Katie Zacharia defended her rocky White House debut by revealing she rose before dawn to cram for a briefing she never got to properly rehearse.
The 42-year-old, who lasted five days as President Trump’s press secretary, told “Real America’s Voice” host Jack Posobiec on Thursday that she woke at 3 a.m. Last Tuesday to prepare for what became a widely mocked 14-minute appearance. She took just three questions and appeared visibly rattled throughout.
“Typically, Jack, briefs are in the afternoon, 1 p.m., 1:30 p.m., where the press secretary has an ample amount of time to have discussed with all the necessary people, get all the right information, be briefed and walk out, and this was a very different incoming, intake,” she said.
“Monday, Columbus Day, is when I got the briefing materials, and then Tuesday morning they were completed. And I woke up at 3 in the morning on Tuesday to prepare what I had, but they weren’t finalized until – we didn’t finalize everything until about 8 a.m.,” she continued. “And I never had a full briefing beforehand and I went out and I effectuated the briefing.”
Zacharia’s whirlwind hiring began with a phone call from Trump himself. She was taking her 5-year-old son to a pumpkin patch last Wednesday when the president rang. By Thursday she had flown to Washington, met with Trump on Friday, and accepted the position that same day. She then shuttled back to California on Saturday to pack, returned to D.C. On Sunday, and started work Monday.
The rushed timeline left her scrambling. Trump personally prepped her in the Oval Office, making her slightly late for the briefing, and instructed her to tout his accomplishments plus announce his demand for the resignation of Kimberly Guilfoyle, the U.S. Ambassador to Greece, according to a source familiar with the matter.
Zacharia also pushed back against criticism that the briefing was unusually brief, insisting the truncated runtime was deliberate.
“Knowing that White House protocol is pretty specific, it was absolutely my goal to keep it short considering he is his own best spokesperson and he would love and does love gaggling with the media as he goes to Marine One, so I wanted to give ample deference and not barge into his time,” she said.
“My original understanding is that my briefing would be at 9:30, end by 10 at least or earlier and that there would be then a quick movement out and we would be going on Marine One at 10.”
The actual performance fell well short of that controlled plan. Zacharia spent eight minutes reading opening remarks, leaving six minutes for questions, and clung heavily to her notes. In one flubbed moment, she accidentally called her husband the president.
Beyond the chaotic rollout, Zacharia faced questions about her legal credentials. The Wall Street Journal reported she failed the California bar exam after graduating from Pepperdine University’s law school in 2011, despite having described herself as a lawyer.
She confirmed the bar failure in Thursday’s interview, explaining she had planned to move to China with her future husband and “didn’t want to withdraw” from the exam. In a Wednesday phone interview, she said she had consulted Pepperdine’s president about how to describe herself post-graduation and was advised to avoid “attorney” or “esquire” while using “lawyer” instead.
Zacharia was chosen to succeed Karoline Leavitt, who had served as Trump’s press secretary before her.