The US President’s new press secretary Katie Zacharia had a torrid time up at the podium as she appeared to stumble over her words and made an embarrassing blunder involving her husband
Donald Trump’s new blonde press secretary has been ridiculed after putting in a blunder-laden debut than has evoked memories of George Weah’s cousin’s notorious appearance for Southampton.
Katie Zacharia appeared to forget how to speak in full sentences, randomly called the President her ‘husband’, and then ran away from a room of baffled journalists after answering just three questions during her first briefing.
Questions have beens swirling ever since the former lawyer was revealed as the new face of Trump’s White House, replacing the fiercely combative Karoline Leavitt at the podium after she left in August.
Zacharia continuously mumbled and groaned throughout her debut briefing on Tuesday, leading to internet users to dub her ‘Zachbot’, with some suggesting that what we had seen had been some sort of hardware malfunction.
Zacharia, who says she has wanted to work for the President for “a very long time”, appeared to struggle to remember what to say, and spent much of the first few minutes with her eyes glued to the notes on her podium. As one of the top comments on Fox News’ video of the briefing read: “A simple introduction and she needs to read from notes?”
Others were quick to point out Zacharia’s bizarre habit of suddenly breaking into a wide-eyed grin, especially in moments that don’t seem especially appropriate.
Out of nowhere, the 41-year-old appeared totally elated when discussing the US Department of War’s plans to update their submarine repair programme, with some online even comparing her reaction to that of a ‘hostage victim’.
Perhaps the weirdest moment was when Zacharia bizarrely labelled Donald Trump her “husband”, in a blunder that countless observers have labelled a ‘Freudian slip’.
Speaking about her desire for work-life balance, she said: “The idea of not spending evenings with my President, sorry my husband . . ., is completely unacceptable”, before adding: “that’s a good one”.
In another bizarre moment, an increasingly nervous sounding Zacharia referred to Trump as an “energetic President”, and appeared to wait for a reaction from a completely silent room before looking down at her feet.
But if journalists were hoping the awkwardness might eventually give way to some actual answers, they were in for a disappointment.
After just 14 minutes, Zacharia decided she’d had quite enough, wrapping up the briefing after taking questions from just three reporters.
Her excruciating debut, which evokes memories of fake footballer Ali Dia’s one and only game for Southampton after pretending to be George Weah’s cousin, also left political commentators stunned.
Former Joe Biden Press Secretary Jen Psaki compared the extraordinary scenes to a comedy sketch.
She wrote: “Well that briefing was basically an SNL skit…except it wasn’t.”
Political commentator Aaron Rupar was even less charitable, declaring: “Katie Zacharia makes Karoline Leavitt seem like Winston Churchill.”
Former Republican strategist Rick Wilson joked: “Sounds tired already”, while Anthony Scaramucci, who famously lasted just 11 days as Trump’s communications director, quipped: “The clock is running. Thus far 1/11th of a Scaramucci.”
But Trump himself was apparently delighted, telling reporters: “I thought she did excellent. She did very good.”