'If Hannity can't save you, you can't be saved': Nicolle on Katie Zacharia's record-breaking OUSTER

[0:01] I said, I said to her, honestly, if I were you, I'd reconsider. You think about it, [0:06] but I would reconsider. And I said, Katie, do you need this? I don't think you need this. [0:11] She wasn't there long enough for us to ever say her name on this broadcast. [0:19] She did not last one Scaramucci. But Trump had a new press secretary at the beginning of the week. [0:26] Her name is Katie Zakaria, and she's gone already. So she basically briefed on Tuesday, [0:32] bombed on Thursday on Sean Hannity and was essentially shown the door by Friday. It was [0:37] a tenure defined solely by gaffes and bizarre, questionable storytelling, even for a Trump [0:45] staffer. Zakaria's stumbling debut prompted questions about her credentials as a lawyer, [0:51] like questions like depends what a definition of a lawyer is kind of stuff. Trump called her an [0:56] attorney and that wasn't true. Her story went from that she passed the bar to something about [1:03] doing it when she moved to China to finally admitting in a rather stunning interview with [1:07] Sean Hannity that she'd never passed the bar. So you said you consulted with many people and they [1:17] advised you that it was okay to call yourself a lawyer, but not an attorney, correct? Correct. [1:23] Okay. There's a report out tonight that showed 15 social media posts where you identify yourself as [1:30] an attorney. I think they were retweets and I corrected the record and said that there's not endorsing the [1:37] title. They were retweets of a title that had been given. [1:40] I don't even know what to say. Like if Sean Hannity can't save you, you can't be saved. [1:51] There's Donald Trump being asked about her future earlier today. Liz, I don't even know what to say, [2:11] so I'll let you talk. [2:14] Yeah, this is a totally self-inflicted wound. I mean, she's not, she wasn't hired to be a lawyer, [2:18] so this didn't really have to be an issue at all. Although it is separately problematic that [2:22] she's been misrepresenting her profession apparently for all of these years. One of the most mind-blowing [2:27] parts of this is that she put on her LinkedIn profile that she was the general counsel of a company in [2:33] California, a nonprofit organization. You have to be a lawyer to be a general counsel. You have to have [2:40] a professional license to practice law, just like in many other professions, medicine, for example. You can't [2:46] just graduate medical school and start being a doctor. You have to pass your exams, get certified. [2:52] Same with law. So she's really been holding herself out there as a lawyer when that is clearly not [2:58] correct, which opens her up to some problematic potential consequences about misrepresentation. [3:05] But at the end of the day, it really had nothing to do with the job at hand. And the fact that she [3:09] made it such a big issue by falsely stating that she passed the bar in China is really just evidence [3:15] of how unfit she was for the job at hand of press secretary. [3:20] Helmut, I'm always amazed at the moments when we get to see where the line is, right? Like, [3:29] so the line is between Leavitt and this woman's name is Katie Zakaria. It's a thick line and that's [3:39] where Trump drew it. So it wasn't around the sort of audacity of the things she said. It was, [3:45] and it's probably not around the lack of qualifications to be a spokesperson. [3:51] It was, as with Guilfoyle, likely around the bad press she garnered for him. [3:59] Yeah. I mean, Nicole, God, there's so much to say about this. And I, you know, we have limited time, [4:04] as you know, I could probably do like two hours on this, but the thing I'd like to, the thing, [4:08] because she's, because the fact that she's a liar and that she lied about her professional [4:13] qualifications as a lawyer, I mean, yes, I, I find that problematic, especially I would find [4:18] it problematic if she were a lawyer or if she was trying to actually be a lawyer or practice law, [4:22] or if she was even representing herself as she did in some cases on, on, on media appearances as, [4:27] as having a legal background when she was doing a sensible legal analysis on Fox news. I, [4:31] all of that's problematic. Here's the real thing though. She's obviously was totally incompetent as in, [4:36] she's inarticulate and, and in answering the questions, both in her one press availability, [4:42] her one time white brass press time that she met the press and the press briefing room, [4:45] she's obviously inarticulate and in the, in the hand of the interview, not particularly bright. [4:50] And so here's the question I have about that, right? Rather than beating up on her. And this [4:54] is a very focused, Nicole, you and I have talked about this about a hundred times in the past, [4:58] which is Sarah Palin, right? Not qualified to be vice president of the United States, [5:03] not qualified therefore to be on the McCain ticket. But in the end, who bears responsibility [5:09] for that? Not Sarah Palin, who has, again, not trying to say she was qualified, not trying to [5:14] excuse her lack of qualifications, but say who's really responsible for her ending up on the ticket [5:19] John McCain and the K and the campaign. So this woman's not qualified, obviously unqualified and [5:26] obviously unskilled, uh, insufficiently skilled