Sean Hannity Grills Trump’s New Press Secretary Katie Zacharia After Disaster Debut

Fox News anchor Sean Hannity initially defended Katie Zacharia’s widely criticized debut as White House press secretary, calling it “perfectly normal,” but appeared to shift his stance during an interview with her on Thursday (October 15).

Hannity noted that Zacharia’s first press briefing lasted just 14 minutes, and she fielded only three questions. He also described it as “widely panned” before asking her, “What happened? How did you feel it went personally?”

Zacharia, who replaced President Trump‘s former press secretary Karoline Leavitt, said she accepted the position just days before her first briefing and that her preparation materials weren’t finalized until Tuesday morning (October 13).

“Am I hearing that you think the staff should have prepped you better?” Hannity asked, per Mediaite.

“I could have just given a brief intro,” Zacharia responded. “Instead of taking questions, I probably should have stepped aside.”

Hannity then turned his attention to Zacharia’s law background. As the host pointed out, Zacharia is regularly referred to as a lawyer despite no evidence that she has passed the bar.

“Now, you did go to Pepperdine. Pepperdine is a good school, no doubt about it. You took the bar exam, but you didn’t pass the bar exam. Correct?” Hannity asked.

“Yes, Sean,” Zacharia answered.

“Okay. Did you ever take it a second time?” Hannity added.

Zacharia explained that when she took the bar exam, she’d just gotten married and “had all the intent to move out to China.” She said she still took the exam because “I didn’t want to have a withdrawal status,” but noted that “the results of the bar were inconsequential.”

“And then I moved over to China, where I did get a job in an international practice at a Chinese law firm,” she claimed. “I was doing multi-cross-country border transactions and multi-million-dollar shareholder agreements…”

Hannity interrupted, telling Zacharia that he knew that part of the story but wanted to know, “Did you ever take the bar exam a second time or a third time?”

“I did not, Sean,” she replied.

“So, you said you consulted with many people, and they advised you that it was okay to call yourself a lawyer but not an attorney. Correct?” Hannity continued.

After Zacharia said that was correct, Hannity pointed to a “report out tonight that shows 15 social media posts where you identify yourself as an attorney.”

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Zacharia brushed those off as retweets and not personal endorsements.

Hannity said it’s tough to be press secretary, especially when you’re speaking for Donald Trump, but he couldn’t understand why she didn’t just say she went to Pepperdine and then took a different career path.

“Why get into this long, drawn-out definition of the difference between a lawyer and an attorney?” he asked. “Because I don’t think most people see much of a distinction. Why didn’t you just say, ‘I never practiced law?'”

Zacharia said she didn’t retake the bar because, when she moved back to the U.S., she had “four kids in six years.” She also claimed it was never her intention to practice law and that she consulted “attorneys and legal professionals as to whether or not they agreed that I could be labeled a lawyer” when giving legal advice on television.

You can watch the interview in the video above and let us know your thoughts below.