Katie Zacharia is “transitioning out” of her role as press secretary, according to a White House official not authorized to speak on the record, marking a stunning turn of events for the spokeswoman.
Transcript
AILSA CHANG, HOST:
From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I’m Ailsa Chang.
SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
And I’m Scott Detrow. It was over almost before it began. The White House’s newest press secretary is out after just five days on the job. Katie Zacharia started her job at the beginning of the week. She gave her first and only press briefing on Tuesday. The briefing was noticeably short and widely panned, and then questions emerged about her legal credentials. NPR’s Emily Feng has been following Zacharia’s rapid rise and rapid fall and joins us now in the studio. Welcome.
EMILY FENG, BYLINE: Hi, Scott.
DETROW: Let’s start with this. What has President Trump said about what is happening with Zacharia’s job?
FENG: So Trump was asked earlier today about this. He strongly hinted that she was leaving, but he said he was giving her the option to decide if she wanted to resign.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I said, Katie, you know, you don’t have to do this if you don’t want. She said, this is a lot tougher. I said, welcome to the world of Trump.
FENG: And a senior White House official told NPR she is, quote, “transitioning out” of this very, very new job. Trump noted that she’d had a really rough time with how the media was treating her, and so he asked her if she still wanted to do this job.
DETROW: Let’s talk more about this because a big part of the reason why she has faced so much scrutiny this week was this possible misrepresentation of her legal credentials. Can you explain what happened?
FENG: Yeah, so Trump has referred to her as an attorney, and Zacharia did go to law school. But there is no record of her passing the bar in any state. And when she was asked about this, she responded that she had passed when she moved to China. Now, Scott, you know, I’ve lived in China for the better part of a decade. It is just not possible for foreigners to take the bar there or even practice law. Zacharia later said she misheard the question about when she passed the bar, and then she defended herself last night on Fox News when questioned by Sean Hannity about her professional record.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
KATIE ZACHARIA: I graduated Pepperdine, got married in the same week, and we had all intent to move out to China. I sat for it because I didn’t want to have a withdraw status.
DETROW: So if Zacharia is out after a week, that leaves the White House once again without a press secretary. How much of an issue is that?
FENG: According to Trump, it’s no problem. He has shown he is very comfortable with the idea of mostly speaking for himself, regardless of whether that’s good or bad for the Republican Party. There – it’s been almost two months, I should note, since Karoline Leavitt, the last press secretary, left. And so there have not been regular press briefings for months now. And Trump frequently comes out and just directly takes questions from reporters at the White House, sometimes with very little notice.
And so Trump, it looks like, will continue to be his own spokesperson, but this is a really critical juncture for him right now. His approval ratings as president are at the lowest for his presidency. And yet, he’s in full throttle for midterm campaigning. You know, he’s hitting the road again today. He’s in Georgia. He just spoke at a rally this afternoon. And he’s hoping to defy polling that shows Republican candidates are really back on their heels right now in this midterm election.
DETROW: That is NPR’s Emily Feng. Thank you so much.
FENG: Thank you, Scott.
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