WH official tells MS NOW: Zacharia got off on the wrong foot

[0:00] Peter, you have been in that White House press briefing room maybe more than any of our other [0:06] colleagues. Ambassador Maloney brought it up just a moment ago. Violation of the Hatch Act [0:13] and Katie Zachariah's pledge to always tell the truth. [0:19] Two important points that were made. Let me start by saying I've been in that briefing room for, [0:22] I think, each of the last nine press secretaries dating back to Barack Obama's time in office. [0:28] A couple of things that strike me here. One, to the ambassador's point on the Hatch Act, [0:32] I think the first call by reporters, including myself, which I'll make after this, is to the [0:36] Office of Special Counsel, because they, of course, are the government agency that enforce [0:41] the Hatch Act here. You'll remember past press secretaries would often go out of their way to [0:47] say they didn't want to violate the Hatch Act. They didn't want to be politicking as their duty [0:53] as a civil servant there, as a representative of this administration. You're not allowed to do that [0:59] absent the vice president and the president. She obviously did it without solicitation. She offered [1:05] it up, a series of political statements in her first comments. So that would be one of my first [1:10] questions as a takeaway from this. Number two, what was striking to me is that no one, and I acknowledge [1:14] there were only three reporters who were called on there, no one did what has been done in almost each [1:20] of, in almost every one of the cases where a press secretary showed up for the first time, [1:25] which is ask a very fundamental question. This was a job traditionally that was done by the [1:29] Associated Press, because by tradition, the AP, which sits in the front row and the middle seat, [1:34] would have this opportunity. They would ask, as they asked Kareem Jean-Pierre in 2022, [1:39] do you view your primary role here as speaking for the president or promoting his interests, [1:43] or are you committed to providing the unvarnished truth to the American people? To Kayleigh McEnany, [1:48] the AP didn't get the first question. They got the fourth question, but they asked, [1:52] are you planning to do these on a daily basis? And will you pledge never to lie to us [1:56] from that podium? It's a key question that's been done by reporters for years to basically make clear [2:01] to the American people that this person who is going to be speaking on behalf of the president, [2:05] on behalf of the administration, recognizes that their first job is to the truth before anything [2:11] else. That didn't get asked. And then finally, what was striking to me was one of the questions [2:14] from the reporters as it related to the topic of Kimberly Guilfoyle. You've talked about the [2:19] issue about Ukraine, but on Kimberly Guilfoyle, she said, she said, Zachariah said that the White [2:25] House has asked Kimberly Guilfoyle to resign. The reporter said, okay, and moved on to her next [2:30] question. What should have been done there is, has she resigned? Is she no longer serving as the [2:35] U.S. ambassador to Greece? Where is she now? Has the president spoken with her? What is the U.S. [2:41] going to do to hold her accountable for these things for which you believe she should resign? [2:46] None of those follow-up questions were asked, which I think is really critically important. [2:50] And to the point that you and your colleagues, our team there on set with you has been asking, [2:54] this is the unique opportunity, a responsibility of reporters to speak on behalf of the American [2:59] people to get answers to these questions. But more often, I think the biggest difference in this [3:05] briefing room that I've seen over the course of the 15, 14 years that I was covering the White House [3:09] is the changing face of the reporters in that room, where it's so many more influencers and [3:15] sycophants than it is traditional journalists who recognize their advocacy is for the facts before [3:22] it's for either party. And I think that's sadly what's lost more than anything else. [3:26] Wow. I want to just read this to you. Quote from a White House official reacting to Zachariah's [3:33] first press briefing that we got just now. They were granted anonymity to speak candidly to MSNOW. [3:39] Quote, getting behind the podium is tough, but she got off on the wrong foot. She needs to get [3:45] much better fast. Otherwise, she'll break Scaramucci's record. Our colleague Jake Traylor [3:52] just reported this. That's a bit of a wow, Peter, because I'm going to say I watched it thinking Trump [3:59] must be happy as a clam. But the fact that we're hearing this from inside the White House, people [4:04] inside the White House, maybe they're feeling