The Katie Zacharia Saga & the Many Perils of the Press Secretary

Katie Zacharia had an abbreviated ride on the train to fame this week. She likely wishes she hadn't been selected as the new White House press secretary, replacing Karoline Leavitt. But a rocky start began to pick up steam, ultimately crushing the former Fox News commentator; on Friday, her dream job vaporized when it was announced she would not be the press secretary, and she was removed from the post.

Zacharia’s travails were mostly self-induced. Her first error was an omission: She left out a not-so-small detail on her resume. Her second came when she held her first presser and tried to play nice in an otherwise vicious sandbox.

Zacharia – Wait, what just happened?

Blonde and beautiful may get you in the door, but once you're there, you need to do the job. Zacharia’s first presser with the angry mob known as the White House Press Corps didn't go well. And that’s a gracious way of saying she pretty much lost her job then and there. It’s as if no one bothered to show her the ropes, and she faltered badly. As the new press secretary read from a text that sounded like an overly long introduction of President Trump at a political rally, reporters began to get antsy. Then she followed it up by taking questions from three friendly news reporters who would (and did) throw her softball questions. Her performance was so awful that the press corps immediately went into action. What Zacharia appeared not to know was that White House correspondents didn’t get to be in the rarefied air of the James S. Brady Briefing Room through kindness and gentleness.

Sensing blood in the water, the bullies in the press room quickly went to work and ate her alive. The Wall Street Journal reported that she took the bar exam in California, failed, and didn’t bother to retake it. Zacharia apparently didn’t mention this to the president. So, she was in what many saw as a gray area: Is she a lawyer but not an attorney? Is she neither? Both? What’s the difference? Was she practicing law without a license? The questions were never-ending.

Liberty Nation News spoke with George W. Bush’s former chief White House ethics lawyer, Richard Painter, about the controversy. He asserted: “If you say, ‘I’ve been a general counsel of the California entity on LinkedIn,’ you're basically telling the world that you are licensed to be a general counsel in California.” Once Zacharia began playing defense, it was pretty much all over. Painter suggested how it should have been addressed: “I'd say this is not a great way to get off to a good start. In terms of candor and all the rest of it, I think that she should clean up the LinkedIn page and make clear that she's not licensed.” 

But the damage had been done. Sensing a soft target, the White House Press Corps went in for the kill, and for the next several days they went after her hammer and tongs: The new White House press secretary was lambasted in the liberal press, annihilated on X, and made the butt of every political meme far and wide. President Biden's press secretary, Jen Psaki, likened the presser to an SNL skit.

The bottom line was that Katie didn’t show enough feistiness. The correspondents who cover 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. don’t respect anyone who isn’t tough and willing to give them at least a little grief. Had Zacharia gone on offense and said, “It doesn’t matter whether I passed the bar or not. This is a specious argument, and I won’t bow down to you, so you better put your big boy pants on and get ready to rumble because I do not intend to take any guano from you or anyone else in this room,” the media would likely have backed off and perhaps even thrown her a bouquet of respect, signaling that she passed her first hurdle.

Katie Zacharia's rapid rise and fall is one of those strange cases that might never have happened if she had been witchy to the media, because that’s all they understand. Had she rolled up a newspaper and swatted them on the nose with it, she might still be press secretary today. Still, she’s not the only White House press secretary to make errors and, in fact, is in good company.

Perino & Jean-Pierre

Fox News anchor and popular TV political analyst Dana Perino had an embarrassing moment while serving as press secretary for President George W. Bush. When asked whether a particular event with Russia resembled the Cuban Missile Crisis, Perino demurred and filibustered. Later, she admitted she “panicked” when she got the Cuban Missile Crisis question because she wasn’t exactly sure what it was. She told the story to National Public Radio as recounted in Salon:

“‘I really know nothing about the Cuban missile crisis. It had to do with Cuba and missiles, I’m pretty sure.’ Perino said she went home that night and asked her husband, ‘Wasn’t that, like, the Bay of Pigs thing?’ And he said, ‘Oh, Dana.’”

Karine Jean-Pierre had a bevy of blunders, but she had a take-no-guff-from-anyone attitude. Her fair share of gaffes included mislabeling President Biden as President Obama. The transcript goes like this: "So today, as you all saw just an hour or so ago, President Obama announced that—Pardon me, President Biden! Whoa! Ahem, that is news.” 

Another time, she called Canada “Canadia.”

Lessons Learned the Hard Way

Now that the dust is beginning to settle following the speedy resignation/firing (no one is quite sure which side pulled the trigger) of Katie Zacharia, the press may rue the day they shoved her to the curb. The president says he’s in no hurry to hire someone else. When he does, Trump will likely take Zacharia's treatment to heart and look for someone with pit bull credentials as his next White House press secretary. While the early signs weren’t good, she might have made a decent press secretary with some time and tutoring. Now we will never know.

Katie Zacharia's brief five-day experience as White House press secretary might best be summed up by American author P.C. Cast, who wrote: “It was like I was inside a fishbowl in the middle of a typhoon, and everyone else was on the outside cluelessly enjoying lovely weather.”