About this transcript: This is a full AI-generated transcript of TRAINWRECK: New Press Sec Calls Trump HER HUSBAND On FIRST DAY from Breaking Points, published October 15, 2026. The transcript contains 2,264 words with timestamps and was generated using Whisper AI.
"Well, the new White House press secretary, Katie Zakaria, did her first briefing yesterday after about three days on the job. She was announced on Friday and there's a lot of reporting coming out now. Basically what everybody expected, nobody expected this. Everybody expected it would come out that"
[0:00] Well, the new White House press secretary, Katie Zakaria, did her first briefing yesterday after
[0:05] about three days on the job. She was announced on Friday and there's a lot of reporting coming out
[0:09] now. Basically what everybody expected, nobody expected this. Everybody expected it would come
[0:14] out that nobody expected this. It sounds a lot like Donald Trump saw Katie Zakaria on TV. She
[0:19] was intentionally blanketing the airwaves and he thought, all right, let's go with her. Some reports
[0:24] that he actually bypassed Susie Wiles. I don't know how true those reports are, but she had a
[0:29] few days to get ready for a White House briefing and it was like 9.30 a.m. Tuesday and she was
[0:36] appointed on Friday. It did not go well. Ryan's original idea was for us to try and play the
[0:43] entire briefing. It was only an awkwardly short 14 minutes and see who could go without laughing
[0:50] first. If you successfully outlasted, if I had outlasted Ryan, I would have been the winner.
[0:55] I think it would be impossible and you will see why as we play some of these. We're about to play
[1:01] one 14th of the briefing. So you're going to hear maybe even a little longer. Yeah. See how long you
[1:06] could go before breaking. Let's just see one. Good morning. I am so honored to work for President
[1:18] Trump and the American people as the new White House press secretary. I want to thank President
[1:26] Trump for his trust that he has placed in me. I have wanted to work for him for a very long time.
[1:36] I'm looking forward to working with each of you as well, especially as we are in the middle of the
[1:42] midterm blitz with energy and excitement never seen before in the history of midterms thanks to
[1:50] President Trump. Just look no further than last night in Youngstown, Ohio, where President Trump
[1:58] delivered another blockbuster rally out on the trail. The arena was overflowing with enthusiasm
[2:06] as thousands came out to support President Trump, as well as special guest Jake Paul and football
[2:14] legend John Gruden. So that was about what the first part of the briefing felt like. It was just a lot
[2:21] of that, a lot of that, a lot of reading off the script, awkwardly making eye contact, almost like a
[2:26] pageant, right? You sort of know you have to read the lines and look up at the camera every certain
[2:31] interval of time. But brutal, absolutely brutal. But wait, there's more. This was maybe the worst
[2:39] moment. Let's roll to the next clip. The idea of not spending evenings with my kids is completely
[2:45] unacceptable. So my president, excuse me, my husband, that's a good one. My husband is out here,
[2:54] is in her family. And we are very, very protective of celebrating birthdays as a family. So he brought
[2:59] the entire crew out here. Bless him. It's a lot. And we will be moving out here.
[3:05] Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, no. Not doing any favors to the stereotype of one of the sort of MAGA women
[3:13] who is overly prostrating themselves at the feet of Donald Trump by mixing up your husband and your
[3:21] president in your first briefing. That one, that one hurts. And so I'm probably not going to commit
[3:27] this press secretary's name to memory, but she's a Fox person. Like why, why is she in our lives right
[3:35] now? Not even just a Fox person. She's someone who did, I think, Fox, CNN, Newsmax, kind of a combo.
[3:42] And there was one report that she was doing it intentionally, timed with the president's truth
[3:48] social schedule. When she thought he would be watching, she would accept. She's doing like
[3:54] four and five a.m. That's a good point, actually, because he seems to be up at four or five a.m.,
[3:59] but also one a.m. So it's hard to say. Maybe she's just always on. But yeah, she would do kind of a lot
[4:05] of those networks that she thought he would be paying attention to. One more. Here's her trying to
[4:10] wrap the briefing. So she gave, she read from the binder, basically the president's accomplishments
[4:15] according to her, and then took three questions. She went to three reporters. She did make news.
