Trump’s press secretary fired after 5 days and one briefing

[0:00] We've now learned White House Press Secretary Katie Zachariah has in fact been fired. [0:04] Just minutes ago, President Trump had told reporters he told her to reconsider [0:09] her position. CNN's Kristen Holmes is live at the White House. So that was sort of him, [0:15] I think, softly telling us about this. But tell us what you're learning officially here, Kristen. [0:21] Well, I specifically asked if he was considering firing her and he kind of hesitated and worked [0:27] around the question. He kept saying how nice Katie was, how she didn't deserve to be treated like [0:33] this. We are told that he did fire her before leaving for Georgia. Unclear exactly what that [0:40] conversation looked like. President Trump was kind of outlining some of that, saying that he told [0:44] Katie, you know, this is a lot on you. You don't deserve any of this. Maybe you should reconsider. [0:51] This is not the life you want. And he went further than that during our back and forth. [0:56] Essentially, at one point I asked, OK, so who's on the shortlist now for the next press secretary? [1:01] And he said there's a long list of people that want this job. I mean, he wasn't saying, [1:06] you know, Katie's still in the role. But we did learn after that exchange that she had been fired. [1:11] Of course, what we did see was this widely panned briefing that was roughly 14 minutes with three [1:17] preplanned questions. Then we saw both of those interviews on Fox News, which most people were [1:25] criticizing her for. There had been a lot of conversations behind the scenes about whether [1:31] or not she was ready for prime time. The big question had been whether or not Trump was actually [1:36] going to go through with firing her, given the fact that he had chose Katie Zachariah on his own [1:42] with his own gut intuition. We had been told that he grew enamored with her in recent weeks on Fox News, [1:49] looking at her various appearances, and then decided that he wanted her to be the press secretary [1:56] during a brief phone call between the two of them. It is unclear she was planning on moving her entire [2:02] family to Washington, D.C. Just a reminder, she is based in California. I will say I also asked him [2:08] if he was disappointed about the fact that Katie had not disclosed that she had not passed the bar, [2:15] that she was not technically, in many eyes, an actual lawyer or attorney. And he brushed that off, [2:21] saying he wasn't hiring her to be a lawyer or an attorney, that he was hiring her to be the press [2:26] secretary. We also asked if he would find another role in the administration for her. And he said, [2:32] yes, kind of, a very soft yes. You know, there'll be something for her potentially. I'll note that [2:39] she came from Trump's orbit already. She was working for the media company at the time. I mean, [2:44] this is an incredibly short tenure, but it is kind of an interesting, if you take a step back and look [2:50] at all of this, we've obviously been talking about the reporting about Chief of Staff Susie Wiles not being [2:55] fully read in on the hiring of Katie Zachariah, which led many people around the Trump orbit to [3:02] think maybe Wiles was on her way out. Maybe people were believing they could work around [3:07] Wiles. President Trump not only, you know, distanced himself from Katie Zachariah during [3:13] our exchange, he also full-throatedly defended Susie Wiles, saying she's not going anywhere for [3:17] a long time, that he respects her, that he leans on her. And I will tell you, in the last couple of [3:22] days, I've talked to a number of people who say he goes to her for everything. Well, one thing he didn't [3:26] go to her for was choosing Katie Zachariah as press secretary. And now that has been pushed to the [3:34] side. She is no longer press secretary, although it really did seem as though Trump was going to try [3:40] to figure something out for her, not necessarily in the White House, but figure something out for her [3:46] down the road based on our exchange. But this is a, you know, roughly week-long tenure. Is it today, [3:52] Friday? I think it was announced on Friday that he had chosen Katie Zachariah. So we are literally [3:58] at one week mark here. Right. And she only started officially, I think, on Monday. So quite a short [4:05] tenure. Let's go now to CNN's Brian Stelter. Brian, we talked to you less than an hour ago. We were, you [4:10] were reacting and telling us about those comments. Now we have word that she actually was fired. [4:15] Obviously, the president more gentle in what he was saying out there as he was on his way to Marine One. [4:20] Yes, but this is official. She is out of the job after only five days. Her appointment was announced [4:28] less than one week ago, later last Friday afternoon, when you look at the timeline. And [4:33] the president wanted her to start right away, wanted her to get out before the public on Tuesday, [4:38] wanted her to hold that briefing. But that briefing was awkward. It was stilted. It was very, [4:44] very short. It was disappointing to the press corps, but also to the wider public. [4:48] She even managed to get some exaggerations in there to her one and only briefing. [4:52] And ever since that briefing on Tuesday, she has been challenged about