New White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia holds her first press briefing at the White House in Washington, DC, US, October 13, 2026. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
New White House press secretary Katie Zacharia got off on the wrong foot with White House briefing room reporters who are strongly aligned with Donald Trump’s administration.
That is according to MS NOW’s Vaughn Hillyard, who reported that Zacharia’s decision to take only three questions before fleeing the Brady Briefing Room lectern was greeted with dismay by conservative reporters who have been used to Karoline Leavitt lavishing attention on them.
Speaking with host Peter Alexander, who reported that a former Trump communications official told him, “I think she is going to be a train wreck,” Hillyard agreed that Zacharia did not leave a good impression.
“When she walked away from that podium, it was an aghast reaction from literally everybody,” Hillyard recalled.
“Because it was so quick,” Alexander helpfully suggested.
“It was so quick,” Hillyard agreed before adding, “And half of the room, I would say now, are more Trump-aligned outlets or Trump-sympathizing outlets.”
“And even those folks representing, you know — everybody was looking at each other because even those outlets that got used to taking, getting questions under Karoline Leavitt didn’t get that opportunity,” he elaborated.
“This was his [Trump’s] opportunity to hand-select one person to deliver a new midterm message with three weeks to go; that is the person that he chose to do that,” he added. “She took just three questions there. Was not eager to engage on policy clearly on any front. There was one serious policy question that was about whether the US, the Trump administration, was still intel sharing with Ukrainian forces, and she didn’t have that answer.”
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