the President called, so she hot footed it to Washington.
‘I woke up at 3 in the morning on Tuesday to prepare with what I had…’ she said, adding that the materials for her to use in the briefing weren’t finalized until 8am.
Briefings are normally in the afternoon, she explained. Hers was scheduled for 9.30am because take-off for Alaska was scheduled later in the morning.
She seemed to be offering excuses.
The controversy over her legal credentials was a ‘miscommunication,’ she claimed.
She had earned a law degree from Pepperdine and had asked ‘many people in the field’ if it was kosher to label herself a ‘lawyer’ giving ‘legal analysis, not legal advice’ and it was, they said.
Considering the outcry, Zacharia seemed confident in her career prospects at that point, even joking with Posobiec about who she wanted to play her on SNL – she favored Scarlett Johansson.
Katie Zacharia told Jack Posobiec the controversy over her legal credentials was a ‘miscommunication’
Our News Outlet columnist Mark Halperin reported that afternoon that White House staffers were trading stories about her time in China, raising concerns over a lack of vetting.
On Thursday night, it was on to Fox News for an appearance with primetime host Sean Hannity.
That did not go quite as she might have anticipated.
Hannity appeared a little funereal as he opened up: ‘Katie, I know this is a widely viewed interview for you….’
She wore a smile fixed like dried concrete. Her briefing had been ‘widely panned, I’m sure you’re aware…’ Hannity continued. She ‘didn’t pass the bar exam,’ he added.
‘Yeees… Sean,’ Zacharia said, her smile setting even more rigidly.
She had failed the bar exam because, she explained, that had all been a bit of a rush too. She had graduated Pepperdine and got married in the same week and was planning to move to China, so the results of the bar exam had been ‘inconsequential.’ She took the test to avoid a record of her ‘withdrawing.’
Then, Hannity hit her with the evidence, a report that she had identified herself at least 15 times on social media, not just as a ‘lawyer’ but as an ‘attorney.’
The fixed smile now looked like rigor mortis.
‘I think they were retweets, and I corrected the record,’ she responded icily. ‘They were retweets of a title that had been given.’
Zacharia was interviewed by Sean Hannity on Thursday night and the President is known to watch the show
Zacharia went on to parrot a now-familiar line, she had ‘stepped up to the plate with very little prep time’ for the briefing. And in a remarkably rosy take on the reaction to her briefing, she suggested the reviews had been ‘mixed.’
‘Am I hearing that you think the staff should have prepped you better?’ Hannity asked, sounding more like a disappointed parent than a sympathetic shoulder.
Meanwhile journalists were starting to dig into what work she did for a Chinese law firm and the work biography of her husband that indicated he had helped ‘build teams’ in North Korea.
The following day, on Friday morning, Zacharia tried again on Fox News’s Fox & Friends.
Host Lawrence Jones asked her pointedly if she had the confidence of the president.
‘I’m standing here and I was able to travel with him through… the midterm rallies and I hope to be able to build the trust and confidence of everyone around me,’ she said.
On Friday morning she was on Fox & Friends but hours later was out of the job
Pushing back against suggestions that she should have clarified her legal qualifications to the White House before being hired, Zacharia appeared somewhat like she was throwing her new employer under the bus.
‘Those questions weren’t asked,’ she said. ‘I’m being hired as White House press secretary, not White House counsel.’
Shortly after that, it seems, President Trump had seen enough.
In a lengthy exchange with reporters outside the White House, he said of Zacharia’s position: ‘Maybe it’s not for her.’
The media had been ‘nasty,’ he claimed, and revealed that he had told Zacharia moments earlier: ‘I think you’re better off being happy.’
Soon, it became official. She’d be ‘transitioning’ out of the role.
During her short tenure Zacharia met boxer Floyd Mayweather on Air Force One
As firings go, it was done with a velvet glove – and that may be because she was reportedly Trump’s choice and Trump’s alone.
Our News Outlet reported before Zacharia’s debut briefing that White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles played no part in Zacharia’s selection.
What’s next for Zacharia?
She and her family are scheduled to have dinner with Vice President JD Vance and his family on Friday night, a source familiar with the matter told Our News Outlet.
Maybe, we’ll see more of her around 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
We wish her the best.
