A week is a long time in politics, and new White House press secretary Katie Zacharia has had a tough time of it before even completing her first one in the job.
Her opening press conference was heavily criticised as Zacharia spoke robotically, accidentally referred to her husband as ‘my president’ and had her performance compared to a ‘hostage video’.
A reporter in attendance said that a White House official told him Zacharia ‘needs to get much better, fast’ or she risked being given the boot and breaking the 11 day record of least time spent in the job held by Anthony Scaramucci.
Now the White House has been defending her against claims that she is not a lawyer, as the Wall Street Journal reported that while she graduated from law school in 2011 she didn’t pass the bar exam when she took it in California.
They claim that a ‘person with direct knowledge of the matter’ told them Zacharia sat the exam after graduation but didn’t pass, and reported that she didn’t appear in searches for licenced attorneys in California, Texas or Washington DC.
Katie Zacharia has called herself a lawyer and did graduate with a law degree, but the Wall Street Journal says she failed to pass the bar (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Responding to the claims, Zacharia said: “I practised international transaction law, with all the appropriate credentials.”
When asked which US state she’d passed the bar in Zacharia, who has referred to herself as a lawyer, said she had done it when she moved to China with her husband, and later said that she had misheard the question.
Steven Cheung, the White House communications director, backed the new hire as he said: “Katie is a fabulous and wonderful addition to the team.
“She is uniquely qualified and whip smart to help inform the American people about all the great things President Trump and his Administration have been doing, and she will do an incredible job as Press Secretary.”
The watchdog group Campaign for Accountability has warned that she might have broken the law in California by referring to herself as a lawyer.
The White House has said she’s the right person for the job and concerns raised come from ‘rabid numbskulls’ (Jim WATSON / AFP via Getty Images)
They said yesterday (14 October) that she had ‘repeatedly held herself out to the public as entitled to practice law without a license to do so, conduct California law treats as a crime’.
“Ms. Zacharia has represented herself as a lawyer repeatedly to buttress her reputation and credibility as a television legal commentator and now as the White House spokesperson, yet it seems it was all a lie,” they said in a statement.
“In California, calling yourself a lawyer without a license isn’t puffery; it’s a crime.
“The State Bar should investigate whether Ms. Zacharia has misled the public about her credentials and hold her accountable if she has.”
Cheung argued that the watchdog was a ‘radical leftist-organization run by rabid numbskulls suffering from a severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome’.
It looks like they’re standing by her amidst the scrutiny and claims.
Leave a Reply