Katie Zacharia has rejected claims that she was trying to campaign her way back into the role of White House press secretary.
Zacharia’s first stint as the public face of the Trump administration lasted only five days, during which she held a single press briefing that drew widespread criticism.
The New York Post reported Monday evening that Zacharia, 42, appeared as a commentator for Right Side Broadcasting Network on Election Night in what sources characterized as an audition for a return to the job.
She swiftly dismissed the report in a social media post later Monday.
‘Reporters and outlets pushing abject falsehoods from anonymous sources are complicit in the fake news machine—and a big reason Americans no longer trust the media,’ she wrote.
‘I’m not auditioning for the role. Claims that I’m trying to get my old job back as President Trump’s White House Press Secretary are utterly fake.’
Still, three sources aligned with Donald Trump said Zacharia had been seeking another opportunity, attempting to persuade the president to give her a second chance. They said she hoped her RSBN appearance would put her back on Trump’s radar and lead to an offer.
Zacharia was also spotted at Trump’s well-known Mar-a-Lago resort over the weekend, following what has been described as a ‘blue tsunami.’
Katie Zacharia rejected claims that she was trying to win back the White House press secretary post, while Stephen Miller replaced Susie Wiles as chief of staff
Zacharia’s heavily criticized first tenure as the Trump administration’s spokesperson lasted five days and included only one press briefing
‘She said it out loud. It’s absurd. Truly embarrassing,’ one source alleged.
Sources also claimed Zacharia had been working to make a favorable impression on new Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, who replaced Susie Wiles this week.
The Daily Mail has contacted the White House for comment.
The reports surfaced as Trump held an unexpected press briefing Monday afternoon with Ultimate Fighting Championship CEO Dana White.
The appearance followed Trump’s joke on Friday that he had offered White the vacant press secretary position.
Asked by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins whether he had accepted the role recently left open by Zacharia and Karoline Leavitt, White said he would not reject a request from the president.
‘I don’t tell the president no to anything,’ he said. ‘I didn’t say no.’
Trump explained that his earlier announcement had been made in jest after what he described as ‘a very bad press day.’
‘I think I’m going to get Dana White to be my new press secretary,’ Trump recalled saying.
Three Trump-aligned sources said Zacharia was trying to persuade Miller and Trump to give her another chance, hoping the president would see her RSBN appearance and restore her to the role
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The claims emerged as Trump appeared unexpectedly at a Monday afternoon briefing with UFC CEO Dana White
Trump acknowledged that he had been ‘sort of kidding’ when he floated the idea, but said the media immediately seized on it and ‘wrote the stories.’ He added that bringing White into the briefing room Monday was simply ‘for a little fun.’
By the close of the event, however, White made clear that he did not want the press secretary position—or any other role in government.
Zacharia was forced out after fewer than seven days, becoming the shortest-serving White House press secretary in history.
Trump initially defended her difficult start, accusing the media of giving her an unfair reception and dismissing questions about her background as irrelevant.
The president later said he had asked Zacharia, ‘Is this for you?’ He added that, had he been in her position, he might have reconsidered, telling her: ‘You don’t need this.’
After Zacharia’s departure, her predecessor Karoline Leavitt offered a sharply critical review, saying the high-profile post ‘obviously wasn’t for her.’
‘Look, the White House press secretary is a tough job,’ Leavitt told Fox News.
‘I know that because I did it, obviously, for almost two years, and many people say it’s one of the hardest jobs in politics. It takes a lot of preparation, and sometimes you don’t know how someone will perform until they go out there.’
Zacharia’s five-day tenure made her the shortest-serving press secretary in White House history
Leavitt suggested that Zacharia may not have been sufficiently prepared for the demanding assignment, contrasting her approach with the intense preparation she undertook before taking the job.
‘I poured myself into my preparation. I read, I studied, I talked to every Cabinet member, I talked to the president. I just absorbed as much information as this noggin up here could,’ she said.
Zacharia also came under scrutiny over her legal background after reports revealed that she failed the California bar exam in 2011.
She subsequently relocated to Beijing with her husband and worked for a Chinese law firm.
Although she never passed the bar exam, Zacharia regularly appeared on television as a legal analyst, discussing legal and political matters while presenting herself as a lawyer.
Her troubled start was followed by an uncomfortable appearance on Sean Hannity’s Fox News program on October 15, only hours before she was removed from the post the next day.
Hannity pressed her aggressively about the briefing that had drawn widespread criticism and questioned why she had repeatedly called herself a lawyer despite failing the California bar exam.
He also challenged her explanation for the briefing’s brevity, asking, ‘Why only three questions in 14 minutes?’ He warned that the White House briefing room would ‘never be a friendly room to you.’
Zacharia blamed the rushed hiring process and the limited time available to prepare. The confrontational interview, however, intensified the scrutiny of her short-lived tenure.