her credentials. [4:57] This question about why she was out there identifying herself as a lawyer, as an attorney, [5:02] not correcting people when they would describe her as a practicing attorney. [5:06] That has really been a focal point of the scrutiny. But I think it's about more than just that [5:11] question. It's also about her performance at the briefing on Tuesday and about her interviews [5:15] since then. This president, like it or not, cares deeply about television performance. [5:21] He is a student of this medium. He thinks very long about what it means to be on camera and how [5:27] he tries to portray himself. And he was not happy with the way she came across. Now, it turns out, [5:32] these pair of Fox News interviews on Thursday night and this morning foreshadowed Zachariah's [5:37] departure. She was out there with Sean Hannity and this morning on Fox and Friends defending her role [5:43] and saying she had little time to prep for the new job and saying she's going to do her best to live [5:47] up to the job. But those interviews were tough. The hosts were skeptical, skeptical. And in retrospect, [5:53] those hosts were foreshadowing what was about to happen with her. [5:58] And this is a record, no? [6:03] This is a record. I think you're thinking, Brianna, of Anthony Scaramucci, [6:06] who infamously was appointed White House communications director and then was forced out after 11 days. [6:12] That was in the summer of 2017. That was a moment when I think we all learned about the chaotic [6:17] nature of the Trump White House and the way people could be hired and then fired so abruptly. [6:22] I actually talked to Mooch last night. I asked him about Zachariah. He was predicting she would last [6:27] longer than he did in her White House job. He said, look, she's not meant to be behind the podium, [6:32] but she's a nice person. She's not a bad person. So a moment ago, Scaramucci has weighed in because [6:38] some people refer to this as a Mooch or Scaramucci, the length of time someone stays in a White House [6:43] job. His reaction, quote, records are made to be broken, but I take no pleasure in other people's [6:49] pain. And can I underscore that for a moment? You know, maybe someone was underqualified. Maybe they [6:54] were put up in a job in a very high profile position through no fault of their own. This is [6:59] actually about the president's hiring practices. This is about how he chooses who he wants to surround [7:04] himself with in his inner circle. He liked someone on television. He brought them from [7:09] California to D.C. A very short job interview. Then he suddenly announced she was hired. He said [7:14] she was an attorney. She's not. This is really ultimately on the president and his leadership [7:19] style. And Brian, as we look ahead to what comes next, because it took him some time after Caroline [7:25] Levitt left to replace her. How do you think what should we expect as he potentially looks for [7:32] somebody to to now feel to fill this now empty job? I was I was just looking at true social to [7:38] make sure he hadn't said anything more about that. You know, he indicated when he was leaving the [7:42] White House that he wanted to talk to her again after his weekend of travels. Maybe he will have [7:47] another role for her in the White House. I believe CNN, we are reaching out to Zachariah, trying to [7:51] hear from her directly. And we've not heard back yet. You know, it seems to me he'll likely leave this [7:56] job vacant between now and the midterm elections. He had been leaving it vacant for several weeks. And the [8:01] reality is there are not daily press briefings from this White House the way there were in the [8:05] Obama years and frequently in the Biden years. Trump went many months without having press [8:10] briefings during his first term. Caroline Levitt held briefings once a week. So we're going to be [8:14] back to that drought now without press briefings. And briefings are important because they're a symbol [8:18] of the American government being open for business. But more importantly, the press secretary also [8:22] engages with the press behind the scenes and provides accessibility. And what we've seen from Trump [8:27] lately is the opposite. He is trying to push the press out. Today, CNN was scheduled to be the [8:31] out of town TV pool. That's the news crew responsible for filming the president's trip [8:35] on Air Force One and in Georgia and in Florida. The White House excluded CNN from the trip, [8:41] basically banned us from flying on Air Force One. So even though a federal judge earlier this week [8:46] reaffirmed his order saying that CNN must be allowed access to the White House grounds, [8:50] Trump is now trying this new stunt involving Air Force One where he keeps reporters off the plane [8:54] because he wants to pick and choose who can cover him. So he's in a position right now where he's [8:58] trying not to have an accessible White House. He's pushing people out instead. And so viewers [9:04] should know we're probably going to see less of President Trump this weekend because the [9:07] other networks are not filling in for CNN. They are not taking that pool seat and doing the job [9:11] instead. There will be no pool to TV coverage of the president's trips travels this weekend. [9:16] All right, Brian Stelter, thank you so much.