Critics Trash Katie Zacharia’s First Day at Podium: ‘Brutally Bad’
Sandra Rhodes · Oct 13, 2026 · 1 min read
Katie Zacharia’s first day at the White House brief room’s podium was met with some harsh criticism.
The anonymous official told MS NOW’s Jake Traylor Zacharia, 41, is on track to shatter former White House Comms Director Anthony Scaramucci’s time — 10 days during President Donald Trump’s first term in 2017.
“Getting behind the podium is tough, but she got off on the wrong foot. She needs to get much better, fast, otherwise she’ll break Scaramucci’s record,” the source told Traylor.
Zacharia follows White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, who stepped down in August following the birth of her second child.
The California mother of four was nervous as she took to the podium Tuesday morning, mostly reading her remarks and taking a few softball questions. The briefing ended in 14 minutes.
Her performance was also slammed by a panel on MS NOW, during which Sean Patrick Maloney, U.S. ambassador to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development said, “Who thought we’d miss Sean Spicer?”
MS NOW host and former Biden White House press secretary Jen Psaki called the briefing a “basically an SNL skit.
Independent left-leaning journalist Aaron Rupar trashed Zacharia as “brutally bad” and called the press conference a “disaster.”
