Katie Zachariah held her first White House press briefing on October 14, 2026, a 14-minute session in which she said she would fire Kim Guilfoyle and deferred a question on cutting intelligence sharing with Ukraine. Coverage has since added that she read a parenthetical stage direction aloud, that when asked where she passed the bar she answered about when she moved to China, and that she referred to her husband as the president. Later segments report she failed the California bar exam and has called herself a lawyer without practicing. Tommy Vietor, a former assistant press secretary, calls it a disaster and questions how she was selected.