Former White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia says she never saw it coming when Fox News host Sean Hannity grilled her over her credentials during an interview earlier this month.
Appearing Tuesday on Newsmax with host Rob Finnerty, Zacharia said she was baffled by the tone of the exchange, which drew widespread attention and came days before her abrupt exit from the White House.
“I was not prepared for the hostility that I received,” Zacharia said.
Zacharia lasted just five days as press secretary in October. Her lone briefing ran only 14 minutes, and she took just three questions before wrapping up. The performance was widely panned, and President Donald Trump publicly suggested she reconsider whether she wanted the job before she was out.
The Hannity interview focused heavily on her background, including her repeated description of herself as a lawyer even though she has never passed the bar exam. Hannity pressed her directly on whether she had passed the exam and referenced the criticism of her first briefing.
Zacharia told Finnerty the questioning caught her off guard, in part because Hannity had come to her defense on his show on Oct. 13, just two days before the interview. She also revealed that Hannity’s team had approached her earlier this year about joining his show as a California correspondent.
“We never had a conversation about my educational background,” she said.
Finnerty told Zacharia he was “shocked” by how Hannity treated her and asked whether she believed the interview had been set up to go badly. There has been speculation online that someone at the White House gave Hannity the green light to put her through the wringer. Fox News and Hannity have denied that claim, and Hannity defended Zacharia on his show hours after the interview.
Zacharia said she remains perplexed about what happened. She agreed with Finnerty that she would likely still be press secretary had it not been for her appearances on “Hannity” and “Fox & Friends” shortly before her departure. She has since unfollowed Hannity on social media.
The former press secretary also blamed the mainstream media for focusing on her rather than on the administration’s accomplishments, and said speaking on behalf of Trump makes the job tougher.
Asked whether she would return to Hannity’s show, Zacharia did not commit either way. But she said she would gladly work for Trump again, though she was not sure she would want her old post back.
“I would do so in a heartbeat,” she said of working for the president.
The White House press secretary role has seen frequent turnover across Trump’s two terms. Zacharia’s tenure ranks among the shortest in the history of the position.
