Ousted press secretary Zacharia denies throwing Trump under bus

Washington: Katie Zacharia, ousted as White House Press Secretary after less than a week, has denied throwing President Donald Trump under the bus and thanked him for hosting her family in the Oval Office on her son’s birthday.

“I never threw him under the bus nor would I ever, and any insinuation or assertion otherwise is an abject lie and fake news,” Zacharia said on X on Saturday.

She was replying to conservative commentator Wayne Root, who had written: “Once she responded by throwing Trump under bus, it was over for her.”

The charge stemmed from a “Fox & Friends” interview hours before her exit, when she was asked whether she should have told Trump she had not passed the bar exam.

“Those questions weren’t asked,” Zacharia said, according to The Hill. “I’m being hired as White House press secretary, not White House counsel.”

Less than two hours later, she posted a photograph and wrote: “Thank you, President Trump, for hosting my family and me in the Oval Office and for the generous gifts you gave my children on my son’s birthday. It was an unforgettable honor.”

NBC News quoted a senior administration official as saying she would move to a new role to be announced later. No successor or acting press secretary has been named.

There has been no formal White House statement. Fox News’ John Roberts reported on October 16 that she was transitioning out, and that Trump considered her a good person whom he initially believed was right for the job.

In a farewell post that evening she wrote: “President Trump is a kind, wonderful, gracious, thoughtful, enthusiastic, and hardworking man. I wish more Americans appreciated him.”

Trump named her on October 9 to succeed Karoline Leavitt, who left at the end of August. “It is my Great Honor to have just appointed, as Press Secretary, Katie Zacharia,” the White House quoted him as saying. Leavitt posted the same day that “Katie has my full support”.

Her tenure was dogged by questions over her credentials. Newsmax’s Alex Salvi reported on October 15 that Zacharia said she knew she was moving to China to be with her then-boyfriend before taking the bar, and that she was offered a job at an international practice division of the Chinese law firm Zhong Lun.

Journalist Charles Gasparino defended her against criticism over references to her as a doctor, saying she “is as much of a doctor as ‘Dr Jill Biden’ since she graduated from law school, which gives her a juris doctorate.”

IANS