Katie Zacharia addresses brevity of first press briefing, defends legal credentials after criticism
New White House press secretary Katie Zacharia said that she did her "very best" during her first briefing as she defended herself against criticism surrounding her legal credentials on "Hannity" Thursday.
The Pepperdine Law graduate made her White House briefing room debut on Tuesday, just days after President Donald Trump announced her appointment on Friday, leaving her with what she said was little time to prepare for the high-profile role.
"What I feel is I really stepped up to the plate to do the press conference," she told host Sean Hannity. "With very little prep time, I received briefing materials in the morning of Tuesday."
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Zacharia was heavily scrutinized for taking only three questions during her roughly 14-minute briefing, much of which she spent touting the Trump administration’s accomplishments ahead of the midterm elections.
She pushed back on criticism of her performance, saying she was on the job for less than eight hours before stepping behind the podium. She also challenged criticism that she fielded questions exclusively from conservative-leaning news organizations.
"Given the fact that I'd been on the job less than maybe eight hours and had a briefing book in the morning, I feel like I did my very best, Sean, to deliver for the American people that day," Zacharia said.
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"I took several questions and I think it's been mixed because they've said I only took questions from conservative outlets. However, the Daily Mail is not known to be a conservative outlet or friendly to conservatives so I do challenge that narrative."
Zacharia delivered a piece of major breaking news during her debut, that the Trump administration had asked Kimberly Guilfoyle to resign from her ambassador role.
"I was able to deliver breaking news, which I do believe was the right thing to do as the press secretary," she said.
The scrutiny surrounding Zacharia’s debut was compounded by questions about her legal credentials after The Wall Street Journal reported that she had failed the California bar exam.
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Hannity challenged Zacharia over social media posts in which she had been identified as an attorney.
"There's a report out tonight that showed 15 social media posts where you identify yourself as an attorney," Hannity asked the press secretary.
"I think they were retweets, and I corrected the record and said that there's not endorsing the title. They were retweets of a title that had been given," Zacharia responded.
Zacharia revealed that after failing the bar the first time after graduating law school, she did not take the test a second time.
"I graduated Pepperdine, got married in the same week, and we had all intent to move out to China," she explained. "I had already preregistered for the bar exam and... during the summer, I knew I would be living in China and the results of the bar were inconsequential, and I sat for it because I didn't wanna have a withdrawal status."
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"When I went to go engage in media and give legal analysis, I consulted attorneys and legal professionals as to whether or not they agreed that I could be labeled a lawyer, both because I had a valid juris doctor from a good law school, a reputable law school, Pepperdine Law School, and in conjunction with the fact that I did have actual substantive legal experience."
After facing days of intense backlash, including from comedian Jimmy Kimmel, who compared Zacharia’s intelligence to that of a kindergartner, she vowed to continue fighting.
She said she hopes to develop stronger relationships with members of the White House press corps and have more substantive interactions with reporters going forward.
"I would love to build a relationship with all of those members of the press corps so there is a substantive component to us having an ability to interact," Zacharia said. "And I will be very prepared, Sean, and I will step up to the duty that President Trump has asked me to as press secretary."