Hannity takes Zacharia to task over legal credentials

Fox News host Sean Hannity pressed new White House press secretary Katie Zacharia on her first briefing with reporters this week and her claiming to be an attorney despite not passing the bar exam.

Hannity began his interview of Zacharia on Thursday evening saying, “I know this is a widely viewed interview for you,” in an apparent reference to President Trump, who is a close friend of the Fox host and watches his show regularly.

The host called Zacharia’s first press briefing “widely panned” and noted questions have been raised about her legal credentials and the length of her first briefing, which lasted less than 15 minutes.

“What happened, how did you feel it went personally?” he asked her.

“I was asked to start on Monday, which was Columbus Day, a federal holiday, and was asked to have a press briefing on Tuesday morning,” she said. “What I feel is I really stepped up to the plate to do the briefing with very little prep time. I received briefing materials in the morning Tuesday and went to deliver all of the great results that President Trump is delivering for the American people that is not often spread in the national media.”

Zacharia called the reaction to her first briefing “mixed” and pushed back on complaints she only took questions from conservative media outlets by pointing to the Daily Mail as “not known to be a conservative outlet or friendly to conservatives.”

“Am I hearing that you think the staff should have prepped you better?” Hannity pressed. Zacharia did not answer and instead pointed to her “breaking news” by announcing the administration had asked former Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle to resign in the wake of scandal.

Zacharia has separately faced scrutiny over presenting herself as an attorney despite not passing the bar exam after studying law at Pepperdine University in California.

“You called it a conspiracy theory as it relates to being a lawyer,” Hannity said, referencing another interview Zacharia gave earlier on Thursday. He went on to point out what he said were 15 social media posts “where you identify yourself as an attorney.”

“I think they were retweets, and I corrected the record. … They were retweets of a title that had been given,” she responded.

Hannity asked how Zacharia has spent her first few days as Trump’s top spokesperson.

“Look, that is a very tough room, and I’ve known a lot of press secretaries over the years. Following on the heels of Karoline Leavitt is very tough, and speaking for Donald Trump makes everything tougher,” the Fox host said. “Why not just say, I went to Pepperdine Law School and chose a different career path? Why get into this long, drawn-out definition between the difference between a lawyer and an attorney? Because I don’t think many people see much of a distinction.”