Kathy Zacharias summarizes the first press conference and defends legal validity after criticism

Katie Zacharia defended her first White House press conference and scrutinized the California bar exam during an interview with Sean Hannity.

White House press secretary Kathy Zacharias is responding to critics who question her legal background

New White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharias reflects on her first press briefing and addresses questions about her legal background on Hannity.

New White House press secretary Kathy Zacharias said she did her "best" during her first briefing as she defended herself against criticism of her legal credentials on "Hannity" Thursday.

The Pepperdine Law graduate made her first appearance in the White House briefing room on Tuesday, just days after President Donald Trump's nomination was announced, and she said she had little time to prepare for the high-profile role.

"What I feel is that I really stepped up to do the press conference," he told host Sean Hannity. "With very little time to prepare, I received the briefing on Tuesday morning."

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Zacharias was heavily scrutinized for answering three questions during his nearly 14-minute briefing, much of which was spent touting the Trump administration's accomplishments ahead of the midterm elections.

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He brushed off criticism of his performance, saying he had been on the job for less than eight hours and was sitting behind the podium. He also challenged the criticism leveled at him, asking questions exclusively from conservative-leaning news organizations.

"Considering the fact that I was at work for less than eight hours and I had a briefing book in the morning, I feel like I did my best, Sean, to present to the American people that day," Zakaria said.

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"I asked a number of questions and I think they got it wrong because they said I only asked questions from the Conservative media. However, the Daily Mail is not known as a Conservative media outlet or a Tory friend, so I challenge that narrative."

In his first appearance, Zacharias broke the news that the Trump administration has asked Kimberly Guilfoyle to resign as ambassador.

"I was able to break the news, which I believe was the right thing to do as a press secretary," he said.

Scrutiny of Zakaria's first appearance was heightened by questions about his legal credentials after the Wall Street Journal reported that he had failed the California bar exam.

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Hannity challenged Zacharias over social media posts in which he was identified as a lawyer.

White House Press Secretary Katie Zakaria on Tuesday, Oct. 11, in the James S. Brady speaks to the media at the White House. 13, 2026 in Washington, D.C., Budavel Zakaria briefing (Samuel Corum/Pool/FTWP)

"A report came out tonight that showed 15 posts on social media where you identified yourself as a lawyer," Hannity asked the press secretary.

Zakaria replied: "I think they were retweets, and I corrected the record and said that the title was not approved. They were retweets of the title that was given."

Zakaria revealed that after failing the test the first time after graduating from law school, he failed to take the test a second time.

"I graduated from Pepperdine, got married the same week, and we were all planning to move to China," he explained. I had already registered for the bar exam and ... during the summer, I knew I would be living in China and the results of the bar were irrelevant and I took it because I didn't want to be in a withdrawal situation.

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"When I went to work in the media and do legal analysis, I consulted with lawyers and legal experts to see if they would agree that I could be called a lawyer, both because I had a valid J.D. from a good law school, a reputable law school, Pepperdine Law School, and because I had actual legal experience."

After days of backlash, including comedian Jimmy Kimmel, who compared Zakaria's intelligence to that of a kindergartener, he vowed to keep fighting.

He said he hopes to build stronger relationships with members of the White House press staff and interact more with reporters in the future.

"I would love to have a relationship with all of those members of the press corps, so there's an essential component to our ability to interact," Zakaria said. And I'll be very ready, Sean, and I'll be up to the task that President Trump has asked me to do as press secretary.

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