Katie Zacharia is reportedly transitioning out of her job as White House press secretary just one week after President Trump announced her appointment — and only three days after her first briefing from the podium.
A senior White House official gave that description to Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy on Friday. The phrase “transitioning out” is important: the White House has not yet publicly named a replacement, and President Trump denied that he fired Zacharia.
This is still an astonishingly fast turn for one of the most visible jobs in Washington.
Zacharia stepped into the role after Karoline Leavitt’s departure and immediately faced a brutal level of scrutiny. Now, the administration appears ready to make another change at the podium.
President Trump described the situation in much more personal terms. Speaking to reporters, he said he wanted Zacharia to have a good life and pointed to the relentless treatment she has received from the media.
That does not sound like a president trying to humiliate a departing staffer. It sounds like President Trump believes the job has become a miserable pressure cooker for Zacharia and that walking away may be the best move for her and her family.
The Associated Press reports that President Trump told Zacharia she might be better off being happy, said she had been treated unfairly and “brutalized” by the press, and indicated that a final determination would come later. The remarks came as he spoke with reporters on the White House lawn before leaving for Georgia.
When reporters asked who might replace Zacharia if she leaves, President Trump named no candidate and said many people would want the job. The report described his comments as casting doubt on her future without presenting a formal resignation announcement or naming a successor.
The developments cap a rough first week for Zacharia. Her inaugural briefing came on Tuesday, just days after President Trump announced her selection.
She fielded only a handful of questions, and critics immediately seized on both the brevity of the briefing and questions about her legal credentials.
Fox News reported Thursday night that Zacharia said she had been on the job for less than eight hours before entering the briefing room. She defended her performance and said she had done her best with limited preparation time.
Zacharia also pushed back on criticism that she took questions only from conservative outlets, pointing to the Daily Mail as one of the organizations she called on. She said the short briefing was planned because President Trump would answer reporters’ questions later that morning.
The same interview addressed her legal credentials. Zacharia confirmed that she failed the California bar exam after graduating from Pepperdine Law, did not retake it, and said she had expected to move to China after graduation, making the result seem inconsequential to her at the time.
Whatever anyone thinks of that debut, the White House press secretary’s job is one of the most unforgiving positions in government. Every word is clipped, replayed and weaponized within seconds.
Zacharia entered the arena with almost no runway, and the political press smelled blood immediately.
President Trump’s comments make clear that he noticed exactly what was happening.
For now, the official language is that Zacharia is “transitioning out” rather than being fired. But all signs point to her extremely short tenure at the White House podium coming to an end.
This is a developing story.
This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here.
The post REPORTS: Katie Zacharia OUT As Press Secretary appeared first on 100PercentFedUp.com.
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