a stroke of courage, you know, sort of or they're [4:10] looking through the lens of Trump's first administration saying we need to put forward a [4:14] front to your original point. We're even seeming like we're here for the American people, while the [4:19] Associated Press maybe didn't have the opportunity to ask, are you here to tell the truth and represent [4:24] the American people? You didn't need to ask that question. The first thing she said was we're just [4:29] coming off a Trump rally. I'm going to go to a whole lot more Trump rallies. Trump rallies are [4:33] not public services for the American people. They're political rallies for the president to [4:39] advance his political agenda. [4:41] This may as well have been a MAGA, Inc., the Super PAC press briefing taking place there, as [4:45] opposed to a White House press briefing taking place there. I agree with everything that you just [4:50] said. In particular, it's interesting to hear that Scaramucci was there for 11 days. I'll never forget [4:54] those days as he was parading up and down the what we call Pebble Beach, where all the tents are, [5:00] and the reporters there do their live shots. But what was particularly interesting to me [5:05] is the way that she came out of the gates, and you guys have made note of this, reading off of her [5:09] notes. Because remember the way the president spoke, I think, in artful, to be generous terms, [5:14] about Caroline Levitt. What he liked is he said when her lips are moving, it was like a machine gun, [5:19] I think was some of his language or something like that. She had, whether you can disagree with her [5:24] policy position, certainly, and oftentimes when she, at best, fudged the facts. But she did have [5:31] a control of her content. She knew what she was speaking about. She had direct access to the [5:36] president. It was obvious in the opening remarks of Zachariah here that she was clearly reading, [5:42] but didn't have any comfort speaking before an audience like this. And the president, who uses [5:47] this phrase, has said it to me and others, is all about central casting. Who looks the part? [5:52] I think by his standards, he would agree she looks the part, but she doesn't deliver [5:57] the part in terms of her ability to communicate an audience and look like she has control of her [6:01] content, her copy, or his position. And I think that's going to be the fundamental challenge she's [6:05] going to face right out of the gates. Big time. That's the problem, is that it's one thing to look [6:12] the part, but you've got to be able to play the part. And that, for this job, means being able to ask [6:16] tough, substantive questions on the fly, off the cuff. It demands competence and content. [6:23] And that's the real open question. The reason she didn't get answered the traditional question [6:26] from the AP is that we all know that the answer doesn't matter, because the real answer is no. [6:32] The Trump press secretary's job at this stage is not to tell the truth. It is to tell Donald Trump's [6:37] truth. No, no, no, that's not true. That is what the job is. But let's not, let's be clear. The job [6:43] hasn't changed. How the president wants the job executed has changed. That's the point I'm making. [6:49] It's the job of being Donald Trump's secretary, not the press secretary for the White House on [6:53] behalf of the American people being a bridge to the press. But we as the American people shouldn't [6:55] move the goalposts because Trump wants us to. Absolutely not. [6:58] We should keep them exactly where they're supposed to be. Where they are. But let's also be honest [7:02] that that is not part of the job qualification he is seeking, nor is it part of the job that the [7:06] person filling this job is trying to do. You're absolutely right. [7:09] OK, you know, I'll just make a quick point that, and Peter and Vaughn brought this up, [7:15] we are a country at war. Service members have lost their lives. This is a good point. And none of this [7:21] has been discussed today from that White House. No questions about it. No real engagement on this [7:29] issue. This country is at war. And it's striking to me that we are in a, we're in a place where this, [7:37] as everybody has said, that this president just wants somebody to look the part. Because what are [7:43] you, what, what are you trying to get across to the American people that this is nothing but [7:48] they're just watching a wrestling match? You know, this is just entertainment. It's spectator [7:52] sport. There are no real issues being discussed here. And this, I go back to the earlier point, [7:58] that any other, we're talking about what typical press secretaries do. What a typical White House would [8:04] do is send people on these message events to tell the American people what their