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New White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia Defends Her Legal Background and Short First Briefing – WTOP News

She said she consulted legal experts about using the title lawyer and kept her first briefing short because Trump would take questions later.

  • In her first sit-down interview on Thursday, White House press secretary Katie Zacharia defended her rocky debut briefing on Tuesday, attributing performance issues to a compressed preparation window rather than communication shortcomings.
  • President Donald Trump unexpectedly called Zacharia on Oct. 7 to fill the vacancy left by Karoline Leavitt, prompting her to fly from California to Washington and accept the position on Friday.
  • Zacharia received briefing materials Monday evening, completing them Tuesday morning at 8am, less than two hours before her appearance. She said, "I never had a full briefing beforehand," noting her goal was deferring to Trump's media interactions.
  • Addressing scrutiny over her professional title, Zacharia stated she consulted legal experts regarding the "lawyer" descriptor and called her bar exam failure "somewhat inconsequential" given her planned move to Beijing.
  • Zacharia confirmed she will not weigh in on legal matters in her White House capacity, having previously monitored Trump's social media posts to align her public commentary with his stated priorities.
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Washington Times broke the news in Washington, United States on Thursday, October 15, 2026.
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