to be press secretary. Who's responsible for that? [5:31] Not her. Who's responsible for that? You could say Donald Trump, because of course the president's [5:37] responsible for any job like that. Who's going to be a spokesperson. But the question it raises [5:41] as, as was, has been the question around Natalie Harp and other things, where is the chief of staff? [5:48] Right. How does Susie Wiles supposedly competent who would have to vet and approve any press secretary [5:56] at any previous white house? How does this woman become press secretary without Susie Wiles going, [6:01] well, wait a minute, this is, this is a problem. This is a mistake. Stop. Where is she? [6:08] Well, so this is my question for you, Mitch. I mean, I know that, that some of the smartest [6:13] Trump reporters have written Maggie Haberman, Jonathan Swan deal with her in their book, [6:19] regime change that her job is safe as anyone's job has ever been in the Trump orbit because she lets [6:25] Trump be Trump. But the other piece of, of, of what angers Trump isn't just complete freedom to be [6:32] an unbridled lunatic. If he feels like being that person at three in the morning on social media, [6:37] that is important to him. Yes. But he is extremely thin skinned and vain about the coverage in the [6:43] mainstream media. It has never been adequate for him to get glowing coverage in Fox News and [6:48] Breitbart. He, the reason he targets the New York times and CNN is because he covets, he covets [6:54] positive coverage in news organizations with standards. And she has brought about the most [7:01] embarrassing coverage for him. Basically the Guilfoyle debacle that all played out in the wall [7:06] street journal, the debacle that is Pete Hegsess incompetently run war in Iran, in the middle East, [7:14] that has been playing out with, with big advances made by CBS news owned and operated by MAGA friendly [7:22] individuals. Susie Wiles is responsible for, for both of those figures in a normal administration, [7:28] the ambassadors, the cabinet, and then the, the, the absolute, um, I don't even know the right word [7:36] to use. I was going to say, you know, like, like puppies in the crate, but that's so mean to puppies. [7:40] That is the white house staff like Natalie Harp, who was of such grave security concern to the [7:45] secret service that her letters were shared with them. And I don't know the nature of the security [7:51] concern, but that was the channel through which we learned the substance of the letters that Natalie [7:55] Harp had written. Someone who jumps in cars, like that is behavior that again, take Trump out of the [8:02] white house. If you were a figure in sports or entertainment, and there were some groupie jumping [8:06] in cars, that would be a sports story or an entertainment story. Susie Wiles is in charge [8:11] of the white house staff. If she has three line responsibilities, there are one, the cabinet, [8:16] two, the political appointees, and three, the West wing staff. And she is going Oh, for three today. [8:23] Well, a fish rots from the head. Donald Trump has been the president for six years. You may recall [8:30] when he ran for reelection, almost 21 of his 24 cabinet secretary said, this guy is not capable [8:35] of hiring good people or smart people or keeping good people. Donald Trump, I believe hired this [8:42] person. I'll bet you we're going to find out that Susie Wiles didn't know about it. And so you have [8:46] to keep asking yourself, why does Donald Trump keep hiring people that are not qualified to do the work [8:51] he governs in chaos? And the American people are tired of it. His numbers up. He said that if you [8:57] hired me, I'm a CEO. I know how businesses work. Well, we kept reminding people that every business he had [9:02] went bankrupt and everybody he worked for him, he fired. And then they sued him. And he's continuing [9:07] that practice through today. So I'll put this squarely at Donald Trump's feet. I have I don't [9:13] haven't seen the reporting about this, but I'll bet dollars to donuts that Susie Wiles was out in the [9:18] dark when he hired this person who, as you said, didn't even give us a half a mooch. And he's going to [9:25] continue. He's going to continue to do that. And the government's going to continue to function [9:29] in an erratic way. And that's going to cause corruption and it's going to cause people's [9:34] costs to go. People are tired of Donald Trump. They've had enough and they want to they want [9:38] to go in a different direction. And I think the midterms are going to be a strong indication of [9:42] that. I'm just disappointed that we never said her name until she was already gone, because as [9:49] Halman said, there's so much to say. Mitch and John, thank you so much for starting us off today. [9:55] Halman, maybe we need like a special podcast edition on the press secretaries that were for the [10:00] Trump. She really is that she really she really qualifies as one of the best people, [10:04] Nicole, by Trump's standards, for sure. Oh, I think I need a worse people breakout so [10:08] that I can cover some of these folks. Hey, it's Rachel. I am so glad to see you at the end of [10:12] that clip, because this is where I get to tell you about a new way to watch all our clips and all of [10:17] our shows and everything on MSNOW on your phone or your tablet or your laptop. 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