Washington: Katie Zacharia, US President Donald Trump’s new White House press secretary, has been fired less than a week into the job, The New York Times reported on Friday, October 16, citing three people familiar with the matter.
The decision had not been formally announced.
Trump, however, told reporters on Friday that he had urged her to rethink the role.
“Honestly, if I were you, I’d reconsider,” he said, recalling his conversation with her. He said he also asked her, “Katie, do you need this? I don’t think you need this.”
Trump said she could still work for him “in some form, but maybe a more pleasant form.”
Trump named Zacharia to the post on October 9. She was a communications adviser for his media company and replaced Karoline Leavitt. She had earlier worked briefly as a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security and appeared as a commentator on Fox News and Newsmax.
Briefing, bar exam row
According to the NYT, Zacharia started work on Monday, October 12, and had not yet moved to Washington. Her only press briefing, on Tuesday, October 13, went badly. She mostly read from prepared remarks and stopped after taking three questions.
Questions then arose over whether she had misrepresented herself as a lawyer. Trump had described her as an attorney, but she had not passed the bar exam.
A reporter on the White House South Lawn asked her which state she had passed the bar in. She twice answered, “When I moved to China.” She later told NYT she had misheard the question.
She also faced tough questioning in an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity on Thursday night, October 15, and on “Fox and Friends” on Friday morning. Asked on the morning show whether she should have told the president about the bar exam, she replied that “those questions weren’t asked.”
The NYT said she had the backing of Natalie Harp, a close aide to Trump, but others in the White House saw her debut as a disaster.
The firing came during a turbulent week inside the Trump administration. Kimberly Guilfoyle was removed as ambassador to Greece on Tuesday. Trump also stepped in to settle a bitter feud between two loyalists, Richard Grenell and another ally.
Longtime Trump associate Paolo Zampolli was eased out of the State Department after an internal dispute became public, the report added.
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