‘The View’ Hosts Blame Donald Trump for Not Vetting Press Secretary Katie Zacharia

The women of The View discussed Katie Zacharia only lasting five days as Donald Trump‘s press secretary on the show’s Monday, October 19, episode. Zacharia was ousted from the role after making headlines for admitting she never faced the bar exam, and The View hosts are placing the blame on Trump for not vetting her before giving her the press secretary position.

“Who vetted her? You’re sending her out to answer questions for people. Why not ask a few questions yourself?” Sara Haines wondered. “I don’t understand how this woman ever got that job. By the time we figured out what her last job was, she was canned from this job.”

Ana Navarro noted that it probably wasn’t hard for Zacharia to get the job. “She was hired by Donald Trump. The way she got the job was by looking like press secretary Barbie and kissing his ass on Fox News,” she quipped. ‘The educational requirements have nothing to do with the job of press secretary. She could’ve claimed to be an acupuncturist or an astronaut or an astrophysicist, but if she had gone out there and slayed, if she had owned that podium, if she had performed great, nobody would care what she was claiming to be. I place this all on Donald Trump.”

Navarro pointed out that Trump hired Zacharia without doing his due diligence. “He didn’t ask the questions. She wasn’t vetted, she wasn’t auditioned,” she continued. “So, if you’re going to make fun of anybody, I’m going to make fun of Donald Trump, who can’t even hire a press secretary.”

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Alyssa Farah Griffin made sure to note that “being White House press secretary is actually an incredibly hard job,” which her co-hosts agreed with. “The easiest part of the job is going into the briefing room and answering questions from the press corps,” she admitted. “You have to know what’s going on in all parts of the government at all times, shadow the president. So she failed at the easiest part of the task.”

She joked that Zacharia lasted “half a [Anthony] Scaramucci],” which had Haines cracking up. “To Ana’s point, this is not on her,” Griffin added. “This is on the president and his Chief of Staff. They didn’t vet, they didn’t interview, they didn’t do a background check. They clearly didn’t do a security clearance check because that would’ve shown her education background. It’s starting to feel like late 2020 where the wheels are falling off and things are about to get real scary, and I really hope that’s not the case.”

Sunny Hostin agreed that Trump should be to blame for the hiring, but also said Zacharia should take some of the heat. “She did go to law school, but to call yourself a lawyer or an attorney that many times over and over again and misrespresent the fact that you did not pass the bar is an important thing,” Hostin warned. “I think lying about your credentials is an important thing, especially at a time in this country where women and women of color, in particular, are constantly questioned about our credentials and qualifications.”

Hostin named women of color who have actually passed the bar, including Kamala Harris and Michelle Obama. Then, Whoopi Goldberg concluded the segment by noting, “It can’t come as a shock because [Trump] doesn’t tell the truth. I’m sure he thought, ‘Well, they’re never going to know.’ But I have to put it on her and I’ll put it squarely on her because she passed herself off as this person and nobody questioned it and just assumed. I wanna say, I’m glad she’s gone. It’ll be interesting to see who replaces her.”

Goldberg joked that “the rapper [Trump] likes,” Nicki Minaj, could take the job, prompting Navarro to point out, “He likes blondes, so maybe Kid Rock.” Griffin noted the “terrifying” prospect of Laura Loomer becoming the next press secretary.

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“There’s a lot of people who are not qualified for this job who could take the post,” Goldberg said. Griffin said Scott Jennings from CNN would be qualified, but joked, “We’d have to get him a blonde wig first.”

However, Navarro doesn’t think Jennings wants the job. “Scott Jennings is having the time of his life,” she said. “He’s wearing Rolexes for the first time in his life, he’s making more money than he has in all his life, and he loves being the guy that everybody loves to hate on CNN.”

Goldberg admitted, “I don’t know who he is and I’m not messing with him.”

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