Newly minted White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia's first press conference was a disaster. But the news that's come out about Zacharia is even worse, including what she said herself.
Zacharia has said she's a lawyer, and Trump called her “an attorney," but it doesn't appear that she's passed the bar exam. On Tuesday, a reporter asked which state she passed the bar exam in; she twice replied, “When I moved to China.”
That's just weird. Like, weird, weird. But she offered the New York Times an excuse for her dodgy answer. It was just a misunderstanding!
“I assumed the question was, ‘Where were you after law school?’” she said.
“That’s all I could hear over the sound of Marine One,” she added. “And, wanting to respect protocol, the distance behind the president, kept me from moving closer to hear the question.”
Zacharia says she consulted Pepperdine's president after failing the bar and was advised against calling herself an attorney or using the title “esquire,” but was told that calling herself a lawyer was acceptable. However, legal experts say that the term generally implies someone is licensed to practice law.
The controversy is growing. A watchdog group has filed a complaint with the California State Bar, asking it to investigate whether Zacharia misrepresented herself as qualified to practice law. Her previous claims of serving as general counsel for a conservative nonprofit have also raised questions, since that role usually involves providing legal advice.
For a press secretary whose job is to answer questions, Zacharia's first week has left her facing some rather uncomfortable ones. And apparently, she thinks Marine One deserves some of the blame.
