Trump's New Press Secretary Held Her First Briefing — And the White House Already Doubts How Long She'll Last
At her first briefing, Katie Zacharia confused the president with her husband, ended the briefing after 14 minutes, and couldn't answer a question about transferring intelligence to Ukraine. Some White House staffers already doubt how long she'll last in the position. Trump himself praised her debut.
Katie Zacharia was appointed White House press secretary on October 9. She held her first briefing on October 13 — it lasted only about a quarter of an hour.
For most of the time, Zacharia read a prepared text listing Donald Trump's achievements. About five and a half minutes remained for questions. Representatives of publications sympathetic to the American president were given the floor.
When Zacharia was talking about her family, she misspoke: "My president… sorry, my husband."
And to a question from a Fox News correspondent about whether the US had stopped transferring intelligence to Ukraine, she replied: "I'll have to get back to you on that question."
Several administration officials, in conversation with CNN, called the performance awkward and constrained. One of Trump's advisors believes that she should have trained for two weeks to answer difficult questions before facing journalists. Briefings by her predecessor, Caroline Leavitt, lasted an average of about 45 minutes.
An anonymous White House official, in a comment to MS NOW, warned: "She needs to get much better very quickly, or she'll break Scaramucci's record." This refers to Anthony Scaramucci, who lasted only 11 days as White House Communications Director in 2017.
Commentators also joined the criticism. The author of The Guardian wrote that Zacharia demonstrated "as much warmth, wisdom, and political acumen as an artificial intelligence avatar."
However, publicly Trump supported the new press secretary: "In my opinion, she performed very well."
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