Amanpour Uses Zacharia Firing to Warn of 'Far-Right' 'Misogyny'

Alex Christy
October 21st, 2026 2:57 PM

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PBS/CNN International host Christiane Amanpour welcomed former Vanity Fair editor Tina Brown to her Ex Files podcast on Tuesday to discuss Katie Zacharia's brief tenure as White House press secretary. According to Amanpour, the big takeaway is that the Trump White House is a sexist place and that people should not underestimate the misogyny of the “far-right.”

Amanpour’s remarks come shortly after she announced she will be leaving PBS and CNN by declaring she “will always be rooting for CNN and maintaining its history of independent journalism. Remember: always be truthful, not neutral.”

However, Amanpour has funny definitions for “independent” and “truthful.” Referencing some unspecified article she read, Amanpour declared, “So, Tina, let's get started about the latest crisis. Look, there, I just looked at an article today, an opinion really, never underestimate the power of misogyny to gear up the far-right. So, my question to you is, do you think that comes into, for instance, the fall of Katie Zacharia, the collapse of a lot of the press—not just press secretaries but the female cabinet secretaries over the last several months.”  

 

 

Brown acknowledged that Zacharia was let go because she did a poor job, but she also tried to affirm Amanpour’s point, “She was completely unqualified. She'd had six weeks as an assistant spokesperson for another department. She had—she claimed she was a lawyer. In fact, she wasn't. She'd just gone to law school, so this was a whole, sort of, host of horribleness, but the truth is that she really was just an avatar for all of the terrible appointments, and being a woman just makes you fall faster and harder and with more, sort of, velocity and embarrassment. I think that that is genuinely the part of it.”

Later in the episode, Amanpour repeated herself, “I have to say, it does actually pain me that all these people who are getting the chop or falling on their sword or just committing harikiri are women, and it does pain me because gosh damn it, we really work so hard to get to where we belong and then all this happens.”

Of course, Amanpour is cherry-picking. Mike Waltz was reassigned to the U.N. after Signalgate, much like Kristi Noem was originally resassigned to the Shield of the Americas. Some in the media gushed over Joe Kent’s resignation later despite it being filled with anti-Semitic puppeteering tropes. Amanpour’s decision to include resignations also omits the fact that Karoline Leavitt and Tulsi Gabbard left for family reasons.

 

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Nevertheless, Amanpour professed to be particularly worried about the press secretary role, “Can I just quickly—this business of the White House press secretary?. Now, you've got a White House that's barring certain mainstream media from all sorts of different presidential events. That whole thing is in the courts still. You've got these influencers and pro-Trump MAGA-type of, whatever you want to call them, broadcasters who get a huge big say both in the Pentagon and in the White House. How useful are these briefings anymore, do you think? Do you think it's like slowly going to become an endangered species itself?”

Brown agreed, “Well, this is what's so horrible about Trump. The way, in the end, he negates every institution everywhere. I mean, he makes everything debased, degraded, and irrelevant. So the proud—the proud role of being a press secretary has now become a joke job like everything else that he does because in the end Trump is trying to say, ‘No one is important except me. I make the decisions. I'm my best spokesman,’ which he's often said. In fact, even Katie Zacharia said the president is his own best spokesman. I mean, this is the whole Trump, sort of, saga of degradation of everything that he touches.”

The irony in all this is that when Trump does hire women, she does not celebrate it. She may point out that Susie Wiles is the first female presidential chief of staff as a matter of fact, but she has never said, "‘Gosh damn it’ this is great.”

Here is a transcript for the October 20 show:

Christiane Amanpour Presents: The Ex Files

10/20/2/26

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: So, Tina, let's get started about the latest crisis. Look, there, I just looked at an article today, an opinion really, never underestimate the power of misogyny to gear up the far-right. So, my question to you is, do you think that comes into, for instance, the fall of Katie Zacharia, the collapse of a lot of the press—not just press secretaries but the female cabinet secretaries over the last several months.

TINA BROWN: Well, look I mean the fact is that Katie Zacharia was a kind of animatronic airhead. I don't know where Trump could have possibly imagined she could have ever fit in as any kind of public spokesman. 

So, let's just set that aside in the sense that she was, sort of, almost uniquely ridiculous in her presentation. Trump just snatched out Fox News. He didn't even ask anyone's opinion before he appointed her, including his chief of staff, Susie Wiles. 

She was completely unqualified. She'd had six weeks as an assistant spokesperson for another department. She had--she claimed she was a lawyer. In fact, she wasn't. She'd just gone to law school, so this was a whole, sort of, host of horribleness, but the truth is that she really was just an avatar for all of the terrible appointments, and being a woman just makes you fall faster and harder and with more, sort of, velocity and embarrassment. I think that that is genuinely the part of it.

…

AMANPOUR: I have to say, it does actually pain me that all these people who are getting the chop or falling on their sword or just committing harikiri are women, and it does pain me because gosh damn it, we really work so hard to get to where we belong and then all this happens.

Can I just quickly—this business of the White House press secretary? Now, you've got a White House that's barring certain mainstream media from all sorts of different presidential events. That whole thing is in the courts still. You've got these influencers and pro-Trump MAGA-type of, whatever you want to call them, broadcasters who get a huge big say both in the Pentagon and in the White House.

How useful are these briefings anymore, do you think? Do you think it's like slowly going to become an endangered species itself?

BROWN: Well, this is what's so horrible about Trump. The way, in the end, he negates every institution everywhere. I mean, he makes everything debased, degraded, and irrelevant. So the proud—the proud role of being a press secretary has now become a joke job like everything else that he does because in the end Trump is trying to say, "No one is important except me. I make the decisions. I'm my best spokesman,” which he's often said.

In fact, even Katie Zacharia said the president is his own best spokesman. I mean this is the whole Trump, sort of, saga of degradation of everything that he touches.

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