Katie Zacharia had big shoes to fill. Not every press secretary is a Karoline Leavitt or a Kayleigh McEnany — two women who routinely gave a masterclass in communicating the president’s goals, decisions, and policies, but whose legacies clearly took a toll on Zacharia. She has already stepped down as President Donald Trump’s official spokesperson.
President Trump announced Zacharia’s promotion to press secretary on October 9, describing her as an attorney. Zacharia started on October 12 and held her first press briefing on October 13, during which she dropped the bombshell that the president had asked Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle to resign. She then took just three questions from friendly news outlets. The whole exchange lasted 14 minutes.
The newbie looked and sounded nervous, constantly looking down and not straying from her notes. Zacharia also made a gaffe, saying “my president” when she meant “my husband.”
The following day was even worse. The Leftmedia decided to pick Zacharia apart, reporting that she falsely claimed she was an attorney despite having never passed the bar exam. Zacharia quickly explained it away, saying that even though she isn’t licensed to practice law, she can call herself a lawyer because she went through the same training as an attorney.
Being a press secretary in any administration is one of the toughest and most thankless jobs in Washington, DC. You are the public face of the administration, and the media room is looking for ways to inflict death by a thousand paper cuts. The Left fixated on Zacharia’s lawyer-vs.-attorney distinction on her résumé and dragged her through the mud.
Zacharia’s forgettable press briefing and her law-certification hanky-panky caused enough uproar that by Friday, the president told reporters he exhorted Zacharia to reconsider whether the press secretary position really suited her. Trump said, “Is this for you, Katie? Because honestly, you don’t need this.” He went on to excoriate the media’s ridiculous treatment of Zacharia, concluding once again, “Honestly, if I were [Katie], I’d reconsider.”
Shortly afterward, Zacharia officially announced that she was leaving the position. California Governor Gavin Newsom’s press office posted a snide meme captioned, “In Memoriam; Tuesday-Friday.” For context, Zacharia is from California, which made the dig even nastier.
Her abrupt departure prompts the question: Is there more to the story? Zacharia obviously did not give a perfect, nerve-free press briefing, but that doesn’t mean she wouldn’t have grown into the role with time and experience.
National Review’s Jim Geraghty poses another possibility. Perhaps Zacharia was hired before the vetting process was completed. Geraghty found that both Zacharia and her husband, Tyler, have ties to companies that represented or did business with America’s geopolitical enemies. Zacharia herself worked for a law firm in Beijing for two years that has ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and China’s Justice Ministry. What sort of work did she do for the company?
Tyler lived in Beijing from 2007-2013 and served as vice president at Schulze Global Investments, which expanded into North Korea. This CCP ally was under heavy sanctions from both the United States and the United Nations, so it’s hard to conceive of any business being able to expand scrupulously into that communist cesspit.
Neither of these things in and of itself is damning, but it’s reasonable to say they are suspicious. Not to mention that President Trump told the media he was the one encouraging her to resign.
Political commentator Katie Pavlich also observes:
Failing the California bar exam the first time is normal. Who cares? But this is not the issue.
What is not normal is failing the exam and then lying for years about being a lawyer or attorney to get on television. It is illegal in California to present as a lawyer or attorney and especially to practice law without passing the bar. Presenting this way after passing the ethics exam — before failing the bar — makes it worse because an individual would know it is not okay. She did it anyway.
Lying to the President of the United States about your resume to land a job is a big deal. The President incorrectly and repeatedly stated she was an attorney because for years she said so. I’d hope more people would be upset about that. The issue is the dishonesty.
All of this was preventable. What a shame.
It’s been pointed out that President Trump has a habit of hiring women who are lovely to look at but aren’t necessarily good at their jobs (see Kristi Noem and Pam Bondi). Was Zacharia another beauty-without-substance hire? To be fair, she quit before America even got a chance to really judge her communication abilities.
Sadly for Zacharia, she now holds the record for the shortest stint as White House press secretary. And as Pavlich put it, what a preventable shame.
