Former White House press secretary Katie Zacharia is blaming Sean Hannity and the media for her abrupt firing after just five days on the job, saying she was not prepared for the hostility she faced.
In an appearance on Newsmax’s “Finnerty” on Tuesday, Zacharia told host Rob Finnerty that “the media does not like outsiders, and Washington, D.C., does not like outsiders”. She said the media and the capital made it “very difficult” for her to do her job.
Zacharia suggested it was “very likely” she would have remained in her role had she not appeared on “Hannity” and “Fox & Friends” shortly before her departure.
The Hannity Interview
Zacharia said she was “perplexed” by the grilling she received from Hannity, a Fox News host she considered a friend. “I was not prepared for the hostility that I received,” she said.
During the interview, Hannity pressed Zacharia on her legal credentials after it emerged she had called herself a lawyer despite failing the California bar exam. He asked her directly: “You took the bar exam, but you didn’t pass the bar exam. Correct?” Zacharia replied: “Correct, yes, Sean”.
Hannity later defended his questioning, telling The Hollywood Reporter: “My job is to ask the questions, get answers, and let the audience decide for themselves. I allowed her a lot of time uninterrupted for her to answer”.
The Five-Day Tenure
Zacharia was appointed on October 9 and held her first press briefing on October 13. The briefing lasted about 14 minutes, and she took only three questions, reading haltingly from a list of praise for Trump.
She was fired on October 16. Trump told reporters he had advised her to “reconsider” the job, saying she had been treated “very roughly and nastily”.
Zacharia confirmed she would work for Trump again “in a heartbeat,” though she said she was not sure she wanted the press secretary job back.
The Susie Wiles Report
Reports emerged suggesting White House chief of staff Susie Wiles helped arrange the Hannity interview as a “sanctioned hit” because Zacharia was not her preferred choice for the role.
A senior White House official rejected the claim. “Susie and Sean do talk, but Susie did not need to feed her to Sean or anybody else. It’s not her style,” the official said. White House communications director Steven Cheung dismissed the reports as “fiction that’s not even creative”.
The Bottom Line
Katie Zacharia has blamed Sean Hannity and the media for her firing as White House press secretary after just five days. She said she was unprepared for Hannity’s hostile questioning about her failed bar exam and legal credentials. Reports suggest chief of staff Susie Wiles may have arranged the interview, though the White House denies it. Zacharia says she would work for Trump again.
My Opinion
Katie Zacharia gave one briefing, took three questions, and read haltingly from a list of praise for the president. Then she went on Sean Hannity’s show, got asked a basic question about whether she passed the bar exam, and suddenly she was out. She lasted all of five days.
Her explanation is that the media was hostile and Washington does not like outsiders. But she was not fired because she was an outsider. She was fired because she was not qualified for the job. She called herself a lawyer without passing the bar. She could not handle a friendly interview on Fox News. If she cannot handle Hannity, how was she supposed to handle the White House press corps?
The reports that Susie Wiles arranged the Hannity interview as a “sanctioned hit” are more revealing than anything Zacharia said. If true, it means the White House chief of staff used a friendly media appearance to take out an appointee she did not want.
Zacharia says she would work for Trump again “in a heartbeat.” Of course she would. The job was never about serving the public. It was about serving him. And when she could not do that effectively, she was gone.
