Trump’s new press secretary needed a Fox News cleanup interview for her Sean Hannity cleanup interview

By Friday morning, White House press secretary Katie Zacharia was being offered a chance on Fox News to clarify what she had said on Fox News the night before.

Fox & Friends co-host Ainsley Earhardt approached the question gently. She said she had watched Zacharia’s interview with the network’s primetime star, Sean Hannity, and sympathized with the demands of a job that required knowing the facts and speaking off the cuff. Would the new press secretary say anything differently in that interview or her first White House briefing?

Zacharia offered no correction. She praised President Donald Trump and blamed the media.

“The legacy media wants to put the focus and attention on me because they want to be distracted,” she said. “They wanted to be distracted from the major wins that President Trump is making for America.”

Co-host Lawrence Jones also asked whether Zacharia wished she had told Trump she had not passed the bar exam.

“Yeah. Well, Lawrence, those questions weren’t asked,” Zacharia replied. “I’m being hired as White House press secretary and not White House counsel.”

She did not clarify whether she had volunteered that information before accepting a job from a president who publicly introduced her as an attorney.

Related: New White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia claims to have passed bar in China

The exchange extended a difficult opening week for the president’s new spokesperson, whose explanations of her credentials and preparedness have become a story of their own. Thursday’s appearance on Hannity brought that problem into particular focus. Even a host reliably sympathetic to Trump kept asking her to get to the point.

Zacharia confirmed she failed the bar exam and never retook it. She defended her brief debut at the White House lectern by describing how little time she had to prepare. And she continued arguing that her education and experience justified calling herself a lawyer, even as Hannity questioned why she was making that distinction.

“Why get into this long drawn-out definition between the difference between a lawyer and an attorney?” he asked. “Because I don’t think most people see much of a distinction.”

The setting was striking for a conversation about the credibility of the administration’s chief spokesperson. Zacharia had joined a friendly network, but Hannity kept returning to questions her answers had left unanswered.

Friday’s hosts were sympathetic, too. Co-host Brian Kilmeade characterized the questions at her first briefing as abrasive and asked whether Trump had offered advice or feedback during their travels.

“I wouldn’t disclose private conversations,” Zacharia said, before returning to her announcement about administration personnel. “I really am grateful to President Trump for trusting me to break that news.”

Asked how she thought her first briefing went, Zacharia began with her travel itinerary.

She received a call Wednesday, flew to Washington Thursday, was offered the job Friday, returned to California Saturday, and flew back Sunday. She started Monday, on the Columbus/Indigineous People’s Day federal holiday, and was scheduled to brief reporters Tuesday morning. She said her briefing materials arrived that morning.

“I really stepped up to the plate to do the press conference, Sean, with very little prep time,” she said.

Hannity heard what sounded like a criticism of the administration.

“Am I hearing that you think the staff should have prepped you better?” he asked.

Related: White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia failed the California Bar exam

Zacharia sidestepped, suggesting she could have introduced herself to reporters and then left without taking questions. But she also defended the briefing because she had delivered news about administration personnel.

Hannity asked Zacharia whether she had retaken the bar exam after failing it the first time. Zacharia described graduating from Pepperdine, marrying the same week, and planning a move to China. She had already registered for the exam, she explained, and considered its results “inconsequential” because she would be living overseas.

She then described working at a Chinese law firm on international transactions and multimillion-dollar shareholder agreements.

Hannity returned to the question.

“But did you ever take the bar exam a second time?” he asked.

“I did not, Sean,” she replied.

The host then pressed her on the distinction she had drawn between calling herself a lawyer and calling herself an attorney. Hannity cited a report identifying 15 social media posts in which she was described as an attorney.

“I think they were retweets,” Zacharia said.

Hannity suggested she could simply explain that she had attended law school, failed the bar, and pursued a different career. Zacharia responded with another account of her family, legal experience, and consultations with professionals who, she said, had approved her use of “lawyer.” She emphasized that she had offered legal analysis rather than legal advice.

Law school graduates are not lawyers or attorneys who can practice law until they pass the bar exam. A law degree alone does not authorize someone to practice law.

As The Advocate previously reported, Trump introduced Zacharia as an attorney when announcing her appointment. She later told The New York Times that Pepperdine administrators had advised her she could describe herself as a lawyer but should not use “attorney” or “esquire.”

Her earlier response to a reporter’s question about where she had passed the bar— “When I moved to China”—had already prompted scrutiny on Wednesday. She subsequently told the Times she had misheard the question over Marine One and believed she was being asked where she went after law school.

Related: Trump’s new press secretary gushes over him, calling her husband ‘my president’ in shaky first briefing

Those questions followed a first briefing Tuesday that lasted about 14 minutes. Zacharia recognized reporters from Breitbart, Fox News, and the Daily Mail, deferred a question about intelligence sharing with Ukraine, and mistakenly called her husband “my president.” She also announced that the administration had asked U.S. Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle to resign.

Trump’s public assessment was enthusiastic.

“I thought she did excellent. She did very good,” he told reporters Tuesday as Zacharia stood behind him.

On Thursday night, Hannity asked what she would do differently.

“I would absolutely be very well prepared on the briefing, Sean,” Zacharia said. She said she welcomed questions and wanted to build relationships with the press corps.

Friday’s interview also left the timing of her next briefing unsettled.

“When’s the next press briefing? Will you have another one?” Earhardt asked.

Zacharia offered no date, saying she would coordinate with the communications department and the president. She then returned to praising her boss.

“He is just the most hardworking, incredible man and I’m grateful to be here," she said.

Jones followed with a question about her standing with Trump.

“Do you think you still have the confidence of the president?” he asked.

“I’m standing here, and I was able to travel with him through all of the midterm convention, or excuse me, the midterm rallies,” Zacharia said. “And I hope to be able to build the trust and confidence of everyone around me.”