[4:19] She's like, yeah, we're firing Guilfoyle. She sure did. We'll get to that in just a moment.
[4:23] She took questions from Breitbart. She took questions from Fox News, Peter Ducey, and Daily
[4:28] Mail. Even her effort to, or her attempt to go to the questions was weird because everybody was trying
[4:33] to ask her questions. She wanted to answer the questions, but she knew she had three people that
[4:37] she was supposed to go to. So it was weird. Here's her trying to leave the briefing, C3.
[4:41] The president speak with the ambassador Guilfoyle. To the question on, the president will be back
[4:47] on Thursday, and that's what I will answer. I'll leave it there. He will answer those questions
[4:54] out and bring my questions out. Okay. All right. So then they did move out to the new helipad,
[5:02] and she got this question. Actually, the president got this question. She may have gotten herself
[5:07] into serious hot water with her answer here. Like actually very soon. That's where this entire
[5:12] segment. We're going to, we're going to put some meat on the bones of all the fun we're having
[5:16] here. Take a listen. President Trump is going to get asked about whether or not she's actually
[5:21] an attorney. It's kind of hard to hear, but here's the clip.
[5:24] Where did she pass the bar exam at? She said she's an attorney. Where did she pass the bar exam?
[5:29] Which state? What did she tell us? Where did you pass the bar exam?
[5:37] Mr. President. Mr. President.
[5:39] This is a serious problem. What she said was when she moved to China.
[5:43] Like what state did you pass the bar exam when she moved to China?
[5:46] When she moved to China, which doesn't make a lot of sense because the Chinese bar,
[5:52] as you might expect, is very difficult. And I believe not actually even open to foreigners.
[5:57] And probably in Chinese.
[5:58] And so Judd Legum's been all over the questions about her record. And he said,
[6:03] there's zero chance that Karia took the Chinese bar exam.
[6:05] C5.
[6:05] The next element we put on the screen. She doesn't speak Chinese and only Chinese citizens
[6:09] can take it. She was not a Chinese citizen. She did, however, move to China when her husband
[6:16] worked in private equity there. And she worked for a major law firm in China that, as anybody would
[6:22] expect, if you're a major law firm in China, has all kinds of connections with the CCP.
[6:26] And so that is now coming back with all of these questions for Zakaria. I'm reading from the
[6:30] Washington Post here that notes, the White House on Tuesday scrambled to answer questions about the
[6:33] legal credentials of President Donald Trump's new press secretary, who made a brief and halting
[6:37] debut in the briefing room, and later said she had passed a bar exam in China, a country where
[6:41] non-citizens aren't allowed to take the bar exam or practice in courtrooms. Trump called Zakaria
[6:46] an attorney in his Friday announcement. That's an official White House announcement, even though
[6:50] it's like on true social, of her appointment. And her LinkedIn profile says she served as general
[6:54] counsel for Fix California, which is a nonprofit founded by Rick Grinnell. Asked Tuesday where she
[7:00] had been admitted to the bar, Zakaria said, China, not a U.S. state or the District of Columbia,
[7:04] where one would need to have been admitted to practice law in the United States. So
[7:07] again, she was given the title general counsel for Fix California, which I believe is a nonprofit.
[7:13] Yeah, the Post says it's a nonprofit. So it's this conservative nonprofit to turn around California.
[7:18] And she was apparently representing herself as general counsel. Typically, I've known general
[7:23] counsels at many nonprofits. Ryan, you probably have as well. That means you are doing legal work.