victories are, [8:10] what are their wins. Not telling us, it may not be a political event like who to vote for, [8:15] but it's, it's more of, and I will give her credit for this very small part on what they did in Ohio. [8:22] Like go out and talk about that, but they don't do that kind of stuff. What they do is, [8:27] is just talk about, you know, the, the biggest rally in the history of history. [8:32] But ambassador, here's the thing. When she was asked the question about like, [8:36] how are you going to handle it as a working mom? [8:38] I originally thought that question was so sexist and beneath her station. Yeah. [8:44] But in fact, that's the question she wanted to answer. She actually wanted to answer the question [8:49] about bringing her kids and where her husband's going to be when that's absolutely irrelevant [8:54] to the American people. And, and to Basil's point to military, military moms who are watching this [9:01] desperate for information of what's actually happening in Iran, what will be the plight of [9:05] their children who are serving the country? They don't give a hoot whether or not she's bringing her [9:09] kids to the press briefing room. Yeah. Although, you know, it's an interesting point, right? Because [9:13] I know this will shock all of you, but sometimes reporters can be a little jaded. And, and yet in this [9:20] first encounter, you actually have, you know, you actually get some leeway, right? You get this [9:25] is your first day. Everybody understands that. But, but, but my goodness, she actually had some news, [9:30] which is that, and it's actually, you know, useful for her in that moment, which is we're firing [9:36] Kimberly Guilfoyle, but good. And, and it seems to me if nothing else, you could feed the beast [9:41] and, and give them that to chew on. And there's a lot to chew on, right? Well, you're going to, [9:45] you know, you're going to prosecute her. What the hell is she doing? Who is going to pay the [9:47] Amex bill? I mean, let's, let's be honest. I mean, those bills don't pay themselves. [9:53] So, so, you know, she could have deployed that. It seems to me as a way to, as a way to keep the [9:58] press chewing on something. It is inexcusable to me that you don't have an answer on Ukraine. [10:02] And then as Vaughn points out, you're sort of making news by not saying anything, which is, [10:07] I've been on the House Intelligence Committee. There's only two things we really do for the [10:10] Ukrainians. We give them intelligence and we, we give weapons that the Europeans pay for. [10:14] But that's why not answering, not answering that question is massively newsworthy. [10:21] I'm not sure that she doesn't know the answer. I'm sure that she's not giving the answer. [10:25] There is a way to answer that question, which, which is to tread water, even if you need to get [10:30] clarification on it. I don't think she passed that test. I think it made her seem unprepared [10:35] and it left a real question mark over a very important foreign policy issue. And then to Basil's [10:40] point and yours, there's real stuff going on out there. And, and if my kids serving on the [10:44] U S Abraham Lincoln, you know, I want to know somebody down there is paying attention and they [10:49] got a strategy to get us, get us out of this war. You know, if you're a farmer paying six 50 for diesel, [10:54] you're like, how long are we doing this? And you're not getting anything from this. And so [10:58] just to pull the lens back for someone trying to do politics, their politics are terrible right now. [11:02] And we're, we're three weeks out from the midterms where a thumping [11:05] is coming and none of this stuff is going to stop it. But it reads like the late Roman empire, [11:11] right? I mean, this is, this is an administration that's more concerned about how someone looks than [11:15] the substance and the reality of the job. And it doesn't, it hurts America, right? Because the [11:20] world looks at this as the white house press secretary and sees the person cannot answer [11:25] a direct question about whether the U S is sharing intelligence to Ukraine after we just violated a whole [11:30] bunch of laws in that particular hearing. We had a 16 minute first day press briefing with [11:35] precisely one minute of substance. And for the president, that's a feature, not a bug. [11:40] Hey, it's Rachel. I am so glad to see you at the end of that clip, because this is where I get to [11:44] tell you about a new way to watch all our clips and all of our shows and everything on MSNOW on your [11:51] phone or your tablet or your laptop. You can watch things live or recorded. Plus you can ask me and all [11:57] the other hosts and reporters questions in our weekly live chats. You can go to MS.now slash membership [12:05] or just click below. Thanks.