Katie Zacharia is ‘transitioning out’ of her role after holding only one press briefing.
By Catholics for Catholics
After barely seven days on one of the most important gigs in Washington, Katie Zacharia is leaving her job as White House press secretary after a shaky first week on the job, a source familiar confirmed to Fox News Digital.
According to a story by Fox News, President Donald Trump told Zacharia to “reconsider” the role, revealing to members of the press on the South Lawn on Friday that he told her: “You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to… I think you should reconsider.”
A senior White House official tells Fox News that Katie is now “transitioning out” of the role.
Zacharia’s departure comes as her one-week tenure was stained by growing inspection over her legal credentials and an unstable introduction before the White House press corps on Tuesday. Critics took aim at Zacharia over her recent interviews attempting to recover from the bumpy start.
“Maybe it’s not for her,” Trump admitted in his brief remarks outside the White House on Friday.
When questioned if this update meant that Trump fired Zacharia, the president retracted. “No no. I want her to have a good life,” he said.
“She’s been brutalized by the media,” Trump added.
Named to the high-profile post on Oct. 9, Zaharia stepped behind the White House podium for her first press briefing just days later on Oct. 13. Still, the briefing lasted 14 minutes and Zacharia took only three questions.
According to the Fox News story, Zacharia’s first time behind the podium drew unwanted attention over several verbal stumbles, including an instance when she by mistake referred to her husband as “my president” before correcting herself, as well as the briefing’s terseness, during which she took questions from just three journalists in 14 minutes.
By contrast, Karoline Leavitt’s first White House press briefing went on for almost 47 minutes, while Sean Spicer’s introduction to the White House limelight ran roughly 79 minutes. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ first briefing as press secretary lasted about 23 minutes in 2017.
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