Zacharia Out as White House Press Secretary After Just 5 Days

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

The stakes couldn't be higher. Join CNN's trusted journalist for Election Night in America. Coverage starts November 3rd at 5 on CNN. Or streaming live with an All Access subscription. Subscribe at cnn.com/allaccess.

Anderson Cooper (0:17)

Good evening from the newsroom. We begin tonight with White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia out of the job she held for just five months. She only gave one press conference, which was Tuesday, and it ran less than, excuse me, days.

And it ran less than 15 minutes. She now holds the new record for shortest employment of a top White House press official. First term communications director Anthony Scaramucci, the previous record holder, lasted six days longer than she did. He posted today, records are made to be broken, but I take no pleasure in other people's pain. About an hour later, he added graciously, Dear Katie Zacharia, speaking as the world's leading expert on short White House tenures, turn off the news, go enjoy your family. In time, you'll realize that the universe did you a major favor.

Even the president who announced her hiring exactly seven days ago seemed to be trying to soften the blow when he foreshadowed her departure earlier today.

Donald Trump (1:07)

Well, Katie's been treated very badly by the media, very, very badly, very unfairly, I think. And I just spoke to her about it. I said, Katie, is this for you? Because, you know, she's been treated very rough, and she's a nice person, very nice person. I've watched her for years on television, but I said, is this for you, Katie? Because, honestly, you don't need this.

Anderson Cooper (1:31)

Well, this comes, as you know, after she became the story herself, first with a press conference that was as poorly received inside the White House as it was short.

SPEAKER_4 (1:41)

I want to ask you a policy question. Has the US stopped sharing intel with Ukraine?

Katie Zacharia (1:47)

I'll have to get back to you on that. He had a historic one-day war, and now we have a booming economy and a great relationship with Venezuela. The idea of not spending evenings with my kid is, kids are, is completely unacceptable, so my president, excuse me, my husband, that's a good one.

Anderson Cooper (2:10)

Well, just moments after that, and even before, White House officials began telling reporters how bad they thought her performance was, Zacharia stepped on another rake with this.

Joe Lockhart (2:20)

Where did she pass the bar exam at?

Donald Trump (2:22)

She said she's an attorney.

Joe Lockhart (2:23)

Where did she pass the bar exam? Which state?

Donald Trump (2:26)

Where did she tell us? Where did she pass the bar exam?

Anderson Cooper (2:34)

Well, that was Tuesday. By Wednesday, she was claiming she had misheard the question. Reports were out that she'd taken and failed the California bar exam in 2011, and by yesterday, she was saying that experts in the field had told her it was okay to call herself a lawyer, anyhow, just not an attorney.

And then social media posts of her surfaced in which she quoted other posts describing her as an attorney. By last night, after we left the air, she was doing damage control on Sean Hannity or trying to because he was not having any of it. Take a look.

Sean Hannity (3:06)

You had your first moment as press secretary.

It's been widely panned, I'm sure you're aware. Am I hearing that you think the staff should have prepped you better? 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?

Katie Zacharia (3:24)

Correct.

Sean Hannity (3:26)

Okay, there's a report out tonight that showed 15 social media posts where you identify yourself as an attorney. Why only three questions in 14 minutes, and what might you do a little differently going forward?

Anderson Cooper (3:40)

Well, this morning, in the wake of that, she was asked whether she still had the confidence of the president. And here's how she answered.

Katie Zacharia (3:48)

I'm standing here, and I was able to travel with him through all of the midterm convention, or excuse me, the midterm rallies. And I hope to be able to build the trust and confidence of everyone around me.

Anderson Cooper (4:01)

Well, she's now not getting that chance. CNN's Julia Benbrook joins us now from the White House with more. So you have some new reporting on the vetting process that she underwent. What have you learned?

Julia Benbrook (4:14)

Well, the question is, was there a lot of vetting that went into this? And Anderson, according to multiple White House officials and advisors, the short answer to that is no. Instead, her selection came amid growing frustration from President Donald Trump himself that there were not enough voices out there on the airwaves really defending him during this midterm coverage, and as his approval rating has hit an all-time low. So, while her firing was swift, her hiring was also swift. There had been a vacancy in this press secretary role for a number of weeks after Caroline Leavitt departed, and Trump did not seem to be in a rush to fill that role. In fact, he said it multiple times, that he was not worried about having someone in that position. But as he selected Zacharia, there were a number of names that were out there, had been floated, had been discussed, some of them publicly. Zacharia, though, seemed to come a bit out of nowhere. She is a conservative commentator. She had been on TV. Those appearances ended up serving as somewhat of an audition for the president. He thought she could step into this role. And her selection came after some of the others that were being considered were deemed ineligible for some past critical comments that they had made about Trump. But going back on this timeline, she found out that she was going to be in this role on Friday. The first official day was on Monday. And then on Tuesday was that press briefing. It lasted for roughly 14 minutes. It was stumbly. She had her opening statements. She referenced her notes frequently throughout that. And then she only took questions from three reporters there in the room. So there was growing concern. But it did seem though Trump was less concerned than some in his orbit about this. In fact, on a flight to Alaska shortly after that, yeah, on that flight shortly after that, he told her that she did do a good job. Obviously, some of that changed.