On the debut of the new White House propagandist
DAVID’S TAKE,
Katie Zacharia, the new White House press secretary, made her debut on the podium on Tuesday with a drumroll of praise for the ‘achievements’ of her boss, U.S. President Donald Trump.
It had all the warmth, wisdom, and political dexterity of an AI avatar, wrote one person who was at the briefing.
Zacharia was all stilted delivery, nervous tics, and lack of eye contact. With an eerie lack of emotion, she served up pro-Trump talking points, took only three questions, and vanished after 14 minutes. It was like the West Wing had turned into an uncanny valley.
The Zachbot’s past is indeed a bit of a mystery, writes The Guardian. “The 41-year-old claims to be a lawyer but later a reporter asked when she passed the bar exam, and she gave the unconvincing answer: “When I moved to China.”
She was plucked from relative obscurity for the White House job after a brief gig at the Department of Homeland Security and a stint at the Trump Media Group.
Wearing a dark jacket with big gold buttons on Tuesday morning, she entered the standing-room-only briefing room and stepped onto the podium as Trump’s sixth press secretary.
Zacharia has the blonde hair, glossy makeup, and a Fox News resume like her immediate predecessors, Kayleigh McEnany and Karoline Leavitt.
She immediately launched into a pean of praise for the Trump MAGA rallies as the president tries to stave off what increasingly looks like a bloodbath for the GOP in the midterm elections.
“Attendance is at record highs as enthusiastic, hard-working Americans are lining up and packing arenas to support President Trump and Republicans,” she said of Trump’s campaign rallies, echoing Keith Spicer’s debut that falsely boasted of the biggest inaugural crowd ever.
In truth, there have been plenty of empty seats at Trump’s rallies this time around and an unusually high number of interruptions from protesters.
She read from prepared notes about Trump’s many great accomplishments, awkwardly glancing up at her audience less than she should, and emphasizing all the wrong words. It was bad.
Then came questions, first from Breitbart News, then right-wing Fox News, whose correspondent Peter Doocy wondered whether the US had stopped sharing intelligence with Ukraine. “I will have to get back to you on that,” came the auto-response.
Next up was the right-wing Daily Mail, asking about an alleged bribery scandal involving Kimberly Guilfoyle, the US ambassador to Greece, ex-fiancée of Donald Trump’s son. She has been a wonderful asset to the team, and we wish her well.” The Mail followed up with “a personal question” : “Your family is in California. Your husband, your four children. I’m wondering how you are going to manage that.” She said she loved being with her children. “The idea of not spending evenings with my kids is completely unacceptable. So, my president – excuse me, my husband – that’s a good one.”
She went on: “President Trump is the most family-friendly president we have ever had. He has hired more women with families, and the fact that he knew I had four kids and he knew this job would be demanding and still placed his trust in me shows I know I’m capable of being able to step up to that.”
Then she stunned everyone by wrapping it up and pledging that Trump would soon answer questions on the South Lawn.