(AFP) – New White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia’s future appeared shaky Friday after three lackluster interviews with friendly outlets failed to beat back controversy over her claims to be a lawyer, as well as a stumbling debut at the briefing room podium. Zacharia’s struggles, just a week into her job, came as President Donald Trump’s Republican Party faces warnings of heavy defeat in the November 3 midterm congressional election. The kerfuffle is another distraction for the 80-year-old president as he crisscrosses the country, holding rallies to drum up support for his candidates.
Zacharia has described herself as a lawyer during television appearances and on social media, and listed herself as general counsel of a California-based conservative nonprofit. But the 41-year-old acknowledged Thursday she had failed the bar exam, a prerequisite for practicing law in the United States. On Friday, she gave a defensive interview to Trump-friendly “Fox and Friends,” saying, “I’m being hired as White House press secretary and not White House counsel.” The damage-control exercise followed a separate interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, a close Trump ally who appeared dismissive of Zacharia. He asked the press secretary, who graduated from law school at California’s Pepperdine University in 2011, if she ever retook the bar exam. She replied: “I did not.”
“I had four kids in six years,” she said. “It was never my intent to go into the practice of law.” In another interview Thursday with pro-Trump outlet Real America’s Voice, Zacharia said she had registered to take the bar exam but was “distracted and overwhelmed” by plans to move to China with her husband. “The results are somewhat inconsequential because I knew I wouldn’t need the bar in China,” she said.
Zacharia said “many people in the field” had assured her that she could “label myself a lawyer,” given her law degree and experience in business law gained in China, where she worked at a Beijing law firm. She added that she could “provide legal analysis, not legal advice.” “I was very careful how I executed this.”
But “Fox and Friends,” which often conducts friendly interviews with Trump administration officials, was unusually direct Friday when a host asked Zacharia if she still had the confidence of the president. “I’m standing here and I was able to travel with him through all of the midterm… rallies, and I hope to be able to build the trust and confidence of everyone around me,” she said, sidestepping the question.
Aside from the clean-up over the lawyer credentials, Zacharia has yet to announce when she will hold another press briefing in the White House. Her debut performance on Tuesday lasted barely 15 minutes. Much of this was taken up by Zacharia reading out — at an unusually slow pace — what she said were Trump achievements. She then took questions from only three journalists in the packed room. Zacharia said the timing of a second press briefing was up to the White House communications department and Trump, whom she praised as “the most hardworking, incredible man.”
Trump, known to enjoy watching his staffers’ performances on television, later told reporters that Zacharia, a former commentator on Fox News and right-wing outlet Newsmax, was “very good.” Zacharia further stirred controversy on Thursday when she disparaged China, whose leader Xi Jinping was recently Trump’s guest in a pomp-filled Washington visit. The press secretary recalled the perception in 2016 was that China would soon overtake the United States. “I remember this very distinctly, having just come from China, thinking, ‘How is China the next country on the horizon? They don’t even have proper toilets,'” she told right-wing influencer Jack Posobiec in an interview.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning responded Friday that Zacharia should “visit China more often.” Zacharia succeeded Karoline Leavitt, a loyal Trump supporter and often combative press secretary, who stepped down in August.
– Anita Chang Beattie
© 2024 AFP
