President Trump’s short-lived former press secretary, Katie Zacharia, says the media and D.C. politics are to blame for her being ousted from the role.
Speaking with Newsmax’s Rob Finnerty on Wednesday, Ms. Zacharia said the media “does not like outsiders, and Washington, D.C., does not like outsiders.”
“The media and all of Washington made it very difficult for me to do the job I set out to do,” she said.
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Ms. Zacharia was Mr. Trump’s pick to succeed press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who left her post in August, with Ms. Zacharia accepting the position on Oct. 12.
But four days later, after one press conference that earned mixed reviews and a scathing interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity in which he questioned her qualifications as a lawyer, Ms. Zacharia said she would be “transitioning” out of the position and into a new job.
When asked what comes next for her, Ms. Zacharia told Mr. Finnerty that she’ll “always be an advocate for what [Mr. Trump] is doing.”
Although she said she doesn’t necessarily want the “old job” back, if the president reinstated her in the role, she “would take it.”
Mr. Trump told reporters on Oct. 16, three days after Ms. Zacharia’s first press conference, that he didn’t know if she was right for the role.
“Maybe it’s not for her,” he said.
Ms. Zacharia was also scrutinized over her legal qualifications, telling a reporter she passed the bar exam “when [she] moved to China.”
She later claimed she could not hear the reporter’s question over the din of Marine One.
Ms. Zacharia took the California bar exam in 2011 but did not pass. It was later confirmed by The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post that she didn’t pass the exam in any U.S. state.
She does, however, hold a law degree from California’s Pepperdine University.
Ms. Zacharia said in the Newsmax interview Wednesday that she has work lined up but did not specify her next role.
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