BREAKING: Katie Zacharia Is Out as White House Press Secretary

A week after she was named to the position, multiple reports said Friday afternoon that conservative commentator Katie Zacharia was out as press secretary, capping a stunning week in one of the highest-stress positions in Washington.

The move came following a single press briefing on Tuesday, and questions from the liberal, elitist media about her biography, particularly her legal career. Simply put, they have cared more about whether Zacharia passed the bar to become a licensed attorney than they have about whether Michigan Democrat senatorial candidate Abdul el-Sayed is associated with Islamists.

On her final day at the Daily Caller (before moving over to another friend of ours, the Daily Signal), our friend Reagan Reese was among those who had heard from a source who “confirmed to the Daily Caller that Zacharia would be ‘transitioning out’ of her role.”

Here was how The Washington Times put it (click “expand”):

Katie Zacharia will no longer serve as President Trump’s press secretary, getting the ax less than a week into the high-pressure job after a shaky podium debut and a scramble to defend whether she was a real lawyer.

A White House official told The Washington Times that Ms. Zacharia is “transitioning out” of the role.

Word of her ouster followed Mr. Trump’s blunt admission to reporters that he urged Ms. Zacharia to reconsider the position, citing the “nasty” response to her public debut.

President Trump seemed to have signaled her departure just after 1:00 p.m. Eastern.

Asked by NBC’s Gabe Gutierrez whether he “would…have liked to have known that [she] did not pass the bar and how would you rate her performance,” the President said the following:

Well, Katie has 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. You don’t have to be treated – the – I would say the fake news, but just generally the media has been very rough. She was on Sean Hannity last night, and Sean was a little bit tough. And she did – I saw Fox and Friends this morning. They were little tough. She’s been treated – I would say, pretty nastily. And I said to Katie, just two minutes ago, I said, Katie, you know, you don’t have to do this. You don’t want this. She said, this is a lot tougher. I said, welcome to the world of Trump.

Questioned by another reporter about her future, he said she would “let her make that decision” about whether to stay, adding:

It’s up [in the air]. Yeah. Look, she’s been she’s a nice person, a great person. And she’s been treated roughly. You know, I said, do you want to really live like this? I don’t think they’ll ever ease up. And you know, Karoline did a very good job. I think Katie maybe would do – but Katie is off to a start that the news has been so nasty to her. I’ve never seen anything like it, actually, and I said – I said to her, honestly, if I were you, I’d reconsider. You think about it, but I would reconsider. You’ve got a beautiful husband and family. I met the family yesterday. Beautiful kids. It’s like from a picture postcard. And I said, you should reconsider because you don’t want to go through this.

Gutierrez chimed back in: “What do you want her to do?”

“I just want her to be happy. Look, she has suffered over the last few days, and I’m not saying, you know, I mean, maybe it’s not for her, but I said you want to be happy in life. You – I’ll do whatever she wants…I’ll talk to her when I get back…tonight or tomorrow. I just said, I think you should reconsider, because the press is being very unfair,” Trump argued.

He doubled down a few minutes later to CNN’s Kristen Holmes and another reporter, suggesting she wouldn’t be fired (although The New York Times briefly said as much before correcting to just “out”):

I told Katie that, in my opinion, she was treated very, very unfairly. Very unfairly by the news. Let’s call it the fake news, or the news, or the media. You took [sic] any term you want. And I said, Katie, do you need this? I don’t think you need this. And we’re talking about doing something. We like Katie a lot. I think she’s been really, really treated very unfairly.

(.…)

No, no, we’re talking about – I want her to have a good life. I don’t want to have a life like she’s led in the last three days. She is being brutalized by the media, I think, very unfairly. But she’s been brutalized by the media.

(….)

What I’m doing is – I said, when I get back, we’re going to talk because I don’t think that Katie should be made to suffer like she’s suffering at the hands of the press, so I will talk to her as soon as I get back.

(….)

Would she stay? Yeah, in some form, but maybe a more pleasant form.

(….)

A lot of people want the job. [TO HOLMES] I’ll bet you’d want it if I offered it to you. But a lot of people would want that job. But I just think the press has been very tough on Katie. And I said, there’s no reason for you to have to go there. You’ve got a beautiful family, fantastic husband, and kids. And I told her, I said, I think you shouldn’t have to, but, you know, we’ll – we’ll make a determination.

(….)

I wasn’t hiring her to be a lawyer. I was hiring to be a press secretary, so nobody really went crazy over that. I would say it probably wouldn’t have mattered. I know many people – many people – many very smart people. Some of them take the bar for exams, the bar exam four times, but I wasn’t hiring as a lawyer. I hired as a press – and she’s been very good. You know, she’s been loyal to me from day one for a long time. But it’s not an easy job, and I think she was really treated very unfairly, so I’ll speak to her about it. I told her, I think you’re better off being happy, and I’m not sure you can ever be happy in this job. There’s nothing easy about this job.