[7:28] If you are not barred and you are representing yourself who is doing legal as somebody who's doing
[7:33] legal work, that is a problem. She, on chyrons, was represented as an attorney. I went and yesterday
[7:39] saw a Fox News chyron where she was represented as an attorney. So not only now are there now questions
[7:44] about the fact she worked in some major CCP-connected Chinese law firm, but there are also questions,
[7:49] and we could piece apart how substantive those attacks on anyone would be. But now there are questions
[7:54] about whether or not she, A, lied in front of the president and lied to the press by saying she
[8:01] passed a bar when she was in China, and she doesn't appear to have ever passed a bar. And second of all,
[8:06] whether she was misrepresenting herself as a barred attorney without ever passing the bar exam.
[8:13] Now, she could defend herself by saying that her answer about China was totally incoherent.
[8:17] Or she didn't hear the question. And that there has to be some coherence for something to be a lie.
[8:22] But yes, in California, and actually I think everywhere in the country, if you hold yourself
[8:27] out as a general counsel, even if you don't practice law as the general counsel, just by holding
[8:34] yourself out as a general counsel, you have to be licensed somewhere. Right. So you can't disbar this
[8:40] lady since you're just not barred anywhere. Right. Good lord. Well, it's a big problem for her because
[8:46] we're about to talk about Kimberly Guilfoyle. Trump is very sensitive about people making
[8:51] him look bad. And there, she may have flat out lied. She heard that question. She said she passed
[8:58] the bar when she was in China. There's really no other way. I mean, you can try to say you couldn't
[9:01] hear the question well because you're outside at the helicopter. But she pretty clearly was answering,
[9:07] was responding to that question. And that's why, what else would she have meant by when I was in China?
[9:12] So now it looks like she lied in front of the president, lied to the president,
[9:16] to the press, in addition to the bad performance. Just want to also add the leaks. This is a really
[9:21] bad sign for her. The leaks are already starting. So I pulled some of the leaks from people that are
[9:27] close to the White House or are actually working in the White House. So CNN had a story where one
[9:32] person called it brutal. CNN characterized what it was hearing from sources as saying it was unusual,
[9:37] awkward, stilted, and at times uncomfortable. One Trump advisor said, quote, she should have been
[9:41] doing murder boards for two weeks before going up there. The best thing she did was break the news.
[9:45] We're going to get to in a second that Kimberly Guilfoyle was gone. A White House official said,
[9:49] why did they put her out there so quickly? Literally zero reason to put her out there on
[9:52] her second day, unprepared. Another one said, no question, we're all missing Caroline. Another said,
[9:58] you either got it or don't. This is to Politico, and she don't got it. I think the press and the
[10:02] admin were on the same page today in terms of missing Caroline. Another one to MSNOW said,
[10:07] getting behind the podium is tough, but she got off on the wrong foot. She needs to get much better
[10:11] fast, otherwise she'll break Scaramucci's record. This is a White House official. Her first impression
[10:16] is leaving staff without confidence in her abilities. Not really what you want after your
[10:22] first press briefing, but also again, a sign the press secretary, at least from Caroline Levitt's
[10:27] example that she set for this White House, is in charge of the White House press operations. You have
[10:31] a communications director, Steven Chung, but the press secretary does strategy. They're not just a
[10:35] spokesperson, typically. Put Chung up there.
[10:37] Hell yes, that's what we all want. At the end of the day, that's what everybody is gunning for.
[10:42] Nobody is going to be good until you use Steven Chung. But actually, the fact that
[10:48] White House staff is already leaking suggests, yes, they have no confidence in her, but also that
[10:53] her ability to wield power and have some control over the White House press operation is already
[10:58] significantly damaged. Sounds like she didn't even know there was an operation. This is what Trump
[11:03] deserves, though, for passing over Scott Jennings. Scott has been prostrating himself before
[11:08] the president for years, and all he wants is to be press secretary. And he dissed him?
[11:17] Like, I think he saw, I think what they did is they saw your debate with Scott Jennings
[11:21] on after party. They were like, no, he can't stand up to Ryan Grimm.
[11:26] That crushed him. So anyway, good luck to her, I guess.
[11:32] Good luck to her. We will be eagerly awaiting the next briefing, if there is one.
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